Ten Terrific CGC-certified Cards of MLB Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki

In late July, the baseball community came together in Cooperstown, New York, to celebrate the newest members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Among the 2025 class was Seattle Mariners superstar Ichiro Suzuki, who became the first Asian-born player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, missing out on a unanimous selection by a single vote. His extraordinary career began as a baseball icon in Japan before becoming an MLB legend during his 28 years of playing professional baseball.

Ichiro spent his first nine pro seasons in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league, where he won three consecutive Pacific League MVP Awards and earned seven batting titles in a row. He also helped lead the Orix BlueWave to the 1996 Nippon Series title, securing the team's first championship in almost 20 years. American scouts took notice of Ichiro, making him the first Japanese-born position player to sign with an MLB team when he joined Seattle in 2001.

Beginning his MLB career at 27 years old, Ichiro had a huge impact on the league right away. His rookie season was unlike anything the MLB had ever seen. Ichiro led the American League in batting average and stolen bases, while playing superb defense in the outfield, which led to his first MLB All-Star selection, his first Gold Glove Award, the AL Rookie of the Year Award and the AL MVP Award.

He would go on to have a long MLB career, playing 18 years before retiring in 2019 as one of the greatest leadoff hitters and defensive outfielders in baseball history. In his combined NPB and MLB pro careers, Ichiro was selected to 17 consecutive All-Star games and won the Gold Glove Award 17 times in a row. He set several batting records as well, including the MLB's single-season record with 262 hits and the longest streak of 200-hit seasons with 10 in a row.

Ichiro also joined the MLB's 3,000 hits club in 2016, becoming only the 30th player to reach that level. He'd finish his pro career with 4,367 hits across the NPB and MLB; with the two leagues' totals combined, he has more hits than any player in baseball history. Upon his Hall of Fame induction last month in his first year of eligibility, Ichiro was not only the first Japanese player to join the Hall, but his 99.7% votes tied New York Yankees icon Derek Jeter for the second-highest Hall of Fame voting percentage ever. Ichiro is a true international baseball legend who is now deservedly immortalized forever in Cooperstown amongst baseball's greatest.

Ten Terrific Cards of Ichiro Suzuki

2001 Topps #726 Ichiro Suzuki - Gold

Rookie cards from the flagship set of Topps will always hold weight with collectors due to the company's long history of important card sets that helped define the hobby. By the early 2000s, serial-numbered cards had started to become more prevalent as well, creating limited issues for collectors to chase that were more scarce and more valuable. While any Ichiro collection should contain his base Topps rookie card, the Gold version numbered to only 2001 copies is the gem of the 2001 Topps set.

2001 Bowman Chrome #351 Ichiro Suzuki - Refractor Japanese

Bowman is another longtime brand with a storied history in baseball cards. They are one of the most collected series when it comes to tracking down rookie cards, and the modern Bowman Chrome versions are always popular. This iteration of Ichiro's Bowman Chrome rookie card switches out the back bio and stats that are normally in English for Ichiro's native Japanese, making it a unique collectible.

2001 SPx Jersey Autographs #150 Ichiro Suzuki

Upper Deck's SPx series included some great inserts in the late 1990s and 2000s, including autographed cards of some of the most popular players around. This particular gem features not only one of Ichiro's earliest autographs on a card from his MLB career, but one of his first jerseys ever worn since it includes a piece of his jersey from Spring Training in 2001.

2001 SP Game Bat Milestone Piece of the Action Autographs #S-IS Ichiro Suzuki

Here's another similar early MLB career card from Upper Deck, this time tied to one of Ichiro's rookie season milestones. The SP Piece of the Action insert includes a small segment of one of his game-used bats and an on-card autograph. The card also commemorates Ichiro's 23-game hitting streak in the first two months of his MLB career, which lasted from April to May 2001.

2002 Upper Deck Ovation Spokesman Spotlight Signatures #IS Ichiro Suzuki

In the late 1990s, Upper Deck introduced a new baseball set called Ovation, which was an entry-level series with modern designs. By the early 2000s, numbered cards, memorabilia cards and even autographed cards could be chased in each box. During Ichiro's second MLB season in 2002, Ovation's design with teal borders matched perfectly with the Seattle Mariners' team colors, making this Spokesman Spotlight Signatures card with a blue autograph one of the most attractive signed collectibles of his career.

2003 Upper Deck Play Ball Game Used Memorabilia Signatures #PB-IS2 Ichiro Suzuki - Jersey

Cards that use artistic renderings of players have been popular for decades, giving collectors their own miniature versions of drawings and paintings of their favorite players. In 2003, the Upper Deck Play Ball set featured artistic renderings of current players and retired icons. Some of the best and most valuable cards of the whole set were part of the Game Used Memorabilia Signatures subset, which featured Ichiro's same base card artistic rendering but included a piece of a game-used jersey, his signature in blue ink and is numbered to only 50 ever made.

2018 Topps Update #US153 Japan's Finest Ohtani & Ichiro Variation - Negative

While Ichiro wasn't the first-ever Japanese player to make the move to the MLB, he was the first non-pitcher, which paved the way for position players to make the jump to America as well. Today, Shohei Ohtani is arguably the biggest international star in all of sports, and this 2018 Topps Update card honors the pair for being "Japan's Finest." The card also included parallels, like this Negative variation that mimics photography negatives.

2020 Topps Triple Threads Autographed Relics #TTAR-I Ichiro - Gold

As the 21st century rolled on, brands began to create cards with multiple patches, jumbo patches and more, as they utilized every inch of card space to give collectors bigger and better pieces of memorabilia tied to their favorite players. Topps Triple Threads offers all of the above, including some cards that include an autograph along with huge jersey patches. For example, this card from the 2020 Topps Triple Threads set is numbered to only nine copies, features a large patch under a "Hot Streaks" cutout and a signature from Ichiro. In addition, the back references the iconic player's milestone of seven hitting streaks of 20 or more games.

2022 Topps Museum Collection Canvas Collection Sketches #1 of 1 Ichiro Suzuki Artist Proof - Lee Kohse, 7/28/24

Artistic renderings are one thing when it comes to cards, but original artist sketches are another ballgame entirely. Artists are sometimes commissioned by Topps and other brands to create truly unique collectibles, like this one-of-one Artist Proof of Ichiro by Lee Kohse, who is best known for his comic book art and as an artist for Lucasfilm working on Star Wars. While there are many one-of-one rarities in modern collecting, these types of original sketch cards are the definition of one-of-a-kind.

2022 Topps Definitive Collection Legendary Autographs #LAC-ICH Ichiro - Red

Another one-of-one gem from Topps, this Definitive Collection Legendary Autographs card in the Red parallel is the only copy in existence. Its clean, elegant design with Ichiro's image placed to the right of the horizontal card allows the baseball legend's on-card autograph at center in blue ink to be the focal point of the card. An autographed one-of-one rarity like this would make quite the centerpiece for any Ichiro collection.