ANAHEIM -- When Bryan Woo gets to the field every day, Ichiro Suzuki is already there. Taking batting practice. Shagging fly balls. Playing catch. He hangs around after too, offering any advice he can to the current generation of Mariners players. Other times, he just talks with them about anything on their mind, even if it’s unrelated to baseball.
It’s been six years since Ichiro retired, but he still has a presence that reverberates throughout the Mariners clubhouse just as much as any active player on the roster. Possibly even more. And on Sunday morning, before the Mariners’ 4-1 loss to the Angels, as the superstar was enshrined into Cooperstown as the first Japanese-born Hall of Famer, some players took time at Angel Stadium to reflect on that.
“It’s definitely unique,” Woo said. “Not any Hall of Famer’s still doing what he does around the game of baseball and playing as much as he does. It’s super special, and I think everybody on the team really appreciates it. … Definitely something that we don’t take for granted.”
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As a kid, shortstop J.P. Crawford would try to mimic Ichiro’s swing. He still remembers walking into the ballpark as a rookie with the Phillies in 2017 during a series against Miami, where Ichiro was playing at the time. Crawford was completely starstruck.
His thoughts raced.
Dang. I’m in the same spot as Ichiro! I get to play against him. Oh my God!
“Fangirling at the time,” he said.
The two became close when Crawford missed time with an injury in 2024. He didn’t travel with the team, so Ichiro would meet him at T-Mobile Park to hit him ground balls and play long toss throughout his rehab process. And on one of those days, Crawford told Ichiro about that moment from seven years prior.
“He started laughing when I told him that story,” he said. “He’s just so open to anything. You go up to him, ask him a question about whatever and he’ll answer it. He’s always there for us. It just shows you the type of person he is.”
Even with a language barrier, closer Andrés Muñoz still shares a connection and relationship with Ichiro. The biggest thing Muñoz has taken from Ichiro is understanding a hitter’s perspective -- how hitters think, what they think of his pitches, and how they would approach an at-bat against him.
“You have the opportunity to get to know and learn from somebody with so much experience,” Muñoz said in Spanish. “He played for so many years. It’s an honor for us that he’s been a part of the Mariners, and I’m just happy to have him close by and to be able to talk to him and learn from him.”
Manager Dan Wilson was teammates with Ichiro on the Mariners in the early 2000s, and what he sees Ichiro do every day in retirement is exactly the same as how he went about it over 20 years ago.
“His commitment, his dedication, especially his dedication to routine and how much he relied on that to get ready each day,” Wilson said. “He really remains dedicated to the game too. It’s incredible how much he gives back to the game, how much he gives back to players. It’s a part of him.”
Getting to see an icon of the sport like Ichiro, day in and day out, provides something of a domino effect for Mariners players. They see what it takes to be great up close and want to emulate that.
And for Crawford, it only serves as motivation.
“Just how he goes about his craft every day,” Crawford said. “He has a solid routine, so it makes you want to critique things [about yourself], and just better yourself every day too. … If he can still do it, you can still do it too.”