Japanese baseball world stops to honor Ichiro Suzuki's choice

When Ichiro Suzuki announced he would take a sabbatical from playing to work for the Seattle Mariners' front office, Japanese baseball notables, including Sadaharu Oh, applauded on Friday."One would think it's the best choice, for Ichiro, for the Mariners," said Oh, a Hall of Famer as Japan's all-time home run king and current chairman of the SoftBank Hawks. "He's not 100 percent retiring, so that's leaving open the possibility he will once more stand in the batter's box.""Leaving is the most difficult thing," he added.Those in Japan expressed awe for the high regard the Mariners hold for t…READ FULL ARTICLE