Ichiro Suzuki

Ichiro Suzuki (鈴木 一朗, Suzuki Ichirō; born October 22, 1973), also known mononymously as Ichiro (イチロー, Ichirō), is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder who played for 28 seasons. He played the first nine years of his career with the Orix BlueWave of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), and the next 12 years with the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball (MLB). Suzuki then played two and a half seasons with the New York Yankees and three with the Miami Marlins before returning to the Mariners for his final two seasons. He won two World Baseball Classic titles as part of the Japanese national team. One of the greatest contact hitters, leadoff hitters and defensive outfielders in baseball history, he is also considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time.

In his combined playing time in the NPB and MLB, Suzuki received 17 consecutive selections as an All-Star and Gold Glove winner, won nine league batting titles, and was named his league's most valuable player (MVP) four times. In the NPB, he won seven consecutive batting titles and three consecutive Pacific League MVP Awards. In 2001, Suzuki became the first Japanese-born position player to be posted and signed to an MLB club. He led the American League (AL) in batting average and stolen bases en route to being named AL Rookie of the Year and AL MVP.

Suzuki was the first MLB player to enter the Meikyukai (The Golden Players Club). He was a ten-time MLB All-Star and won the 2007 All-Star Game MVP Award for a three-hit performance that included the event's first-ever inside-the-park home run. Suzuki won a Rawlings Gold Glove Award in each of his first 10 years in the majors and had an AL-record seven hitting streaks of 20 or more games, with a high of 27. He was also noted for the longevity of his career, continuing to produce at a high level with slugging and on-base percentages above .300 in 2016, while approaching 43 years of age. Suzuki also set a number of batting records, including MLB's single-season record for hits with 262. He achieved 10 consecutive 200-hit seasons, the longest streak by any player in history. In 2016, Suzuki notched the 3,000th hit of his MLB career, becoming only the 30th player ever to do so. In total, he finished with 4,367 hits in his professional career across Japan and the United States, the most of any player in history at the top level of baseball. Since retiring as a player in 2019, he became the Mariners' special assistant to the chairman.

In 2025, Suzuki was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. He became the first Japanese player, and first Asian-born player, to be elected into the Hall of Fame, receiving 99.7% of the vote, tied with Derek Jeter for the second-highest total ever. That same year, Suzuki was also elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. On August 9, 2025, the Seattle Mariners retired Suzuki's number 51.

Early life

Suzuki was born in Nishikasugai-gun, Aichi, and grew up in Toyoyama, a small town just outside Nagoya. At the age of seven, Suzuki joined his first baseball team and asked his father, Nobuyuki Suzuki (鈴木宣之), to teach him to be a better player. The two began a daily routine, which included throwing 50 pitches, fielding 50 infield balls and 50 outfield balls, and hitting 500 pitches, 250 from a pitching machine and 250 from his father.

As a little leaguer in Toyoyama, Suzuki had the word "concentration" (集中, shūchū) written on his glove. By age 12, he had dedicated himself to pursuing a career in professional baseball, and their training sessions were no longer for leisure, and less enjoyable. The elder Suzuki claimed, "Baseball was fun for both of us," but Ichiro later said, "It might have been fun for him, but for me it was a lot like Star of the Giants," a popular Japanese manga and anime series about a young baseball prospect's difficult road to success, with rigorous training demanded by the father. According to Ichiro, "It bordered on hazing and I suffered a lot."

When Suzuki joined his high-school baseball team, his father told the coach, "No matter how good Ichiro is, don't ever praise him. We have to make him spiritually strong." When he was ready to enter high school, Suzuki was selected by a school with a prestigious baseball program, Nagoya's Aikodai Meiden (ja:愛工大名電) High School. Suzuki was primarily used as a pitcher instead of as an outfielder, owing to his exceptionally strong arm. His cumulative high-school batting average was .505, with 19 home runs. He had known Hideki Matsui (then at Seiryo High School, Ishikawa - ja:星稜高校, one grade below him) through practice matches since that time.

He built strength and stamina by hurling car tires and hitting Wiffle balls with a heavy shovel, among other regimens. These exercises helped develop his wrists and hips, adding power and endurance to his thin frame. Despite his outstanding numbers in high school, Suzuki was not drafted until the fourth round of the NPB draft in November 1991, because many teams were discouraged by his small size of 5 ft 9+1⁄2 in (177 cm) and 124 pounds (56 kg). Years later, Suzuki told an interviewer, "I'm not a big guy, and hopefully kids could look at me and see that I'm not muscular and not physically imposing, that I'm just a regular guy. So if somebody with a regular body can get into the record books, kids can look at that. That would make me happy."

Professional career

Orix BlueWave (1992–2000)

Suzuki made his NPB Pacific League debut in 1992 for the Orix BlueWave at the age of 18, but he spent most of his first two seasons in the farm system (accumulating 156 minor league hits and a .368 batting average) because his then-manager, Shōzō Doi, refused to accept Suzuki's unorthodox swing. The swing was nicknamed 'pendulum' (振り子打法, Furiko Dahō) because of the pendulum-like motion of his leg, which shifts his weight forward as he swings the bat, and goes against conventional hitting theory. In his second career game, he recorded his first ichi-gun (Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball League) hit in the Pacific League against Fukuoka Daiei Hawks pitcher Keiji Kimura. Despite hitting a home run in 1993 against Hideo Nomo, who later won the National League Rookie of the Year Award, Suzuki was nevertheless sent back to the farm system on that very day. In 1994, he benefited from the arrival of a new manager, Akira Ōgi, who played him every day in the second spot of the lineup. He was eventually moved to the leadoff spot, where his immediate productivity dissolved any misgivings about his unconventional swing. He set a Japanese single-season record with 210 hits, the first player ever to top 200 hits in a single season. Five other players have since done so: Matt Murton, Norichika Aoki (twice), Alex Ramírez, Tsuyoshi Nishioka, and Shogo Akiyama.

Suzuki's .385 batting average in 1994 was a Pacific League record and won the young outfielder the first of a record seven consecutive batting titles. Suzuki also hit 13 home runs and had 29 stolen bases, helping him to earn his first of three straight Pacific League MVP (Most Valuable Player) awards. It was during the 1994 season that he began to use his given name, "Ichiro," instead of his family name, "Suzuki," on the back of his uniform. Suzuki is the second-most-common family name in Japan, and his manager introduced the idea as a publicity move to help create a new image for what had been a relatively weak team, as well as a way to distinguish their rising star. Initially, Suzuki disliked the practice and was embarrassed by it; however, "Ichiro" was a household name by the end of the season, and he was flooded with endorsement offers.

In 1995, Suzuki led the Blue Wave to its first Pacific League pennant in 12 years. In addition to his second batting title, he led the league with 80 RBI and 49 stolen bases, while his career-high 25 home runs were third in the league. By this time, the Japanese press had begun calling him the "Hit Manufacturing Machine" (安打製造機, Anda Seizōki). The following year, with Suzuki winning his third-straight MVP award, the team defeated the Central League champion, Yomiuri Giants, in the Japan Series. Following the 1996 season, playing in an exhibition series against a visiting team of Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Stars kindled Suzuki's desire to travel to the United States to play in the major leagues.

In November 1998, Suzuki participated in a seven-game exhibition series between Japanese and American all-stars. Suzuki batted .380 and collected seven stolen bases in the series, winning praise from several of his MLB counterparts, including Sammy Sosa and Jamie Moyer, who would become his teammate with the Mariners.