Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball, but he's much more than that in Japan. “He healed the wounds in Japan’s national psyche,” Kiyoteru Tsutsui, professor of sociology at Stanford University, told The Associated Press.

TOKYO--Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball ... Left-handed pitcher Hideo Nomo preceded him, and Hideki Matsui came just after, both boosting the country's confidence in a period of national ...

TOKYO — Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball ... Right-handed pitcher Hideo Nomo preceded him, and Hideki Matsui came just after, both boosting the country’s confidence in a period of national ...

During the gestation period for the place that would become baseball’s sacred shrine, Time Magazine, the New York Times and other periodicals referred to it as the “Baseball Hall of Fame.” Then, when the stately brick building housing the Hall officially opened in 1939,

Yankees legend Hideki Matsui played seven seasons for the Yankees. It wasn’t until his final one, in 2009, with the addition of lefty ace CC Sabathia, that he managed to get that elusive World Series ring.

Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball, but he's much more than that in Japan. Back home, he's a wellspring of national pride.

Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball, but he’s much more than that in Japan. Back home, he’s a wellspring of national pride, much like Shohei Ohtani now. His triumphs across the Pacific buoyed the nation as Japan’s economy sputtered through the so-called lost decades of the 1990s and into the 2000s.

(Kyodo) NEW YORK (Kyodo) -- Derek Jeter, Sadaharu Oh and Hideki Matsui were among many to offer their praises Tuesday after former Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki became the first Asian ...

TOKYO — Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball ... Left-handed pitcher Hideo Nomo preceded him, and Hideki Matsui came just after, both boosting the country's confidence in a period of national ...

Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball, but he is much more than that at home in Japan. Ichiro is a wellspring of national pride — like Shohei Ohtani now —

TOKYO — Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball ... Right-handed pitcher Hideo Nomo preceded him, and Hideki Matsui came just after, both boosting the country’s confidence in a period of national ...

Ichiro Suzuki is expected to be the first Japanese player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and possibly only the second player chosen unanimously after New York