COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — The speech Ichiro Suzuki gave Sunday at the National Baseball Hall of Fame was charming, funny and delivered in perfect English. Who knew? Allen Turner, his long-time interpreter, can now retire.
It presented a side of Ichiro the public never saw during his 19-year career, mostly with the Seattle Mariners. But a lot of his friends and teammates knew the Japanese star could speak English fluently.
“I played with Ichi in New York for three years, so I knew he could do that,” CC Sabathia said in his post-ceremony media conference. “I was excited. It was great for me that people got to see his personality, how funny he is and what a great teammate he was. All those things you get to see day-to-day. He delivered a great speech.”
All of the inductees or their family members gave poignant presentations. Sabathia talked about how the women in his life, from his mother to his wife Amber were incredible influences. Billy Wagner spoke about how his belief in God pulled him through many tough times.
Dave Parker II, the son of the recently deceased slugger, was the spitting image of his dad, tall with similar facial characteristics and an oversized personality. He even grew his dark beard out a la his father during his Pittsburgh Pirates era.
“Just to look the part,” he said in an interview.
The late Dick Allen’s second wife, Wilma, spoke emotionally about the day in 2020 when the Philadelphia Phillies retired his No. 15.
“Little did we know he had only four months to live,” she said in her speech.
But from the moment Ichiro approached the podium, he stole a show that had been delayed an hour by overnight and morning rain, although storms abated for the rest of the day.
Perhaps it was the inclement weather, but the Hall announced a crowd count of 30,000, well below the 55,000 expected and reported by MLB Network as it began its coverage of the event.
There wasn’t a large presence of Japanese people in the throng, either, or perusing the shops downtown on Main Street throughout the weekend.
When he was asked why he gave the speech in English, Ichiro returned to his tried-and-true press conference routine, with Turner fielding the questions and Ichiro answering in Japanese.
“Of course, it’s going to be better to speak in Japanese to get my point across,” Ichiro said, as translated by Turner. “But we’re in America and I knew that being able to speak English, the fans would understand best how I was feeling. There was no deciding factor. I always knew I was going to do it in English.”
That never seemed to matter before, but this time he wowed the crowd by saying that this was the third time in his career he is a rookie again: The first when he signed in Japan with the Orix BlueWave, the second when he joined the Mariners, and Sunday surrounded on the stage behind the Clark Sports Center by 55 of the living Hall of Famers.
“I hope I can uphold the values of the Hall of Fame. So, easy on the hazing,” he said to laughs. “I don’t need to wear a Hooters uniform again.”
He waxed eloquent about the experience of playing for the Yankees, “the great Derek Jeter, and enjoying your organization’s proud culture.”
But when he was looking for a team in 2015 so he could continue his career and pursue 3,000 hits in the Major Leagues, his agent John Boggs came up with the Miami Marlins.
“Honestly when you guys called to offer me a contract, I had never heard of your team,” Ichiro said.
Ichiro ultimately collected his 3,000th hit with the Marlins and Boggs got him back to Seattle, where he finished his career in 2019 with 3,089 hits.
He was long considered to be a slam-dunk candidate for the Hall the first time his name appeared on the ballot. And five years later he was elected by eligible members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America this past January with 99.7% of the vote, missing unanimous selection by a single vote.
Ichiro didn’t let that pass, either, saying after the election that he’d love to sit down for dinner with that writer and discuss the decision. Since the Hall vote is anonymous, it won’t be revealed who filed that ballot—and no one has publicly copped to it.
“Hmm, 3,000 hits or a record 262 hits in one season,” he said. “Those are achievements recognized by the writers, well, all but one of you. And by the way, the offer for that writer to have dinner at my home has expired.”
Too bad. It would’ve been an entertaining dinner if it was anything like the speech.
