Ichiro is a wellspring of national pride — like Shohei Ohtani now — and his fame across the Pacific was therapeutic as Japan's economy sputtered through the so-called lost decades.

Ichiro will go into the Hall of Fame as professional baseball’s all-time leader in hits with 4,367 (3,089 in MLB and 1,278 in Japan) — more even than Pete Rose's 4,256. He broke George Sisler’s single-season hits mark of 257 in 2004. The new mark is 262.

Pete Rose still holds the MLB record for career hits with 4,256, but Ichiro would be the hit king if you count the 1,278 hits he had in Japan. Ichiro reached 4,257 combined hits on June 15, 2016, with the Marlins, hitting a double off the San Diego Padres’ Fernando Rodney (remember him, Mariners fans?). Ichiro finished with 4,367 combined hits.

Ichiro Suzuki is expected to be the first Japanese player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and possibly only the second player chosen unanimously after New York

The Seattle Mariners all-time hit king and owner of several MLB and NPB records received the first of what's likely to be two different Hall of Fame inductions earlier this week.