Mariners must make a tradition of Ichiro Suzuki first pitches at home openers

Hours before Randy Arozarena and Jorge Polanco joined forces to bring the house down, Seattle Mariners fans who attended Opening Day at T-Mobile Park were pumped up by what should become an annual rite of passage:

Ichiro Suzuki giving it all he has from the mound.

In a strictly ceremonial sense, of course, but it all seems to be the same for Ichiro. He didn't have to show up in full uniform, much less put any pepper on his first pitch to former teammate and current Mariners manager Dan Wilson. Yet he did anyway in uncorking an offering that clocked at 84 mph.

“It was gasoline,” Wilson said, per Daniel Kramer of MLB.com. “I was glad I caught it.”

Two things were confirmed in that moment, with the first being that Ichiro still has a cannon even at 51 years of age. The second is that the Mariners have stumbled onto something special, and that they need to lean into it by inviting Ichiro to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at their home opener every year, at least for as long as he says "yes."

Pitching: An underrated part of what makes Ichiro a global treasure

We're still salty about how Ichiro fell just one vote short of going into the Hall of Fame with 100 percent support, as agreement that he belongs in Cooperstown should be universal.

It's just hard to argue with 4,367 professional hits, including 3,089 in the majors. There's also the lifetime .311 average, the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP from 2001, the record-setting 262 hits from 2004, the 10 All-Star selections, and the 10 Gold Gloves.

All this pretty much speaks for itself, though it's worth noting that the "Glove" part of Gold Glove is a bit of a misnomer. What players do with their arms in the field also counts, and Ichiro made it clear very early in his Mariners career that his was one that baserunners didn't want to mess with.

Along with whether he could have hit for more power, whether Ichiro could have been a professional pitcher is one of the many "what ifs" lingering in his fog-like aura. He did pitch in high school and in an All-Star Game when he was coming up in Japan back in the day, and he got clocked as fast as 88.5 mph and when he made a cameo on the mound for the Miami Marlins in 2015.

Even seven years later, Ichiro still had it. When he threw out his first ceremonial first pitch for the Mariners at their home opener in 2022, he was clocked at 84.5 mph.

The Mariners are pretty good at picking people to throw out the first pitch in their home openers. After Ichiro in 2022, they had Marshawn Lynch and other Seattle sports legends do it in 2023 and Nelson Cruz, a beloved Mariner of more recent vintage, do the honors in 2024.

Even still, Ichiro is now 2-for-2 in making Mariners home openers just a little bit more special. There is no harm in inviting him back to keep the streak going on an annual basis, and the Mariners could even have some fun with a rotating cast of first-pitch recipients.

Before Wilson caught Ichiro's gas on Thursday, Julio Rodríguez drew the duty in 2022. Maybe Cal Raleigh could be next. Or an up-and-comer like Colt Emerson. Or, even better, a fellow franchise legend such as Ken Griffey Jr. — come on, you knew we had to throw it out there.

Are we proposing something that is wholly unlikely to happen? Probably, yes. But in our defense, wanting to see more of Ichiro doing literally anything is not something to apologize for.