[15] Despite hitting a home run in 1993 against Hideo Nomo, who later won the National League Rookie of the Year Award, Suzuki was nevertheless sent back to the farm system on that very day.

Suzuki also hit 13 home runs and had 29 stolen bases, helping him to earn his first of three straight Pacific League MVP (Most Valuable Player) awards.

Suzuki is the second-most-common family name in Japan, and his manager introduced the idea as a publicity move to help create a new image for what had been a relatively weak team, as well as a way to distinguish their rising star.

The following year, with Suzuki winning his third-straight MVP award, the team defeated the Central League champion, Yomiuri Giants, in the Japan Series.

Suzuki batted .380 and collected seven stolen bases in the series, winning praise from several of his MLB counterparts, including Sammy Sosa and Jamie Moyer, who would become his teammate with the Mariners.

In the same way that many Japanese teams had considered the 18-year-old Suzuki too small to draft in 1992, many Americans believed he would prove too frail to succeed against Major League pitching or endure the longer 162-game season.

Suzuki made an auspicious debut with Seattle, and in the Mariners' eighth game revealed his tremendous throwing arm by gunning down Oakland's Terrence Long, who had tried to advance from first to third on a teammate's single to right field.

Only Willie Keeler, Wade Boggs, Chuck Klein, Al Simmons, and Charlie Gehringer had had five consecutive 200-hit seasons at any point in their careers.

[48] On 10 July 2007, he became the first player to hit an inside-the-park home run in any MLB All-Star Game after an unpredictable hop off the right field wall of AT&T Park in San Francisco.

2007 marked the end of Suzuki's second contract with the Mariners, and he initially told MLB.com that he would likely enter the free agent market, citing the team's lack of success in recent years.

"[55] In May 2008, Suzuki stole two bases, giving him a career total of 292, surpassing the previous Seattle Mariners team record of 290 set by second baseman Julio Cruz.

[58] By 2008, it had emerged in the media that Suzuki was known within baseball for his tradition of exhorting the American League team with a profanity-laced pregame speech in the clubhouse prior to the MLB All-Star Game.

The previous players to have accomplished this were Stan Musial in the NL and Lou Gehrig in the AL. On 6 September against the Oakland A's, Suzuki collected his 2,000th MLB hit on the second pitch of the game, a double along the first base foul line.

On 13 September against the Texas Rangers, Suzuki collected his 200th hit of the season for the ninth consecutive year, setting an all-time major league record.

With two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning on 18 September, Suzuki hit a walk-off, two-run home run against Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, scoring Michael Saunders in one of the more memorable victories of the season.

Arguing that a strikeout pitch from Toronto's David Purcey had been outside, Suzuki used his bat to draw a line on the outer edge of the plate, and was immediately tossed by umpire Brian Runge.

Suzuki won his tenth consecutive Rawlings Gold Glove Award in 2010, tying Ken Griffey Jr., Andruw Jones, and Al Kaline, and trailing only Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays (twelve each) for major league outfielders.

[98][99] On 10 July 2014, Suzuki collected his 2,800th MLB hit off of Cleveland Indians pitcher Scott Atchison in the top of the eighth inning at Progressive Field.

[102] The Marlins originally planned for him to be their fourth outfielder, but he finished the season with 439 plate appearances due to team injuries—primarily Giancarlo Stanton, who suffered a season-ending injury on 26 June.

[19][105] On 14 August at Busch Stadium, Suzuki singled off St. Louis Cardinals starter John Lackey to earn his 4,192nd top-level hit, passing Ty Cobb.

[128] On 25 June, Suzuki (age 43 and 246 days) became the oldest player to start a game in center field since at least 1900, breaking the record previously held by Rickey Henderson.

[129] On 29 June, Suzuki became the oldest active MLB player when Bartolo Colón was designated for assignment by the Atlanta Braves,[130] although Colon latched on with the Minnesota Twins a few weeks later.

[138] On 1 October, Suzuki flied out in his last chance to tie John Vander Wal's MLB record of 28 pinch hits in a season, finishing with 27.

[77][165] The New York Times criticized his inability to improve his power when his Mariner teams were often low-scoring while noting that he also did not steal bases as frequently as Rickey Henderson or Tim Raines.

[167] On the final day of the 2015 season on 4 October, Suzuki pitched in his first MLB game, throwing one complete inning at the end of a 7–2 Marlins loss against the Philadelphia Phillies, allowing one run on two hits.

Suzuki's career was followed closely in Japan, with national television news programs covering each of his at-bats, and with special tour packages arranged for Japanese fans to visit the United States to attend his games.

[176] When Suzuki was traded to the Yankees in July 2012, longtime Mariners fan Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie) posted his tribute song, "Ichiro's Theme", on his SoundCloud page.

[177][178] The previous year, The Baseball Project had released the tribute song "Ichiro Goes To The Moon" on their album Volume 2: High and Inside,[179] which Gibbard contributed backing vocals to.

[188] He has endorsed Japanese brands such as sporting goods company Mizuno Corporation,[189] Nikko Cordial, NTT Communications, Asics, JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy.

[6][10] Suzuki is the honored chairman of the Ichiro Cup, a six-month-long boys' league tournament with more than 200 teams, held in Toyoyama and surrounding cities and towns since 1996.