Suzuki, Ichiro, 1973–, Japanese baseball player. He began playing full-time in the Japanese big leagues in 1994, with the Orix BlueWave, and led the Pacific League with 210 hits and a .385 average despite his unorthodox stance and “pendulum” swing. Also an outstanding outfielder with one of the league's best arms, Suzuki won six more batting championships and three MVP titles, and led the team to league (1995–96) and Japan Series (1996) championships. He began playing with the Seattle Mariners in 2001, and was named the American League's Rookie of the Year award. In 2004 he had 262 hits, breaking the single-season record, and a .372 batting average. He was traded to the New York Yankees in 2012, and in 2013 he smacked in his 4,000th career hit. He played for the National League's Miami Marlins from 2015, then returned to Seattle in 2018, where he became special assistant to the chairman in May, 2018. His total career hits (4,367), which includes 1,278 with the BlueWave, surpassed Pete Rose's record in 2016, the year he also passed the 3,000-hit mark in his U.S. major league career.
See his Ichiro on Ichiro (2004).
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