Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball, but he is much more than that at home in Japan. Ichiro is a wellspring of national pride — like Shohei Ohtani now — and his fame across the Pacific was therapeutic as the national economy sputtered through the so-called lost decades.

The Seattle Mariners all-time hit king and owner of several MLB and NPB records received the first of what's likely to be two different Hall of Fame inductions earlier this week.

Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball, but he's much more than that in Japan. Back home, he's a wellspring of national pride, much like Shohei Ohtani now. His triumphs across the Pacific buoyed the nation as Japan's economy sputtered through the so-called lost decades of the 1990s and into the 2000s.

The ever-smiling legend, Ichiro Suzuki, was just inducted into the Japanese Hall of Fame, and his name has also been nominated for the US National Baseball Hall of Fame. The post Baseball Fandom Blame Japan for Keeping Ichiro Suzuki From Creating History After Recent Hall of Fame Setback appeared first on EssentiallySports.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown will have its 2025 class revealed on Tuesday, and Seattle Mariners legend Ichiro Suzuki is set to get in.