Ichiro Suzuki

Ichiro Suzuki (鈴木 一朗), also known mononymously as Ichiro (イチロー), is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder who played professionally 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.

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 and 124 lb. 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."

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) 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.

Even though he hit in 1993 a home run against Hideo Nomo, who later won an MLB National League Rookie of the Year Award while a Los Angeles Dodger, 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.

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 Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame (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 American League–record seven hitting streaks of 20 or more games, with a high of 27.

Five other players have since done so: Matt Murton, Norichika Aoki (twice), Alex Ramírez, Tsuyoshi Nishioka, and Shogo Akiyama's 216 hits in 2015.

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.

Suzuki 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) 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 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.

He also became the Seattle Mariners special assistant to the chairman in 2019.

He is regarded as one of the greatest contact hitters and defensive outfielders in baseball history.

In his combined playing time in the NPB and MLB, Suzuki received 17 consecutive selections both as an All-Star and Gold Glove winner, won nine league batting titles, and was named most valuable player (MVP) four times.

In the NPB, he won seven consecutive batting titles and three consecutive Pacific League MVP Awards.