A big hit at home

Ichiro Suzuki brightened a dismal baseball season in Japan.

His countrymen celebrated Suzuki’s record-breaking hit when the Seattle Mariners outfielder broke George Sisler’s 84-year-old major league mark for hits in a season.

“He’s incredible,” said Shigeru Uchida, who joined other fans in front of a downtown Tokyo electronics store that was showing the game on TV. “Baseball is America’s game and for him to go over there and do that is truly amazing.”

It was about noon local time when fans gathered at sports bars throughout the nation’s capital and at the city hall in Ichiro’s hometown in Aichi prefecture to watch the game played Friday night in Seattle.

With the merger of Ichiro’s former team — the Orix BlueWave — and a subsequent players’ strike that lasted two days, it’s been a gloomy baseball season in Japan.

Japan finished a disappointing third in baseball at the Olympics with a team of stars from the professional leagues who were supposed to bring home the gold. In March, legendary former player and manager Shigeo Nagashima suffered a stroke that prevented him from going to Athens.

But Ichiro’s assault on Sisler’s record, which has been followed down to every last at-bat for the past month, has given Japanese baseball fans something to feel good about.

“There has been a lot of bad news in the baseball world here this year,” office worker Yayoi Sugaya said. “Ichiro has given us a reason to be happy and proud and is living proof that hard work pays off.”

Players who faced Ichiro over the years in Japan were also impressed.

“He’s definitely the greatest hitter in baseball,” said Yomiuri Giants outfielder Tuffy Rhodes, who played against Ichiro when the two were in the Pacific League. “From the first time I saw him, it was obvious to me that he wanted to play in the majors.”

While playing for the BlueWave, Ichiro won seven straight Pacific League batting titles before signing with the Mariners.