#Shortstops: Ichiro’s Hits

Ichiro Suzuki racked up hits so fast that it was hard to count. He was so good at putting the bat on the ball that the ground balls that he hit were described as having “NASA-like precision.”

While he was a member of the Mariners, the team decided to have a promotion to help fans keep track of Ichiro’s many hits. This bobblehead was a giveaway to the first 25,000 fans on May 6, 2011, in Seattle for a game against the Chicago White Sox. The bobblehead’s likeness hit leadoff and played right field in a game where he went 0-for-3 with a walk and a run scored.

The Mariners would win this game 3-2 on a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth. Félix Hernández earned the win by throwing a complete game with six strikeouts.

The bobblehead has an adjustable hit counter on its base so fans could update it as Ichiro accumulated more and more hits. Also on the base of the bobblehead, Ichiro’s name appears in English as well as in Japanese. In May of 2016, when he was a member of the Miami Marlins, there was another Ichiro bobblehead giveaway with an adjustable hit tracker. This was given away in anticipation of his 3,000th career major league hit, which he collected on Aug. 7, 2016 in Colorado with a triple to right field. Ichiro is joined by Hall of Famer Paul Molitor as the only other player in major league history to record a triple for their 3,000th hit.

This bobblehead from Seattle was part of the vast collection that was previously on display in the “bobblehead museum” located beyond right field at Marlins Park (now loanDepot Park). The collection was owned by former Marlins owner Jeffrey H. Loria who donated approximately 900 bobbleheads to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The collection includes bobbleheads of players such as Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and Satchel Paige.

Nate Beebe is the 2024 data analytics intern in the Frank and Peggy Steele Internship Program for Leadership Development