Marlins honor Ichiro reaching 3,000 hits with pregame ceremony
MIAMI (AP) -- The Miami Marlins paid tribute to Ichiro Suzuki by giving him a collage of photographs showing each of his first 3,000 hits.
Suzuki reached the milestone last season and was honored before Sunday's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The ceremony included Japanese home run king Sadaharu Oh offering congratulations in a scoreboard video, and Suzuki responded by bowing toward the scoreboard.
"It's the most emotional I've ever seen him," Marlins president David Samson said. He said the collage is more than 8 feet wide and took months to assemble.
Suzuki originally was to have been honored late last season, but the ceremony was postponed following the death of Marlins ace Jose Fernandez.
The 43-year-old Japanese star spent his first 11 seasons with Seattle before heading to the New York Yankees, and has been with the Marlins since 2015. He is a career .312 hitter.
