Ichiro will go into the Hall of Fame as professional baseball’s all-time leader in hits with 4,367 (3,089 in MLB and 1,278 in Japan) — more even than Pete Rose's 4,256. He broke George Sisler’s single-season hits mark of 257 in 2004. The new mark is 262.

Ichiro is a wellspring of national pride — like Shohei Ohtani now — and his fame across the Pacific was therapeutic as Japan's economy sputtered through the so-called lost decades.

The results of voting for the 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame class will be revealed Tuesday evening. We already know that Dave Parker and Dick Allen were inducted via the Era Committee last month, so this reveal is the BBWAA portion.