The Seattle Mariners all-time hit king and owner of several MLB and NPB records received the first of what's likely to be two different Hall of Fame inductions earlier this week.

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 — and his fame across the Pacific was therapeutic as the national economy sputtered through the so-called lost decades.

That’s why it was immediate to check his name when my ninth Baseball Hall of Fame ballot arrived. This year’s ballot has a decided Mariners feel between Ichiro and Félix Hernández, and I voted for both.