By Karen
These past couple of days, I've seen many people raving about Shohei Ohtani's incredible baseball skills. I chatted with my spouse about it and casually asked, "Is Shohei Ohtani really that amazing?" Without even turning his head, he said, "Ichiro Suzuki is the one who's truly amazing!!"
(Extended reading: The Baseball Gods Can't Do This—Shohei Ohtani Sets 2 Absurd Records in 4 Years)
Never having paid attention to sports, I became curious and looked up Ichiro Suzuki's background. His father, Nobuyoshi Suzuki, was also a professional baseball player, but due to injuries, he had to end his career and placed his hopes on Ichiro.
From childhood, Ichiro was strictly trained by his father. During school years, his father would drive him to a nearby batting cage after school for practice until 11 p.m., returning home late. Even during exam periods, this routine never wavered. This dedication led young Ichiro to write in his sixth-grade composition "My Dream" that he aspired to become a professional baseball player of the highest caliber.
"Someone with such achievements must have done extraordinary things!" my spouse said again. Looking further into Ichiro's playing career, he started in Japanese professional baseball, with a turning point coming in 1998 when he expressed his desire to play in Major League Baseball.
(Extended reading: Ichiro Suzuki's Legend: How He Changed the Baseball World)
In 1999, he attended the Seattle Mariners' spring training for the first time. In 2000, he signed with the Mariners for a total of $14.08 million over three years, with a signing bonus of $5 million. In 2001, he participated in spring training as an official player and set the Major League record for most hits by a rookie with 242, earning 27 out of 28 votes to become the 2001 American League Rookie of the Year and MVP. That same year, the Seattle Mariners set the Major League record with 116 wins.
That year, Ichiro Suzuki was 27 years old. His 3-year salary of $14.08 million USD equals 3.9 billion Taiwan dollars in today's currency. Add the 5 million dollar signing bonus, which equals 1.3 billion Taiwan dollars, and the total comes to 5.2 billion Taiwan dollars—meaning 1.7 billion Taiwan dollars per year!! This number is truly unimaginable!!
It suddenly hit me that while many people in the workplace pursue million-dollar or ten-million-dollar annual salaries, through expertise, talent, and the value one brings to society, what the world is willing to pay can far exceed what an individual could ever imagine.
"Professionalism" requires time to refine and develop. Yet many people today overlook this, perhaps because the era has changed too rapidly. Everyone in today's society faces inexplicable anxiety about their own development, fearful that if they don't accelerate, they'll fall behind others and be left far behind.
It finally dawned on me why so many people are passionate about sports—it's because what everyone is pursuing is that meticulous effort behind the scenes, the high standards demanded of oneself, the determination to seize every opportunity and share these honors with the world. Since most people can't achieve excellence, they can only admire its spirit.
After fighting for 20 years, Ichiro Suzuki officially announced his retirement in 2019 at Tokyo Dome, which deeply moved me. As a Japanese person, he chose to retire while playing at home, allowing the world to focus on the land of his birth, making his baseball career's starting point also its endpoint.
**[Bonus Section] Forbes 2020 Top 10 Highest-Paid Athletes
- Roger Federer: $106.3 million
- Cristiano Ronaldo: $105 million
- Lionel Messi: $104 million
- Neymar: $95.5 million
- LeBron James: $88.2 million
- Stephen Curry: $77.4 million
- Kevin Durant: $63.9 million
- Tiger Woods: $62.3 million
- Kirk Cousins: $60.5 million
- Carson Wentz: $59.1 million
