One of the greatest hitters in baseball history, Ichiro Suzuki, plays his final game in Major League Baseball, capping off an astounding, Hall of Fame career
On March 21, 2019, Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki makeshis final appearance as a player, while the M’s went on to beat the Oakland A’s, 5-4, in the world-famous Tokyo Dome.
He had played a combined total of 28 seasons in professional baseball, comprised of nine years in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball with the Orix Blue Wave and 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Mariners (two stints), New York Yankees, and Miami Marlins. He is considered one of the best contact hitters of all time, rivaling legendary batsmen like Ted Williams and Tony Gwynn.
A list of Suzuki’s accomplishments in the game is as thick as a New York City phone book. He started off by becoming just the second player ever to win the Rookie of the Year and Rookie of the Year Awards in the same season in 2001. He also set the single-season record for most hits in a single season with 262 in 2004, breaking George Sisler’s 84-year-old mark of 257. Suzuki would finish his career as part of Major League Baseball’s vaunted 3000-hit club. He was enshrined at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 2025 as a first-ballot inductee.
After retiring as a Mariner, Ichiro remains with the franchise as an advisor and also works out with the team, mentoring young players who look to follow in his famed footsteps.
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