Ichiro Suzuki

1973-

Japanese baseball player

Ichiro Suzuki—already a bona fide hero in his native Japan—made a sensational debut in American baseball in the opening years of the 21st century. Suzuki, adjudged the best-known person in Japan—even better known than Emperor Akihito, who came in second—in a popularity poll during the 1990s, ended his first two seasons in Major League Baseball with a total of 450 hits, more than any other player in major league history. In his first two seasons with the Seattle Mariners, the outfielder compiled a batting average of .336 and in 2002 collected more votes than any other American League (AL) player in balloting for the All-Star Game. Even his opponents are full of praise for Suzuki's batting power. "There's no secret way to get him out," Boston Red Sox manager Grady Little told Sports Illustrated. "All you can do is concentrate on the other eight guys." After more than two years in the United States, Suzuki still speaks very little English, but it seems to have done nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of either baseball fans or the media. He remains wildly popular in Japan, where early morning television broadcasts each of his games, and his face is forever present on T-shirts, subway ads, and in the newspapers.

Born in Kasugai, Japan

Suzuki was born in Kasugai in the Aichi prefecture of Japan on October 22, 1973. By the age of three, he was playing with a toddler-sized bat and ball outside his home. When he was only eight years old, Suzuki convinced his father to let him join a local baseball club. Since the local ball club played only on Sundays, Suzuki prevailed on his father to play catch and pitch to him whenever possible during the rest of the week. His father, Nobuyuki Suzuki, later became a coach for his son's baseball club. The younger Suzuki's talents as a ballplayer were already abundantly evident by the time he entered Nagoya Electric High School, also known as Aikodai Meiden. While in high school, Suzuki participated in Japan's National High School Baseball Tournament, or Koshien.

Fresh out of high school, Suzuki was drafted in the fourth round of 1991's Japanese free agent draft by the Orix Blue Wave of Kobe, a member of the Pacific League and one of the leading Japanese pro baseball teams. During his nine seasons with the Blue Wave, he collected seven consecutive Pacific League batting titles, was named Most Valuable Player three times, and in 1998 led his team to a Pacific League pennant. In 1992, his first year with the Wave, Suzuki split his time between one of the team's minor league ball clubs and the majors. He hit .366 in fifty-eight games with the minor league club before he was called up to the majors where he batted .253 in forty games. The following year, Suzuki started off again with the minors, hitting .371 in forty-eight games but only a disappointing .188 in 164 at-bats with the majors. He hit his first home run in the majors on June 12, 1993, off a pitch from Hideo Nomo of the Kinetsu Buffalos. His first exposure to baseball out-side Japan came in 1993 when he played a season for the Hilo Stars in Hawaii Winter Baseball.

Comes Into His Own in 1994

Suzuki really came into his own during the 1994 season with the Blue Wave, batting .385 and setting a Japanese record with 210 hits in only 130 games. That same year, he scored in sixty-nine consecutive games between May 21 and August 26. In 1995 Suzuki led the Pacific League with forty-nine stolen bases and knocked home a career-high total of twenty-five home runs. Suzuki in 1996 led the Blue Wave to a Pacific League pennant and the Japanese championship with a win over the Yomiuri Giants. In 1997 with Akira Ogi as the new manager of the Blue Wave, Suzuki enjoyed a string of 216 consecutive at-bats without a strikeout. He won his fifth straight Pacific League batting title in 1998.

Suzuki's 1999 season was cut short when he was struck by a pitch in late August, breaking the ulna bone in his right hand. He nevertheless managed to lead the league for the sixth straight year with a batting average of .343. In 2000, his final year with the Blue Wave, Suzuki maintained a batting average of .387, a Japanese record. For the second year in a row, an injury in August cut short his season. Suzuki's magic on the ball field elevated him to super-celebrity status in Japan, where a poll in the 1990s showed him to be the country's best-known person, trailed closely by Japanese Emperor Akihito. So popular was Suzuki in his homeland that it became difficult for him to go anywhere in Japan without being over-whelmed by fans and the media. So intense was the media scrutiny that when Suzuki and television personality Yumiko Fukushima decided to marry, they flew to Los Angeles for the ceremony. In an interview with ESPN.com, Suzuki said the intrusiveness of the Japanese media had become intolerable. "They would even watch me go to the haircut place or the restaurant. Then they would interview the people at the haircutters."

