RICH SCHULTZ/AP
He has waited nearly a life time, but on Sunday Ichiro Suzuki was given an opportunity to finally pitch in a Major League game.
It is something that he has requested for many years, but none of his previous managers took him serious enough. But on Sunday, Marlins manager Dan Jennings finally became the one person to allow the future Hall of Famer to throw off the mound.
Suzuki’s first pitch was a fastball that flew in at 86 MPH for a ball. Then the next pitch which, was a change-up, but also at 86 MPH, was driven to right field for a double off the bat of Odubel Herrera. Next batter Cameron Rupp flied out to center field on a 2-0 pitch, with Suzuki raising his change up to 87 MPH.
An RBI double from Darnell Sweeney, scored Herrera from second, but Suzuki settled down and induced a ground ball out to second base from Freddy Galvis and with Sweeney on third, Aaron Altherr flied out to left field to end the inning.
Not a bad debut on the mound by Suzuki, as he tossed an inning, allowing two hits, one run, throwing 18 pitches with 11 for strikes.
At the plate Suzuki finished the game 0 for 2, and the season with 2935 hits, 65 shy of 3000.
Does Suzuki have one more year in him to reach the 3000 hit mark and also maybe start a new career on the mound, guess we will have to wait until the 2016 season to find out. Overall, the future Hall of Famer gave us fans something to look forward to.
David Conde
David is the Co-Founder and Executive Editor of Legends On Deck®, as well as a Co-Host on Legends On Deck Podcast. David was a Senior Editor for MetsMerizedOnline.com, MetsMinors.net and Contributor for Hardballchat.com that spanned from 2010 to 2014. David made his MLB Debut as a writer in June 2014, while covering the NY Mets at Citi Field, for MetsmerizedOnline.com. David also coaches baseball for ages 13-15, a Babe Ruth League team in his local community. David's passion is coaching the game he loves to the future Legends of Tomorrow as well as making available a website that people can have fun sharing and reading. David is also passionate about his career as a Mortgage Loan Officer which allows him to help many families reach their dreams of owning a home. Connect with David via his Social Media pages as he loves to chat all about baseball.
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