Ichiro Suzuki is set to become the first Japanese player to make it to baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani is likely to be the next.

Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball, but he's much more than that in Japan. Back home, he's a wellspring of national pride, much like Shohei Ohtani now. His triumphs across the Pacific buoyed the nation as Japan's economy sputtered through the so-called lost decades of the 1990s and into the 2000s.

Ichiro Suzuki has been named to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the possible vote. Here are the best reactions from around the internet.

Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese player chosen for baseball’s Hall of Fame, falling one vote shy of unanimous when he was elected along with CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner

Ichiro Suzuki could join Mariano Rivera as the only unanimous picks for baseball’s Hall of Fame and CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner and Carlos Beltrán also could be elected when results of the writers’ voti

On the same day that Ichiro Suzuki learned that he'd been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Seattle Mariners announced that they'll retire his No. 51 during the upcoming season: Ichiro's number will be officially honored in a ceremony prior to the Mariners' game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday,