COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Shortly after he retired in 2019, Ichiro attended a Mariners recreation as a fan, sitting within the stands along with his spouse, Yumiko, for the primary time.
“We did it the American way by eating hot dogs,” he mentioned. “Of all the experiences baseball has given me, enjoying a hot dog at a game with a person most responsible for helping me reach this moment is the most special.”
It’s a narrative Ichiro informed on the finish of his 19-minute induction speech Sunday afternoon, the ultimate one given among the many 5 new members of the Nationwide Baseball Corridor of Fame.
Ichiro delivered his speech in English, a speech his spouse had helped him write and one he’d rehearsed many occasions, after which carried out in entrance of 1000’s of followers right here in Cooperstown, lots of them sporting his Mariners No. 51 jersey.
Ichiro grew to become the primary Japanese-born participant to be inducted into the Corridor of Fame, and the third to formally symbolize the Seattle Mariners, after Ken Griffey Jr. (2016) and Edgar Martinez (2019).
He touched all the suitable notes in his speech. There was a touch of emotion in his voice as he talked about Yumiko. There was overriding reverence for the sport. There was heartfelt inspiration as he detailed his soul-searching efforts to realize his desires.
And there was laughter. Heaps and many laughter.
“People often measure me by my records: 3,000 hits, 10 gold gloves, 10 seasons of 200 hits,” he informed the group, then pausing for impact. “Not bad, eh?”
He thanked the Corridor of Fame and its employees; the Orix BlueWave, his group in Japan; the Mariners and the Yankees. He even thanked the voters from the Baseball Writers’ Affiliation of America who elected him.
“Well … all but one. And by the way, the offer for that writer to have dinner at my home has now expired,” ” he mentioned, enunciating the final phrase and drawing a hearty spherical of snickers.
Which is what he’d hoped for, after all.
“Being a Hall of Famer wasn’t a goal,” he mentioned quickly after the induction ceremony, “but to make people laugh here was a goal.”
Throughout his 19-year enjoying profession in MLB, 14 with with the Mariners, Ichiro might be non-public and guarded. He loosened up round some teammates, however might appear reluctant to open up publicly.
Ichiro’s tone Sunday didn’t shock CC Sabathia, a teammate with the New York Yankees who joined Ichiro as a part of the 2025 Corridor of Fame class. (Sabathia, throughout his induction speech, joked that Ichiro “stole” the 2001 AL Rookie of the Yr award from him.)
“For people to get to know his personality and how funny he is and how great of a teammate he was and how hard he worked, all those things you get to see day to day as a teammate, I think they came across here today,” Sabathia mentioned. “He delivered a great speech.”
A theme of Ichiro’s speech was respect, and certainly that speaks to the ethos of his profession.
“I could not have achieved the numbers the writers recognized me for without paying attention to the many small details every single day, consistently for all 19 seasons,” he mentioned. “I personally cared for my equipment each day because I never wanted to risk a feeling of error due to a loose string on my glove or slip on the base paths because I didn’t clean my spikes.”
Ichiro additionally made his emotions about Seattle abundantly clear. He thanked the Mariners executives who initially introduced him to the majors leagues — the late proprietor Hiroshi Yamauchi, together with Howard Lincoln, Chuck Armstrong and Pat Gillick — and the present entrance workplace (John Stanton, Jerry Dipoto, Kevin Martinez) that introduced him again to Seattle in 2018.
“Thank you for bringing me back to the place I belong and allowing me to make Seattle my permanent home,” Ichiro mentioned.
He spoke about desires and objectives — encouraging youngsters to dream huge but in addition perceive learn how to set objectives for themselves — and thanked Hideo Nomo for uplifting him to dream about enjoying in MLB in the future.
Nomo, in 1995, was the primary Japanese pitcher in Ichiro’s lifetime to play in America.
“My eyes suddenly opened to the idea of challenging myself by going somewhere I never imagined,” Ichiro mentioned.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred attended a celebration honoring Ichiro on Saturday evening, hosted by the Mariners, and spoke of his go to to Japan this spring for the season-opening sequence between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs.
Baseball’s recognition has reached a fever pitch in Japan over Shohei Ohtani, who helped ship a World Sequence title for the Dodgers final fall.
“There was absolutely a mania over Shohei Ohtani, and it was really an amazing thing to observe,” Manfred mentioned in a speech on the occasion.
A few of Manfred’s youthful colleagues, as he described, remarked that they’d by no means seen something just like the hysteria surrounding Ohtani.
“I had a different thought. I thought, ‘I have seen something very similar to this,” mentioned Manfred, who traveled to Japan twice within the Nineties for MLB all-star excursions to play NPB stars, which included Ichiro.
“I do remember the reputation, the legend, the excitement that surrounded this player, and I thought it was very similar to what I saw this spring. Ichiro really is a trailblazer. There had never been a position player who came form Japan and enjoyed the kind of success at the height of his skills that Ichiro did. And in my view, he paved the way for the bevy of great Japanese players that we have in the game today. … And there is no doubt in my mind that he accelerated the internationalization of our game.”
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