COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. - On an overcast Sunday in this charming village, thousands of fans from the Far East to the East Coast, from Texas to the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest, gathered to usher five icons of the game into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Ichiro Suzuki, a remarkable hitter with dazzling speed and arm strength, not only broke stereotypes during a career played across two continents but also blazed a trail for a generation of Japanese-b...

Ichiro nearly became the second former player to ever be unanimously inducted into the Hall of Fame, but fell one vote shy.