SEATTLE -- No. 51 didn’t mean anything to Ichiro Suzuki when he was drafted in 1991.

Like all of the Orix Blue Wave’s picks, he was assigned a number. Ichiro just happened to get No. 51.

Saturday -- 34 years after his debut in Japan, six years after his final game, two weeks after becoming the first Japanese player enshrined in the Hall of Fame -- Ichiro walked onto the field from behind the center-field wall at T-Mobile Park, to the roar of a packed crowd. To his back was a banner draped over the batter’s eye, with his picture and the slogan “Simply the Best,” but the first two letters were replaced with a 51. He walked through the grass, splitting perfectly between the 5 and the 1 that had been manicured into the outfield. It was displayed along the first- and third-base lines, on th

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