TAMPA, Fla. _ Two of Ichiro Suzuki's 3,089 career hits came off Masahiro Tanaka.
And the Yankees right-hander, a countryman of the Japanese legend who officially retired Thursday morning after the Mariners' 5-4 victory over the A's in Tokyo, smiled when recalling them.
"For me, I treasure that experience to be able to face him," Tanaka said through his translator Thursday.
The matchup occurred June 15, 2015 in Miami. Ichiro, then with the Marlins, went 2-for-4 against Tanaka that night.
It was surreal, Tanaka said, given that Ichiro "was a superstar when I was in elementary school" in 2001 when the latter, already a star of stars in Japan, made his debut with the Mariners. But even more surreal than that was their careers overlapping in the Bronx in 2014, Tanaka's rookie season. Ichiro spent 2 { seasons with the Yankees from 2012-2014.
"I never thought that I would be playing with him in my wildest dreams," Tanaka said. "I had the opportunity to be teammates with him in the WBC (World Baseball Classic) in 2009 and had the chance to play with him here in 2014. Taking myself back to those moments, I never thought I would (get to) play on the same field with him in my wildest dreams."
Asked to describe the impact Ichiro had on Japanese players with aspirations of playing in the majors, Tanaka smiled.
"It's too grand of an impact, I can't even put them into words," he said. "He made a huge, huge impact."
