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.

Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball, but he is much more than that at home in Japan. Ichiro is a wellspring of national pride — like Shohei Ohtani now — and his fame across the Pacific was therapeutic as the national economy sputtered through the so-called lost decades.

Ichiro has appeared on all 163 public ballots (44.4% of total). Sabathia (93.1%), Wagner (85.1%) and Beltran (80.5%) are above the 80% threshold needed for induction. Hernandez has appeared on 24.7% of ballots.

Tuesday night will be a very special one for the Seattle Mariners and their fans. That will mark the day that M's legend Ichiro Suzuki learns that he will get i

As I looked at my Baseball Hall of Fame ballot that included checkmarks on the boxes next to nine players’ names, I stared at the open box next to another name: Félix Hernández.

Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball, but he's much more than that in Japan. Back home, he's a wellspring of national pride, much like Shohei Ohtani now. His triumphs across the Pacific buoyed the nation as Japan's economy sputtered through the so-called lost decades of the 1990s and into the 2000s.