Скачать или смотреть Ichiro's Journey to America Deserves a Closer Look

In the spring of 1994, a 20-year-old took the field for the Orix BlueWave in Japan. His last name, Suzuki, was one of the most common in the country, shared by tens of thousands of other Japanese citizens. In order to set the player apart, the team has instead chosen to put his first name on the back of his uniform. It wouldn’t be long before this young man would need no introduction.

Today, nearly 25 years after he made the move to America, Ichiro Suzuki’s impact is still being felt. Without him, it’s likely that stars like Shohei Ohtani would have never left Japan.

This is a video about how Ichiro changed not only the world of baseball, but sports as a whole; about how he redefined what it meant to be a hitter; about how, when he’s inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer, it will be as one of the most beloved ballplayers of his time.

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SOURCES
"The Meaning of Ichiro: The New Wave from Japan and the Transformation of Our National Pastime" by Robert Whiting
ESPN
MLB
Baseball Reference/Stathead
Fangraphs
2010 United States Census
The Los Angeles Times
The New York Times
The News Tribune
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Tampa Bay Times
Tri-City Herald