Seattle Mariners legend Ichiro Suzuki dominated on the baseball field Tuesday at the ripe old age of 50. The poor victims on the other team? A high school girls squad.
Ichiro looked like current-day Shohei Ohtani in an exhibition game held at the Tokyo Dome in Japan. The baseball icon led a team full of former pros with the goal of having fun and promoting the game of baseball.
At the plate, Ichiro went 2-for-5 with a double. On the mound, he pitched a complete-game shutout on 116 pitches with 9 strikeouts. His fastest pitch was clocked at 86 mph.
50-year-old Ichiro Suzuki pitched a complete-game shutout on 116 pitches against a high school girls team today. He had nine strikeouts, topping out at 86 MPH
He went 2-for-5 at the plate with a double pic.twitter.com/p1Mu1PiOWN
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) November 21, 2023
Ichiro’s 86 mph fastball proved that he barely had any drop-off in his pitching. His fastball clocked in just slightly higher when he threw out the first pitch at a Mariners game last year.
Ichiro also pitched in a similar contest against a high school girls team last year. The purpose of the annual event is to bolster interest in the sport amongst young women. Ichiro also threw a complete game last year, but he did surrender a first-inning run to go along with 14 strikeouts.
Ichiro has served as an ambassador of the game in his home country ever since his retirement in 2019. He finished his MLB career with 3,089 hits and a batting average of .311.
