How Good Was Ichiro Suzuki Actually?

Ichiro is greatly beloved in Seattle. Ever since Griffey first debuted, the Mariner fanbase really latches on to those one or two super-stars on the team. For a bit over a decade, Ichiro was that super-star. He was what made Mariners games worth coming to for so long even through all the ups and downs of playoff droughts. Even when he went to the Yankees (who were despised in Seattle for many years and even somewhat to this day for the 2000 and 2001 seasons), when he set foot back into Safeco for his first game as a Yankee, everyone cheered for him. It was basically an Ichiro send off celebration. If there is one city 100% convinced he deserves an unanimous hall of fame ballot, it's this one.

His sleeve pull is so iconic, everyone growing up was doing that

Mariners fan here. I was on a work trip in Minneapolis, the Marlins were in town so I had to catch a game to see Ichiro again and of course experience another ballpark outside of Seattle. I had my Mariners hat and an old stained Ichiro T-shirt. Ichiro ended up getting a hit and the whole stadium applauded, something i wasn't expecting. Then he stole a base and it was a standing ovation. He was well passed his prime but it was during the 3000 mlb hit chase and the midwest fans appreciated what they were witnessing. My favorite Ichiro moment i was part of.

Ichiro may be one of the most underrated players in the MLB history due to MLB's over-emphasis on HRs or OPS stats.

Ichiro is my favorite of all time. I remember watching him growing up as a young boy in Seattle, and then I grew up and had to debate whether to stay up at 2:30am to watch Ichiro's final 2 games or to get good sleep for my college presentation final. The choice was clear lol. Ichiro is an absolute legend

Ichiro looks like prime Pedro against those high schoolers 😂

In the greatest mlb lineup of all time the debate of who would lead off would be between Ichiro and Ricky. And whomever lost would still hit 2ed. Ichiro is one of the greatest baseball players of all time

How cool is it that he has his first name on his Jersey lol?! That's just plain old awesome

It’s almost mlb 24 time baby

Imagine if he was able to play in todays era at like 22

As far as lifetime hitting records go, I think that Joltin' Joe's record of 52 consecutive games with a hit is followed closely by Ichiro's 262-hit season as most likely never to broken. And I think we tend to forget that his arm was not only strong but accurate. There is a video somewhere on YouTube that shows him walking along in the vicinity of 2nd base, while a row of 4 or 5 baseball bats are standing on end at home plate in the background. As he walks, he is looking at the camera and someone hands him a ball and he turns and throws the ball at the leftmost bat, knocking it down. He turns back to the camera and walks as he gets another ball. One by one, he knocks each bat down in order from left to right, hitting each one so squarely that neither it nor the ricocheting ball comes near the other closely spaced bats. He almost never had an errant throw in a game, either, and this year, at the age of I think 52, when he threw the ceremonial first pitch at the home opener, it was a strike with good movement that was clocked at 94 mph. Anyone who doesn't vote for him on the first ballot is either one of those lame conventionalists who thinks no one should get on their first year of eligibility or that he doesn't conform to the stereotypical standard of a Hall of famer. or he is somebody who doesn't really know baseball.

HE IS THE GOAT!!!

In his first 9 at bats with the Mariners he had two hits for a .222 batting average. It was the only time in his MLB in which he had a below .300 mark. Then he started to amass hits and the rest is history.

I could not agree with you more unless you were even more positive in your assessment of Ichiro's worthiness for HoF inclusion. He single-handedly re-ignited my enthusiasm for, and my interest in baseball. It had smoldered for about a decade, but he was the fresh breeze that stirred that ember and fanned it into a furious flame that has remained strong ever since "Ichiro threw something out of Star Wars, and Terence Long was D.O.A. at third!", to quote the late, great Dave Niehaus who preceded him into the Valhalla of baseball in Cooperstown. In one of his earliest games that first year, he did what amounts to stealing all four bases in one plate appearance. He slapped a grounder to the left side that for anyone else I had ever seen play would have been an easy, routine ground out and beat the throw to first clearly. Jaws dropped but there was no review request. Then he stole second. Then he stole third, and as the panic-driven throw eluded the third baseman easily, he got up and sped home safely. One of the reasons he racked up so many hits in such a short time is that he had superlative bat control and could slash a hit to (and through) any spot in the infield that the opposing team left vulnerable. In one of the team's TV ads at the time, keeps adding players to fill the gaps until both the whole bench and the bullpen are on the field. It ends with Ichiro looking at the viewer and quoting Wee Willie Keeler, a player from George Sissler's era who was also known for finding holes in the defense, "Ya gotta hit'em where they ain't!" By the way, Keeler was also a player of slight stature at 5'4" and 140 lbs., but UNlike Ichiro he swung a literally heavy bat that weighed 46 ounces. As and aside, I would like to encourage you, as a professional speaker (which you are by virtue of being a presenter) to clean up your grammar. You said "him and _ came to an agreement", but I am pretty sure you would never say "Him came to an agreement with ___", because it is the subject of the sentence and must be in the subjective case. This is true of all the members of a compound subject as in "He, she, Ralph, and I all were in agreement with him, her, and Auggie that...". And then there is the failure to use the past participle when using the past perfect tense. You said "he had came" when you should have said "he had COME". It seems to be an increasingly common mistake that people think they should only use past tense form with all of the tenses that deal with something in the past, but that is not the case.

Um....pretty fucking good

Why they let him put first name on back?nobody else was allowed,lame.

I'm Taiwanese, and Ichiro's influence in Asia is phenomenal. Millions of little league kids in Asian countries, including Japan and Taiwan, started practicing left-handed hitting because of Ichiro. Ichiro's self-discipline, hard work, and dedication to winning set an example for these kids. In my generation,Ichiro is the GOAT Asian baseball player ❤❤❤