There are few players that have been so consistently excellent as Ichiro Suzuki. Not only in baseball, but in any sport. He had already built a legendary resume in Japanese professional baseball before coming to the United States and the Major Leagues. Since then, he’s done nothing but enhance it. He’s a 10 time All Star, won the Rookie of the Year and MVP Award and has several batting titles to his credit. He holds the MLB record with 262 hits in a single season and is on a short list of players with 10 or more 200+ hit seasons. With the exception of a World Series title, he’s done just about everything there is to do in baseball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suzuki’s retirement was not unexpected by US or Japanese baseball fans. In fact, there was considerable expectation that he would retire after this series or at the very least prior to the resumption of the Mariners’ regular season games. At age 45, he’s simply not the player he once was. He only had two hits in 31 at bats during spring training including two against Japanese professional teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fumihiro Fujisawa, head of the Japanese Association of Baseball Research, suggested that Ichiro’s appearance in Japan with the Mariners was an unexpected treat. Many expected that Suzuki’s previous appearance in Japan–in 2012 with the Seattle Mariners–would end up being his last:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Seven years ago, it appeared he had played for the last time in Japan.I don’t think anybody believed he would be active now.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ichiro is a freak of nature–in a good way. He’s been so good so consistently for so long. At the same time, he’s an individual of consummate class and by all accounts as good of a teammate as a player could hope to have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mariners’ manager Scott Servais was happy to give Suzuki one last moment in the spotlight when explaining his decision to start him:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I wasn’t quite sure. I thought we’d give him the opportunity to go out there. And I’d love to see him get a couple of hits and finish on a high note here.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n