Ichiro Suzuki honored with collage showing 1st 3,000 hits

MIAMI – The Miami Marlins paid tribute to Ichiro Suzuki by giving him a mosaic of photographs showing each of his first 3,000 hits.

Suzuki reached the milestone last season and was honored before Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The ceremony included Japanese home run king Sadaharu Oh offering congratulations in a scoreboard video, and Suzuki responded by bowing toward the scoreboard.

“It’s the most emotional I’ve ever seen him,” Marlins president David Samson said. He said Suzuki’s Plexiglas collage is more than 8 feet wide and took months to assemble.

“I don’t know how big his house is,” teammate Tom Koehler said, “but he’s going to need a lot of wall space for that one. I’m sure he’s got a lot of memorabilia of his career. Maybe he just has a private house for Ichy memories.”

Suzuki originally was to have been honored late last season, but the ceremony was postponed following the death of Marlins ace Jose Fernandez.

The 43-year-old Japanese star spent his first 11 1/2 seasons with Seattle before heading to the New York Yankees. He has been with the Marlins since 2015 and is a career .312 hitter.