COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Ichiro Suzuki was always known for his meticulous preparation during his 19-year Major League Baseball career.
For his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame? Not so much.
“Of course, I’m nervous and I probably should be preparing more, but this morning I actually went to the field, long tossed and kind of ran and did my workout, so I guess for me that was more important,” Suzuki said Saturday through an interpreter on the eve of his enshrinement in Cooperstown.
Suzuki is the first Japanese player chosen for induction and fell one vote shy of becoming the second unanimous selection. He will be joined Sunday by CC Sabathia, a six-time MLB All-Star who won the 2007 American League Cy Young Award, and relief pitcher Billy Wagner. Dave Parker, who died a month before he was to be inducted, and Dick Allen will be honored posthumously; they were voted in by the classic era committee.
MLB has been profoundly impacted by Japan since Suzuki’s arrival in 2001. His induction coincided with the opening of an exhibit Thursday entitled “Yakyu/Baseball: The Transpacific Exchange of the Game,” which celebrates the ways Japanese and American baseball are interconnected. It honors not just Suzuki but also pitcher Hideo Nomo and current Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, who has enjoyed unprecedented MLB success in his dual role as a pitcher and slugger.