It’s tempting to say that Ichiro Suzuki’s calm sense, record-breaking batting ability, and 28 seasons of excellence on the other side of the world earned him a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the Hall of Fame was made for him.
Cooperstown will make the perfect Hall of Fame induction this summer as Suzuki, a non-pareil hitter who cemented his greatness through 14 incredible seasons with the Seattle Mariners, becomes the game’s ultimate Hall of Famer. .
Oh, and of course we can consider the odds of him making it, and perhaps more closely compare how he stacks up against previous winners. However, Suzuki is incomparably superior in many ways. No, he’s not necessarily “better” than Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, or Roberto Clemente.
As the Cooperstown papers show, he is simply a unique individual.
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In the case of Ichiro Suzuki
Hall of Fame rules state that a player “must play at least 10 seasons in the major leagues” to be considered, and there is a five-year grace period after retirement.
Suzuki, a major leaguer, blows away that condition. He spent 19 years in the major leagues.
But consider this: Suzuki made his major league debut at age 27, an almost absurdly long time for a player just beginning a Hall of Fame career in the United States.
Certainly, there are abnormal situations in the hall. For example, pitcher Satchel Page was thought to be 42 years old when he first pitched in the major leagues in 1948 with Cleveland, after spending 20 years in the Negro Leagues.
Suzuki? He already had a career ahead of him before he set foot on Safeco Field. He reigned in Japan’s top league for seven seasons, and had a batting average of .353, on-base percentage of .421, and OPS of .943 over nine seasons with Orix.
Next stop: Seattle Mariners. And as we sit here in 2025, it’s easy to assume that whatever happened next in Suzuki’s next lifetime in the major leagues wouldn’t have been all that surprising.
But in 2001, the Japanese impact players in the major leagues were strictly pitchers, just as Hideo Nomo had risen to superstardom a few years earlier. But what about the batter? Ichiro was MLB’s first Japanese-born position player.
Hideki Matsui won’t arrive in the Bronx for another two years. Shohei Ohtani was nearly 20 years removed from a 40 home run campaign on a fairly regular basis with his pitching. Perhaps Suzuki, who is generously listed at 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds, might get his bat knocked out of his hands by that big, bad (and then-PED-taking) American pitcher. .
Yes, about that.
Suzuki’s 2001 season remains one of the greatest in baseball history, as he had a major league-best 242 hits, led the roster with 56 stolen bases, and won the American League batting title with a batting average of .350.
Have any questions?
Suzuki won both Rookie of the Year and MVP that season, beginning his 10th consecutive 200-hit season. In 2004, he produced a masterpiece, breaking George Sisler’s 84-year major league record with 262 hits. Suzuki recorded a career-high batting average of .372, leading all of baseball, recorded a career-high 9.2 wins, and led the American League in a competitive offensive environment.
His final total? Despite a slow start, he has a career batting average of .311/.355/.402 with 3,089 hits. Granted, there’s no trophy for this honor, but Suzuki’s 4,367 hits between Japan and the Major Leagues give him a plausible claim to being the game’s true hit king.
lawsuit against
Suzuki’s in-game scuttle bat, when he wields his bat like a cane, always translates his left-handed stroke into a more vertical, power-driven approach, easily scoring 25-30 home runs a year and scoring home runs. It was a question of whether I could do it. Derby. Tony Gwynn, also 5-foot-11 and 200 pounds, talked about a conversation he had with Ted Williams, in which his predecessor implored him to pull the ball more often.
Gwynn applied that concept late in his career, hitting .372 and hitting a career-high 17 home runs at age 37. Suzuki has never shed his real or imagined power game, hitting a career-high 15 home runs in 2005 and hitting single digits in nine of his first 12 seasons in the major leagues. I stayed there.
As a result, his adjusted OPS numbers were relatively mediocre for a player with such an impressive batting average. By 2008, Suzuki once again led the major leagues with a .310 batting average and 213 hits, and his picayune power numbers of 20 doubles, seven triples, and six home runs left him with an adjusted OPS of 102, close to league average.
Only the most cynical analyst might consider Suzuki’s career batting average of .311 to be “empty” due to the large number of singles that make up his diet, but his career adjusted OPS is only .107. league season, despite a more solid 113 in the first 10 games of the major league season.
X factor
How would you rate Suzuki’s service in Japan? Again, this is an issue of little importance to Suzuki’s Hall case, but it’s worth considering for the purpose of putting his greatness into context. There was certainly a drop in competitiveness, but consider that Suzuki had 179-210 hits over five seasons while playing 130-135 games in NPB’s short seasons.
Japan’s young stars are making the leap to the major leagues early, with Roki Sasaki signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Rintaro Sasaki, Japan’s high school home run king, entering Stanford University a year ago. At present, such analyzes may become meaningless in the future.
voting trends
Suzuki was captured by Ryan Thibodeau’s Hall of Fame voting tracking tool this year, his first year on the ballot, with his name appearing on all 167 ballots released.
outlook
Mr. Suzuki was virtually guaranteed to win in the first vote. And obviously he has a great chance to be the unanimous No. 1 player.
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