For baseball fans throughout the country, the induction of the gardener Ichiro Suzuki in the Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend is the cornerstone of a historical race of broken records. But for Asian descent players, it is also a deep moment of recognition and visibility.
Suzuki, who spent most of his 19 years in the big baseball leagues with Seattle sailors, will be the first Asian player to be added to the historic Hall in Cooperstown, New York. Asians and Asian Americans throughout the league spoke with NBC News, reflecting on their favorite Suzuki moments and how their performance in the field helped mark a generation of players who tried to follow their steps.
“He was a player who looked like me: left -handed, played the garden,” said the gardener of the Cleveland Guardians Steven Kwan, who is of Japanese descent and China. “He gave me hope at a very early age to see that someone who looks like me, plays like me, can succeed at the highest level and, not only that, win the respect of all in the league too.”
Suzuki joins the CC Sabathia starting launcher and Relay launcher Billy Wagner as part of the 2025 class that will be included on Sunday. Other members include the right gardener Dave Parker and the first base Dick Allen, who died in 2020.
Suzuki, who lost a unanimous selection with a single vote, began his American career in 2001 as the first Japanese position player to join MLB. Although he was not the first Japan player to join the big leagues, Launcher Masanori Murakami played a brief period with the San Francisco giants in 1964, and the Dodgers of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Hideo Nomo, had a 13 -year -old race in the United States, Suzuki was, with much, the most successful.
In his almost two decades in the league, Suzuki made a name for himself as an elite contact batter and a defensive genius that was also known for being for those who played with him and served an impeccable style. His career includes 10 star selections, 10 gold gloves awards and three Silver Slugger awards. His time in MLB contributed to more Japanese players who explore races in the United States.
Kwan, twice winner of the Golden Glove and three times by right, said that while he grew up, it was essential for him to see a player who never hid his Japanese heritage, always hugged his background and took the field like himself. Suzuki’s IQ also caused a lasting impression in the guardist of the Guardians. When Suzuki was in the Miami Marlins in 2015, he pretended Joaquín Arias of the San Francisco giants, preventing Arias to score in a double to the wall of the right field.
“He was close to the end of his career … and even at his advanced age, he still had the intellectual baseball coefficient so that it seems that he would catch the ball, display the wall of the wall cleanly,” Kwan said. “I just remember that at the end of his career he was still having an impact. That was special to me.”
The Arizona Diamondback gardener, Corbin Carroll, said that, as an Asian American who grew up in Seattle and frequently attended the sailor games, he was amazed by Suzuki. Carroll, who is from Taiwanese ancestry, said he still remembers sitting on the right field stands with his family while his mother took a photo of Suzuki hitting his signature pose.
“That is one of my first memories. The photo I had in my room while I grew up and I still had until today,” Carroll said.
Carroll, who in 2023 became the first Asian rookie -a state of the MLB of the year, said that all those years watching the Japanese pioneer “made me feel how maybe one day I could do it and play at that level,” he said.
“When children grow up seeing someone with whom they can identify in some way, they can inspire them and give them hope to do something big,” said Carroll, twice all-Star.
Suzuki previously told NBC News that it was not proposed to “act for Asians”, but it was more than aware that its performance would affect the group in addition to their country of origin in Japan. And he had to excel.
“As a Japan player, as a guy who had led the league to hit the seven years, and then being a first -position player, he knew he would be judged. And Japan baseball will be tried for how I did,” said Suzuki. “If I could not produce, then they would judge the baseball of Japan for being at a lower level. And that pressure was there and that is what I had to carry.”
Bryan Woo, an All-Star pitcher for the sailors, admitted that, as a player of Chinese ancestry from Oakland, California, he may not have been Seattle’s greatest fan, but he was a fan of Suzuki. Woo said he was particularly surprised by Suzuki’s performance in the 2007 stars game in San Francisco, during which he reached a homer inside the park. Suzuki, who was crowned MVP of that game, was 3 by 3 that night. And his dinger remains the only internal homer home run during a game of stars.
Woo said that these days, Suzuki, who still works for sailors as the president’s special assistant, continues to dispense his wisdom, ensuring that progress does not stop with his own career as a player.
“The boys who have their career and their caliber do not have to do things like that, but the people who do that fade. That means a lot.” Woo said.
Finally, Kwan said, Suzuki’s place in the Hall of Fame is symbolic of a new era.
“I think he’s just showing that a person needs to pave the way for a whole generation to believe that he can play baseball,” Kwan said.
