Ichiro Suzuki becomes first Japanese player to make Hall of Fame. Shohei Ohtani on track to be next
Ichiro Suzuki is a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
That has long been the assumption among baseball fans regarding the Japanese outfielder who played the majority of his 19-year MLB career with the Seattle Mariners. On Tuesday that assumption became reality, with Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner elected by the Baseball Writers' Assn. of America to join classic era inductees Dave Parker and Dick Allen as the Hall of Fame class of 2025. They will be inducted into Cooperstown on July 27.
A 10-time All Star, Suzuki didn't join MLB's all-time saves leader, Mariano Rivera, as the only unanimous picks. He fell one vote short.
Suzuki spent nine seasons in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball before joining MLB and the Mariners in 2001. While Japanese pitcher Hideo Nomo was a star for the Dodgers in the 1990s, Suzuki was the first Japanese position player to enjoy that level of success.
Read more: 'A Shohei economy': How Shohei Ohtani's first year transformed the Dodgers financially
In his debut season, Susuki won American League MVP and rookie of the year, becoming only the second player to win those awards in the same season. He also won the AL batting title that year as well as in 2004. By the time he wrapped up his playing career, Suzuki had amassed 4,367 hits as a professional, including 3,089 in MLB.
Last week Suzuki became the seventh first-ballot inductee into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in Tokyo.
While Suzuki will be the first Japanese player immortalized at Cooperstown, he almost certainly won't be the last. It seems inevitable that Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani will be enshrined there one day as well.
Ohtani recently won his third MVP in just seven seasons. At age 30, the former Angels two-way player also made the playoffs for the first time and became a World Series champion after signing a 10-year, $700-million contract with the Dodgers.
Read more: Shohei Ohtani is giving $500,000 for fire relief. Here's how other L.A. sports figures are helping
Last season Ohtani replaced Suzuki in the MLB record books as the Japanese-born player with the most stolen bases in a season (59 for Ohtani, 56 for Suzuki in 2001). Ohtani also finished with 54 home runs, marking the first time a player has hit 50 homers and stolen 50 bases in the same season.
“He is somebody I admire and look up to,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton after matching Ichiro's mark in September.
Suzuki and Ohtani never got to share the diamond as MLB players, with Suzuki switching to a front office role with the Mariners the day before a series against the Angels during Ohtani's rookie year in 2018.
“You can’t even compare me to him because he’s actually doing something that is going to impact not just Japan or here but the whole world,” Suzuki said of Ohtani before that series.
Suzuki also might be joined one day in the Hall of Fame by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who was born in Naha, Okinawa, Japan, and has led L.A. to two World Series championships and eight National League West titles in his nine years.
Read more: Before Roki Sasaki's posting, MLB found no evidence of handshake deal with Dodgers
In addition to Ohtani, the Dodgers feature two other Japanese players in pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and newly signed Roki Sasaki. In 2023, Yamamoto joined Suzuki as two of only three players to earn three Nippon Professional Baseball MVP awards.
"He is a legend of the franchise. I'm happy to have done the same as him," Yamamoto said of Suzuki at the time. "Everyone looks up to him, and I'm one of those."
In a 2022 interview, Sasaki named Suzuki as the baseball player he admires most.
"I like the way he thinks, and the numbers he put up over the course of his career are so impressive," Sasaki said. "So I'm a big fan of his. And I also admire just how long of a career he's had."
Read more: Ichiro Suzuki on Shohei Ohtani: 'You can't even compare me to him'
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
