Ichiro Suzuki is Officially a Hall of Famer

Photo by MLB

The 2025 MLB Hall of Fame has officially come and gone. The weekend wrapped up on Sunday after the ceremony. There was a total of five legends inducted this year. It consisted of Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner, Dick Allen, and Dave Parker. Around the Diamond was able to be in Cooperstown, New York for the whole weekend.

Ichiro Suzuki was definitely the most popular player to be inducted this weekend. There were a ton of people there for him. He had an amazing career. Suzuki played for a total of three teams. First, the Seattle Mariners, then, the New York Yankees, after that was the Miami Marlins, and finally he made his way back to the Seattle Mariners to close out his career.

Ichiro Suzuki was able to have a total of 9,934 AB’s, he had a career .311 batting average, Suzuki hit 117 HR, 780 RBI’s, 509 stolen bases, and a .757 OPS. Over his career, Suzuki played from 2001-2019 in the MLB.

Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese-born player to be inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame. It’s a guarentee that he won’t be the last. Each and every off-season there are players coming from Japan to go into the MLB. It’s such a good sign for MLB and it really expands the game.

The induction ceremony wasn’t the only thing that happened this past weekend. After the ceremony, each player that was able to be there had a media availability. Here was some notable things that Ichiro Suzuki said in his media availability from Sunday.

1 Q: “Was there anyone who helped you write your speech, and how many times did you practice it?”

A: “Of course I couldn’t have done that by myself, the biggest supporter in it was my wife. I practiced it many times, but it’s a 20 minute speech so there were only so many times I could practice it.”

2 Q: “Could you explain a little bit why that (respect) is so important to you?”

A: “Respecting the game of baseball is very important, not just the game of baseball but respecting your teammates, your opponents, and the umpires.“

3 Q: “Why did you decide to do the speech in English and not Japanese?”

A: “I know it would be easier to speak in Japanese for me, but this is America and I know that speaking English would mean the fans would be able to understand it the most and feel how I was feeling so there was no deciding factor, I always knew I was going to do it in English.”

It was a fun weekend as a whole. All the speeches were so great from all the now Hall of Famers. The MLB HOF weekend is so important for the game. It’s a time where all the players who have already been inducted can come celebrate the new ones and the future HOF’ers.