The Seattle Mariners retired Ichiro Suzuki’s No. 51 on Saturday night at T-Mobile Park, following up his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame two weeks ago. As he did in Cooperstown, Suzuki entertained the crowd and fans watching later on with another gracious and rousing speech.
“Whose idea was it to have me give two speeches in English in two weeks?” Suzuki began. “It’s one of the toughest challenges of my career.”
Suzuki then quoted, as he put it, “the great philosopher George Kenneth Griffey Jr.,” saying “I am damn proud to be a Seattle Mariner.”
[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season]
Suzuki shares the No. 51 in Mariners history with fellow Hall of Famer, pitcher Randy Johnson, and thanked him for allowing him to wear the number when he joined the team in 2001.
“Without his generosity, I could not have worn that number here,” he said. No, 51 was the number Suzuki was assigned by the Orix BlueWave, which he wore for nine years.
“I’m grateful to Randy for attending my ceremony today,” he added, “It will be my great honor to attend his next season.”
After thanking the Mariners executives who signed him and worked with him throughout his career, Suzuki acknowledged the other team Hall of Famers who were in attendance, including Alvin Davis, Edgar Martinez, Dan Wilson, Jay Buhner and Felix Hernandez, in addition to Jamie Moyer and Lou Piniella, who could not attend.
Suzuki then singled out the ceremony’s emcee, radio broadcaster Rick Rizzs, crediting him for his call on April 11. 2001 in Oakland that “helped to establish my identity.” Since the Mariners’ radio voice wasn’t in attendance for Suzuki’s Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cooperstown, when an impersonation of Rizzs was part of his acceptance speech, he offered to do it again.
“Holy smoke! A laser-beam strike from Ichiro!” Suzuki imitated, to the delight of Rizzs and the crowd.
Suzuki wrapped his speech up by crediting former teammates Martinez and Wilson — now the hitting coach and manager for the Mariners, respectively — for the job they’ve done with the 2025 club, Their 2001 team tied an MLB record with 116 wins and advanced to the American League Championship Series, success that Suzuki believed would be easily repeated.
“But as Edgar and Dan know, winning is tough,” he said before telling the current players in the dugout that they have “a great opportunity” and asking them not to take their talent for granted. At 65-53, the Mariners are a half-game behind the Houston Astros for first place in the AL West.
“The thing about winning is it is always tough and never comes without pressure,” Suzuki said. “Accept the pressure and figure out how you can perform at your best under pressure.”
The 2025 Mariners went on to defeat the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday, 7-4, behind two home runs from Julio Rodriguez and Cal Raleigh hitting his MLB-leading 44th homer. Raleigh is five homers away from tying the single-season high in that category by a catcher, 48 by Salvador Perez of the Kansas City Royals.
The Mariners later announced that a statue for Suzuki outside T-Mobile Park will be unveiled next season, with the monument depicting the Hall of Famer in his signature batting stance.
You can view Suzuki’s entire speech here, in addition to the entire No. 51 jersey retirement ceremony.
Read the full article here