When Bryan Woo gets to the field every day, Ichiro Suzuki is already there. Taking batting practice. Shagging fly balls. Playing catch. He hangs around after too, offering any advice he can to the current generation of Mariners players.

“Lou Piniella was very skeptical,” said Larry Stone, a Seattle Times baseball writer who has covered Ichiro’s career extensively. “That spring training, Ichiro started off not pulling the ball, not driving the ball. And Lou was like, ‘Who is this guy? When is he going to show me something?’”

Although Suzuki’s plaque did not produce the same amount of outrage as the infamous Dwyane Wade statue, the public had strong opinions just the same. The size of his lips appeared to especially throw people off. Welcome to baseball immortality, Ichiro Suzuki. pic.twitter.com/nsUJhWw3XR

There he was, in the flesh, at the Otesaga Resort Hotel on the eve of his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame: Ichiro Suzuki himself. So strong is Ichiro’s aura that even two of the game

This weekend, Mariners legend Ichiro Suzuki will become the first Asian player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Christian Yelich brings a different perspective than Carroll or Kwan. Yelich played three seasons as Ichiro’s teammate in Miami. He remembered playing catch with Ichiro the day after he collected his 3,000th hit in the majors, one of those pinch-me kind of moments.

Ichiro will transition into a role deemed "Special Assistant to the Chairman," where he will work with the Mariners' major-league staff and front office. But his agent insists Ichiro is not retiring.

SEATTLE — Now that Mariners legend Ichiro Suzuki was nearly unanimously voted into baseball's Hall of Fame Tuesday afternoon, the franchise announced it will officially retire his #51 jersey ...

For baseball fans across the country, outfielder Ichiro Suzuki’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend is the capstone to a storied career of broken records.