'He is still huge here. And he’s 45 years old.’' In Japan, baseball is king. Ichiro Suzuki's exit in Tokyo allowed the country that adores him to shower him with love.
Legendary baseball player Ichiro Suzuki announced his retirement after a game in his home country of Japan on Thursday, as fans showered him with love."There is no happiness more than this tonight," he said.
Ichiro left Thursday’s game after his final at-bat in the top of the eighth. His teammates hugged him on the field while fans roared. He waved and smiled in appreciation. Well after the game had ended, he circled the field, acknowledging the many who stayed to cheer him one last time. "The original plan was we would go to Japan, that was what was promised,'' Ichiro said. “But toward the end of spring, I wasn’t able to produce so I knew that this would be it for me.''
These were Ichiro’s first games in Japan since Seattle and Oakland opened the 2012 season here and the fifth MLB opener in Japan overall — the others were in 2000, 2004 and 2008. And in Japan, baseball is huge, the country’s most popular sport. Sadaharu Oh, Yu Darvish and Ichiro all played in the tournament, with Ichiro even pitching. Daisuke Matzusaka once threw 250 pitches in a 17-inning game, then tossed a no-hitter just two days later in the final. The Japanese also won the first two World Baseball Classics, with Ichiro driving in the winning run in the 2009 championship game against South Korea.
Even though Japan will host the 2020 Olympics, with baseball returning to the Games after being dropped in 2012 and 2016 and not being included as a medal sport until 1992 , Ichiro has said that he is not interested in playing.
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