Ichiro Suzuki’s first-ballot selection to the Hall of Fame was taken as a fait accompli by everyone - except maybe the man himself.
“It was all set up,” he explained through longtime translator Allen Turner. “There was supposed to be a time frame, and 2:15 could have been the first time that it could have happened. So we were all set up like it was going to happen. And that call didn’t come for about fifteen minutes. And so I started to think...maybe it’s not going to come.”
Of course the call came. But the fact that even a shadow of a doubt crept into his mind is reflective of Ichiro the man: humble, refusing to take anything for granted, and still carrying some feelings of being an outsider even after a long and illustrious career that saw him break barriers throughout baseball, ending in his election to the Hall of Fame.