I'll be honest, I wasn't exactly sure how to title this post and regardless of what I write, this article won't do justice. Yesterday was both a sad day yet a day of celebration for MLB. One of the greatest hitters in all of baseball, and I mean literally across the world, has somewhat "retired" from the sport. Effective today, May 3rd 2018, Ichiro Suzuki is no longer playing for the Seattle Mariners but rather joining their front office.
Although he doesn't consider it retirement per se, Ichiro will be joining the Mariners front office in somewhat of a unique roll. He will still dress for games, be apart of the clubhouse, go through warmups, take batting practice, and be apart of the teams daily preparations. Serving as a special assistant, his role isn't yet fully defined, but he will be helping the team in any way possible (outside of actually playing) such as with defense, hitting, and base running. It's safe to say he isn't walking away from baseball by any means and will continue to be a vital part of the Mariners organization.
Although this certainly is a sad day for baseball, we should all also celebrate what he has done for the game. He has impacted baseball in so many, including bridging the gap between Japanese baseball and American baseball. Ichiro came to the US from Japan in 2001, joining the Seattle Mariners and beginning his sure-fire MLB hall-of-fame career. He began his career like no other, winning both the AL MVP and AL Rookie of the Year in his first season at the age of 27. He then went on to amass hit after hit after hit, arguably becoming the greatest hitter of all time. He went on to play with the Mariners until 2012 when he was traded to the New York Yankees. He spent 3 seasons with the Yankees and then another 3 with the Miami Marlines before rejoining the Mariners this season. He played an eye-popping 27 seasons across MLB and Japan, amazing more hits than is humanly possible. It is now, at age 44, after spending 17+ seasons in the MLB, that we may have seen the last Ichiro Suzuki opposite field single.
Ichiro has left many marks on the game of baseball but he is most notably known for his ability to hit the ball. People feared Barry Bonds because of his ability to put every single pitch out of the ballpark. People feared Ichiro because no matter what you threw at him, what angle he had to adjust to, he just got hits. He frustrated pitchers by just pounding opposite field singles after opposite field singles. It was with the Miami Marlins that Ichiro became just the 30th MLB player to join the 3,000 hit club, an insane achievement if you really think about it. It was around this time that the debate began as to whether Ichiro is the true "Hit King", succeeding the famous Pete Rose who holds the current record for career MLB hits. Although Ichiro has 3,089 MLB hits, he also amassed another 1,278 hits across 9 seasons in Japan. Together that would put him at a total of 4,367 career hits, far exceeding the MLB record of 4,256 held by Pete Rose. You can read more about the debate here in a NY Times post. But regardless as to which side you may choose, this article isn't about debating who the true "Hit King" is but rather celebrating Ichiro's amazing career.
Ichiro did so much more than just amass a massive amount of hits. He won AL MVP and AL Rookie of the Year in 2001, his first season in MLB. He then went on to win 10 straight, yes 10 straight, gold glove awards. Ichiro was a 3x silver slugger and 10x all-star, taking home the All Star MVP award in 2007. Not surprisingly, he won the AL bating title 2x in 2001 and 2004. It was in 2004 that Ichiro set the single season hit record when he collected an amazing 262 hits all while finishing the season with a .372 batting average (4th all time). He had 4 seasons where his batting average finished above .350 and he finished his long career with a .311 batting average. Just silly numbers across the board. His 10 gold gloves show just how excellent of an outfielder he was over his career, not to mention he was an excellent baserunner averaging over 31 stolen bases per season. Unfortunately, Ichiro Suzuki never had a chance to win a world series, let alone play in one but that should take away from his legacy or hall of fame career.
I'm sure I am joined by many fans in sadness after hearing of Ichiro's new role / retirement. Is he truly retired? I guess we don't really know and according to Ichiro himself, he claims no.
In fact, ESPN quoted Ichiro as stating, "Obviously, I'm in a different situation now, but I definitely see myself playing again and that's why I'm going to continue to practice and work to do the things I need to do to continue to get better," Suzuki said. "It's hard for me to imagine not playing." Quoted from ESPN.com article.
One note that I found interesting is that Seattle opens up their 2019 season in Tokyo, Japan. A game in which the MLB is allowing teams to expand their roster for the special game. Could Ichiro return for that game? Well it certainly would be one heck of game for him not to play in. Maybe the door isn't closed just yet. We will just have to wait and see.
I hope you enjoyed Ichiro's career as much as I did. This article really can't do justice for what he brought to the game and how much baseball appreciate his game. Please comment with your thoughts, suggestions, and anything I may have missed with this legend.
Information in this post can be accredited to several sources, including:
