Ichiro Suzuki has become the first Japanese player to make it to baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani is likely to be the next.

A leadoff hitter, an ace starter and a lockdown closer walk into a Hall … It’s no joke. The National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025 is complete after Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner

In the bottom of the eighth inning of the April 15, 2001, game between the Oakland A's and visiting Seattle Mariners, A's outfielder Terrence Long bounced a leadoff single up the middle off Aaron Sele.

For Ichiro Suzuki, whose baseball career defied convention and shattered records, his induction into the Hall of Fame has long felt less like a crowning achievement and more like an inevitable conclusion to one of the sport’s most remarkable journeys.

The career .311 MLB hitter was the 2001 AL MVP and Rookie of the Year and won 10 consecutive AL Gold Glove Awards, all with the Mariners.

Baseball legend Ichiro Suzuki was announced as a baseball Hall of Famer on Tuesday, becoming the 62nd first-ballot Hall of Famer and the first Japanese baseball player to be elected to Cooperstown. There was no doubt that Ichiro, who played nine years in the Nippon Baseball League in Japan before 19 years in the MLB, was getting into the Hall.

Ichiro Suzuki and CC Sabathia were elected to Baseball’s Hall of Fame on Tuesday night, Suzuki in overwhelming fashion, while Billy Wagner made the most of his 10th and final appearance on the ballot, clearing the 75% barrier to inclusion by earning 325 of 394 votes.

Ichiro Suzuki could join Mariano Rivera as the only unanimous picks for baseball’s Hall of Fame and CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner and Carlos Beltrán also could be elected when results of the writers’ voting are announced.

If that remains the case when the final results are released by the Baseball Writers Association of America on Tuesday, Ichiro will be the first Japanese-born player in the Hall of Fame and just the second player ever to be unanimously elected to Cooperstown.

The BBWAA recognized CC Sabathia’s prolonged excellence by voting the former Yankees left-hander into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Ichiro began his MLB odyssey in 2001 with the Mariners, already a seasoned professional at the age of 27, and quickly became one of the game’s biggest stars with the Mariners.