Ichiro becomes first Japanese-born player in Hall-of-Fame

Ichiro, Sabathia and Wagner voted in by BBWAA

In the village of Cooperstown, a land of hopes and dreams on the shores of Otsego Lake, in upstate New York, the first Japanese-born major-league player will be inducted into the Baseball Hall-of-Fame on July 27. Outfielder Ichiro Suzuki will be welcomed along with lefthanded pitchers CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner, all elected on Thursday by a panel of 10-year BBWAA members. They join IF Dick Allen and OF Dave Parker, who were selected in December by a Veterans Committee.

Known simply by his first name, from the moment he arrived in MLB as a 27-year-old rookie in 2001, Ichiro had already had a starry career in Japan, compiling 1,278 hits in nine seasons before joining the Mariners in an earlier version of the posting process, that involved sealed bids, with the highest offer gaining the player’s services. A chunk of cash also went to his former team, the Orix Blue Wave.

For his ’01 rookie season under manager Lou Piniella, Ichiro took the majors by storm. Playing right field and batting leadoff, he was named AL rookie-of-the-year, won MVP, the Gold Glove, Silver Slugger and earned a trip to the all-star game. The M’s won a record 116 regular-season games, but faltered in the playoffs.

I remember during the M’s first visit to SkyDome in Ichiro’s sophomore season, 2002, I was standing on the field outside the visitor’s dugout, watching Ichiro take batting practice, speaking with Seattle General Manager, Pat Gillick.

“You know he has really good power when he wants to,” the former Jays’ GM said of a leadoff hitter with eight home runs in his rookie campaign. “His last round of B.P. he swings for the fences. Watch this.”

At that moment, as Gillick predicted, two straight pitches were smote and sailed out over the right field wall.

“Do you think this is the start of an Asian invasion of major-leaguers,” I asked Gillick, who at the time, even as GM in Seattle, still maintained a home in Cabbagetown. “How many major-league calibre players are in the Japanese League, right now?”

“I don’t know,” he responded, with furrowed brow. “I’ll have to think about it.” About 10 minutes later, Gillick wandered over and said, “About nine. It’s a different game. Most of them would be pitchers.”

Knowing then what I know now, I would have had to hit the buzzer. I trusted that at the time, Pat was close to being correct in his estimate. But let’s check the true numbers since the arrival of Ichiro to MLB in 2001. Call it the Ichiro Effect.

Prior to Ichiro’s arrival with the M’s, dating back to 1964, in 36 years, there had been just 10 Japanese-born major-leaguers, all of them being pitchers. Moving forward, in the 24 seasons since Ichiro Suzuki was a jaw-dropping rookie and for the first time the possibility of playing in the major-leagues showed up on the radar screen of Japanese youngsters, there have been 61 Japanese major-leaguers, including 12 that are currently active, joined by several others, like RHP Roki Sasaki into 2025.

That’s far more than Gillick suggested and much of the credit goes to Ichiro. The breakdown of Japanese major-leaguers since Ichiro’s debut, shows 43 pitchers, 17 position players and one guy named Shohei Ohtani who does a lot of both.

The biggest scandal of the celebratory Hall-of-Fame announcement day was the head-scratching fact that in tallying the BBWAA vote totals, Ichiro frustratingly collected 393 of the 394 votes cast, joining Derek Jeter as the only two players to fall one vote shy of a unanimous first-year ballot. Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera is still the only unanimous choice in HoF history, since the museum first opened in 1936.

Santander does his Zoom meeting with Blue Jays media

Here are some highlights of the 30-minute Zoom call with free-agent Blue Jays outfielder Anthony Santander (5 yrs/$92.5M) and GM Ross Atkins. The native of Venezuela was signed originally by the Indians in 2011, then selected in the Rule 5 draft by the Orioles in time for the 2017 season.

*The 44-homer in ‘24 switch-hitter does not care where the Jays play him on the field, mentioning in his answer, right field, left field, first-base and DH. It’s wherever manager John Schneider wants him. He does not know, or seem to care, whether he will bat behind or in front of Vlad Guerrero Jr, but promises great results.

*It was partly his conversations with friend and fellow Venezuelan Victor Martinez that helped convince him that Toronto was a good place to play. Martinez was a part-time calming-influence-presence in the Jays dugout as a fourth hitting coach at spring training and for a handful of series. Santander also reeled off the names of George Springer, Vlad and Bo Bichette, with pitchers Jose Berrios and Kevin Gausman as reasons he feels that this team can contend.

*In addition to having a good relationship with Vlad, recalling how the all-star first-baseman was pleading “Toronto, Toronto, you have to come to Toronto,” Santander also was a Team Venezuela teammate at the last World Baseball Classic of Jays new second-baseman, Andres Gimenez. Anthony played two seasons in the Cleveland farm system under manager Mark Budzinski, who will now be his outfield coach with the Jays. He was signed as an International Free Agent under Mark Shapiro and developed under farm director Ross Atkins.

*Santander loves hitting at Rogers Centre, especially since the renovations, because of the batter’s eye and seeing the ball very well. Toronto was his favourite road city — now home city. The fans, even in his time as a visitor, fired him up to perform at his best. He is not scared of the scariest division in baseball, with 106 combined homers and 283 RBIs in 481 games at the four current AL East parks – minus, of course, the roofless Trop, which was his worst hitting AL East Division venue, anyway.

*Atkins did not want to even consider the state of any extension discussions with Vlad, but did insist that the OF Myles Straw seemingly wasted $6M will not be a deterrent to improving the 2025 roster, if the opportunity arises.