What makes Ichiro a Hall of Famer, from teammates, opponents - ESPN

Ichiro Suzuki became a Hall of Famer when the Baseball Writers' Association of America revealed its ballots Tuesday night. Ichiro's stat line over more than two decades of excellence, first in Japan and then in MLB, made his election a slam dunk, but the legend of Ichiro is about much more than his 3,089 major league hits and .311 career average during 19 seasons with the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees and Miami Marlins.

As the iconic outfielder gets his Cooperstown call, we asked former teammates, opponents and other MLB greats to describe what it was like playing with, pitching to and simply witnessing Ichiro during his legendary career.

When Ichiro came to the majors, there was plenty of skepticism about how a Japanese hitter would fare in MLB since nobody had made the jump. Starting with his Mariners teammates, he found ways to turn heads from the beginning.

John Olerud, teammate with Mariners, 2001 to 2004: «I heard Bobby [Valentine] talking about this one guy that was really good and that he could play here in the big leagues. Ichiro was the first Japanese position player to come, so nobody knew if they could have success here at Major League Baseball. And so I remember the first time I met him in the clubhouse with Seattle, he knew who I was and I didn't immediately know who he was. And talking to Tom Robson, who's the hitting coach, he said Ichiro is bigger than Elvis in Japan, just to give me a frame of reference. And still, as big as he was in Japan, there was still a question of whether position players could compete over here.»

Mike Cameron, teammate with Mariners, 2001 to 2003: «My favorite story was his first year in spring training. Our manager was Lou Piniella. Ichiro was hitting foul balls over the