Mariners Seek Out Suzuki's Services

Suzuki's outstanding performance on the baseball diamonds of Japan had not gone unnoticed on the other side of the Pacific. So excited were the Seattle Mariners about the possibility of landing Suzuki that the team paid the Blue Wave just over $13 million for the right to offer the dynamic batter a contract. On November 18, 2000, Suzuki signed a three-year deal with the Mariners. The contract was reportedly worth about $16 million. The ballplayer and his wife flew to Seattle and fell almost immediately in love with their new home. They were particularly pleased to find a city where they could go out in public without being mobbed by fans and the local paparazzi.

America's Suzuki fans were not disappointed when their hero finally made his debut in Major League Baseball in April 2001. The Japanese import kicked off his American baseball career with a 23-game hitting streak that fell only one game short of the club record set by Joey Cora. With two home runs and a total of eleven RBIs, Suzuki batted .336 in his first twenty-five games with the Mariners. But his statistics only seemed to get better with time. By season's end, he boasted a batting average of.350 with a total of 242 hits. Suzuki also became the first rookie ever to garner the most ballots for the All-Star Game. A big factor in his All-Star balloting popularity was the decision by Major League Baseball to distribute ballots in Japan. After the end of the regular season, Suzuki became the first rookie since Fred Lynn (in 1975) to win both the MVP and Rookie of the Year awards.

Chronology

1973	Born October 22 in Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture, Japan
1982	Joins local baseball club at the age of 8
1992-2000	Plays nine seasons with Japan's Orix Blue Wave
1999	Marries television personality Yumiko Fukushima
2000	Signs three-year contract with Seattle Mariners
2001	Makes major league debut with Seattle Mariners

Related Biography: Manager Akira Ogi

Not until Akira Ogi was brought in as the new manager of Kobe's Orix Blue Wave in 1994 did Ikiro Suzuki truly come into his own as a player. Before Ogi arrived on the scene, tension between the previous manager, Shozo Doi, and Suzuki had kept the batter from performing at his best. Doi, frustrated by Suzuki's failure to follow his orders, kept the player in the minors for much of Suzuki's first two years. Among the first things Ogi did after joining the Blue Wave was to bring Suzuki back to the majors. Confident that the batter had what it took, he added him as starter and then just left him alone to do his own thing.

Suzuki did not disappoint, batting .385 and tallying a record 210 hits in the 1994 season. Suzuki's breakthrough, under the guidance of Ogi, helped to power the Blue Wave to Pacific League pennants in both 1995 and 1996. In 1995, Ogi's team faced off against the Yakult Swallows in the Japan Series, losing the series in five games to the Swallows. The Blue Wave went all the way in 1996, vanquishing the Yomiuri Giants in the fifth game of the Japan Series.

Before beginning his career as a manager, Ogi played second base for the Nishitetsu Lions from 1954 to 1967, compiling a batting average of.229 with seventy home runs in 1,328 games. Ogi coached the Kintetsu Buffalos from 1988 to 1992, winning a Pacific League pennant in 1989.

Compared to Rod Carew, Ralph Garr

To many seasoned baseball observers, Suzuki's incredible bat control evoked memories of Rod Carew, but Mariners manager Lou Piniella said that he found his new star's playing style more reminiscent of Ralph Garr. (Garr, who played thirteen seasons with the Atlanta Braves, Chicago White Sox, and California Angels between 1968 and 1980, had a career batting average of.306.) Piniella observed that the momentum from Suzuli' left-handed swing propelled the batter toward first base even before he'd left the batter's box, forcing infielders to rush their throws—even on routine grounders.

Even in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, Suzuki could not escape the scrutiny of the Japanese media. In 2001 reports circulated that a Japanese Web site owner was willing to pay $2 million to anyone who could bring him a photograph of Suzuki in the nude. To preserve his privacy, Suzuki was forced to change clothes in a secluded area of the Mariners' locker room. Increasingly upset by the persistence of the Japanese media, Suzuki and Mariners teammate Kazuhiro Sasaki in July 2001 staged a brief boycott of members of the Japanese press.

