Ichiro steals the show with speech at Hall of Fame ceremony

On Sunday, Ichigo Suzuki was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as part of the 2025 class. He always talked to journalists through an interpreter throughout his career, but he always talked to journalists in English during his speeches in Cooperstown. The Japanese superstar has released several memorable lines in less than 20 minutes, including a cheeky dig from a writer who didn’t vote for him.

Ichiro jokingly extracts dinner offers

The usually mentioned men word His name just matches choosereceived 393 of the 394 votes from the American Baseball Writers Association. “Three thousand hits or 262 hits in a season are two achievements that the writers recognize. Well, except for one. By the way The offer for this writer to have supper at my house is now due,” the former Seattle sailor outfielder joked.

Of course, Ichiro means brisk He made an offer in January after announcing his onboarding news. “I was able to get a lot of votes from writers, and [I’m] He thanked them, but there was a writer I couldn’t get the vote. I want to invite him to my house, we will have a drink together and we will have a good chat. ”

Along with Ichiro, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner were also inducted into the Hall of Fame, while Dave Parker and Dick Allen were both hunted down. Their family attended the event on their behalf. One hour‘ Delayed due to rain No The enthusiasm of the crowd was suppressed, estimated to be about 30,000. Several Japanese flags and 51 jerseys were on display, and it seems that most people are seeing Ichigo there.

Humor and heartfelt speech

His speech is humorous and heartfelt. He thanked all kinds of people, including pitcher Hideo Nomo, who helped open the doors for Japanese players, and his former agent Tony Attanasio, who died sadly last year. Some shouted too arrive All the teams he played for were jokes He will Before signing, “never heard of” Miami Marlins. Finally, Ichigo starts to get emotional when he talks about his biggest supporter.

“I think you can imagine that when I decided to try to be the first major league player in the Major League Baseball, there was a lot of doubt,” Ichiro said. “But it was very skeptical. There was criticism and negativity. Someone even said to me, ‘Don’t embarrass this country.’ The person who supports me is my wife Yumiko.

He continued: “Short after retirement, Yumiko and I had a date night. We did something we never did before, something we couldn’t do when I was a player – we sat in the stands and enjoyed a sailor game. We did it by eating hot dogs. In all our experiences, baseball brought me a lot of baseball and allowed me to enjoy the most responsible people to help me in this moment to help the most people.

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