Ichiro Suzuki 'Honored' For HOF Induction Same Month of Japanese Exhibit Opening

The Seattle Mariners legend's induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame coincides with the Yakyu Baseball exhibit opening in Cooperstown.

Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki tips his cap to the crowd during a game against the Athletics on March 21, 2019, at the Tokyo Dome. | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

SEATTLE — In a week, Seattle Mariners legend Ichiro Suzuki will officially become the first Japanese-born player to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

The 10-time All-Star will be inducted along the rest of his class, Billy Wagner, CC Sabathia, the late Dick Allen and the late Dave Parker, on July 27 in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Suzuki is one of the most influential players in Seattle and MLB history. He came over to the U.S. after nine seasons with the Orix BlueWave of Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. He became the first Japanese position player to be signed by an MLB club in 2001 with the Mariners. He won the AL Rookie of The Year and MVP awards in 2001. He was voted into the HOF his first year of eligibility and was just one vote away from being just the second-ever unanimous inductee.

Since Suzuki came stateside, several notable Japanese players have followed, including but not limited to: Hisashi Iwakuma, Yu Darvish, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Hideki Matsui, Seiya Suzuki, and defending National League MVP Shohei Ohtani.

Many of those players, and more, are recognized in the new Japanese baseball exhibit at the HOF. The exhibit, titled "Yakyu: The Transpacific Exchange of the Game," opened earlier this month, coinciding with Suzuki's induction.

We've covered Ichiro's incredible career from head to toe in Yakyu | Baseball: The Transpacific Exchange of the Game.

His display brings together a number of artifacts he donated throughout the years spanning NPB, MLB and the World Baseball Classic. pic.twitter.com/fPMClT9XAm

— National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum ⚾ (@baseballhall) July 12, 2025

"Obviously, it wasn't a goal of mine to have this be the end result," Suzuki said via interpreter Allen Turner in an interview Sunday. "Now, I'm very honored that I was the first position player to come and I'm the first one to get into the Hall of Fame. I'm definitely very honored and to have an exhibit like that is an honorable thing. But that was never an end goal, and so I never thought about that. It just happens it came. ... And I think you could say that I'm lucky that I happened to be born at this time where I could be the first to do this. Very fortunate and lucky to have this opportunity."

Suzuki had 262 hits in 2004 to set the single-season hit record and, including his time in Japan, has more base hits than any other professional baseball player in history with 4,367.

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