Suzuki is the only player in Major League Baseball to be identified by his first name on the back of his jersey, a practice that originated in Japan under Blue Wave manager Akira Ogi. Although a few of Japanese baseball's better known pitchers came to Major League Baseball before him, Suzuki was the first position player to be signed by a MLB club. Despite the enormous sums the Mariners spent to land Suzuki, there were loads of skeptics in Seattle and elsewhere around the United States who doubted that the Japanese player would do well on this side of the Pacific. His spectacular performance during his debut major league season convinced all but the most diehard doubters.

Player Exodus May Hurt Japanese Baseball

Ironically, Suzuki's phenomenal success in Major League Baseball may well eventually help to undermine the pro game in Japan that gave him his start. Los Angeles Dodgers pitching coach Jim Colborn told Sports Illustrated that approximately three dozen of Japan's best players could end up playing in the major leagues. Colborn, a former Mariners director of Pacific Rim scouting who coached in Japan, said the likely loss of such top players as Seibu Lions shortstop Kazuo Matsui, Kintetsu Buffalos third baseman Norihiro Nakamura, and Yomiuri Giants centerfielder Hideki Matsui to the MLB threatens to turn Japanese baseball into a farm system for MLB. Even Japanese baseball fans are increasingly turning their attention to American baseball. Former Blue Wave general manager Steve Inow told Sports Illustrated: "Every day, people [in Japan] are watching major league baseball games, and short term, that's not so good for us. These are difficult times. Japanese baseball is at a turning point. Which way do we go?"

In his second season with the Mariners, Suzuki slipped slightly from the stellar performance of his debut year, but only slightly. His batting average fell to.321 from .350 in 2001. Suzuki's hits in 2002 totaled 208, down from 242 in 2001. Although the total number of Mariners selected to play in the 2002 All-Star Game was down sharply—from eight to three—from the previous year, Suzuki led the major leagues in the total number of votes received. More than 2.5 million votes were cast for the Seattle rightfielder. He was joined by fellow Mariners Freddy Garcia and Kazuhiro Sasaki, both pitchers. Interviewed by the Associated Press only days before the game on July 9, Suzuki said, "I'm a little bit excited knowing I'm going to be in that event again. I've been around a year and a half, and the votes I got this year are a different quality of votes."

Helps Lead MLB All-Stars to Victory in Japan

In November 2002 Suzuki went 4-for-4 to help lead the Major League Baseball All-Stars to victory over their Japanese counterparts in the seventh game of the annual exhibition series in Japan's Sapporo Dome. The Japanese team took the first three games of the series, but the MLB team bounced back to take the next four games and win the series. In the final game, Suzuki hit three singles and a double for the major leaguers.

Career Statistics

Yr	Team	AVG	GP	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB
SEA: Seattle Mariners.
2001	SEA	.350	157	692	127	242	34	8	8	69	30
2002	SEA	.321	157	647	111	208	27	8	8	51	68
TOTAL		.336	314	1339	238	450	61	16	16	120	98

Awards and Accomplishments

1994	Named Pacific League's Most Valuable Player
1995-96	Named MVP of Pacific League
1998	Led Japan's Orix Blue Wave to Pacific League pennant
2000	Compiled batting average of .387 for the year, a Japanese record
2001	Named American League Rookie of the Year
2001	Named American League Most Valuable Player
2002	Voted to All-Star Game

At five feet, nine inches and 160 pounds, Suzuki is a little bit diminutive compared to most American ballplayers, but it's obviously done nothing to hamper

his performance. In just two years, he's taken Major League Baseball by storm, amassing a total of 450 hits, more than any other player in history. As Ray Knight, bench coach for the Cincinnati Reds, told Sports Illustrated, Suzuki is "impossible to defend, but he's a joy to watch." Just how far he will go remains to be seen, but there's no doubt that Suzuki will remain a force to be reckoned with for several years.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Address: Ichiro Suzuki, c/o Seattle Mariners, SAFECO Field, 1250 1st Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98134.