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.

Ichiro Suzuki has become the first Japanese player to make it to baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani is likely to be the next.

Players are elected to the Hall of Fame provided they are named on at least 75% of ballots cast by eligible voting members of the BBWAA. With 394 ballots submitted in the 2025 election, candidates needed to receive 296 votes to be elected.

Ichiro Suzuki could join Mariano Rivera as the only unanimous picks for baseball’s Hall of Fame and CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner and Carlos Beltrán also could be elected when results of the writers’ voti

Ichiro had more hits than anyone, while serving as a powerful precedent for Japanese players. That overshadows whether his Hall of Fame election was unanimous.

Ichiro Suzuki has been named to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the possible vote. Here are the best reactions from around the internet.