Baseball: Japan Hails Ichiro's 3,000-hit Feat

TOKYO, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Augst,2016) - Japan on Monday celebrated after the baseball star Ichiro Suzuki became the 30th member of Major League Baseball's elite 3,000-hit club, with growing hopes he will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame. Television footage showed businessmen and shoppers flocking at an Osaka railway station in western Japan to grab "extra" editions published by the mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun with a headline saying: "Ichiro marks 3,000 hits in USA." Public broadcaster NHK sent a news flash immediately after the 42-year-old Miami Marlins centre fielder blasted a triple in the seventh inning against the Colorado Rockies as the Marlins won 10-7 on Sunday in Denver.

"It was a long-awaited moment for all of Japan as well as the United States," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters. "I want to heartily express my congratulations on his achievement of the brilliant record in the Japanese and US baseball world," the top government spokesman said. The Saga Shimbun, a local newspaper in southwestern Japan, also issued an online extra edition, saying: "He is certain to get into the Baseball Hall of Fame."