Ichiro will go into the Hall of Fame as professional baseball’s all-time leader in hits with 4,367 (3,089 in MLB and 1,278 in Japan) — more even than Pete Rose's 4,256. He broke George Sisler’s single-season hits mark of 257 in 2004. The new mark is 262.

Hideki Matsui, Yu Darvish and others in MLB helped him make his decision, Morii responded in English: "Yes, of course." Matsui, a three-time MVP of Japan's Central League, played for Oakland in 2011.

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.

Hoping to become a two-way player in Major League Baseball just like Shohei Ohtani, 18-year-old Shotaro Morii made the rare decision to bypass Japanese professional baseball entirely and agreed to a minor league contract with the Athletics.

Hideki Matsui, Yu Darvish and others in MLB helped him make his decision, Morii responded in English: “Yes, of course." Matsui, a three-time MVP of Japan's Central League, played for Oakland in ...

Hoping to become a two-way player in Major League Baseball just like Shohei Ohtani, 18-year-old Shotaro Morii made the rare decision to bypass Japanese professional baseball entirely and agreed Wednesday to a minor league contract with the Athletics that includes a signing bonus of $1,510,500.

The Roki Sasaki sweepstakes has reached its final stage, and the Yankees don’t even have a spot on the podium.