Almost everything about the scene was familiar. Ichiro Suzuki squatted in the batting circle at Safeco Field, performing an elegant series of stretches that have become as familiar and ritualistic to Mariners fans as they are to him. The problem was his uniform, which was that of the New York Yankees. Despite the sight and even though the trade that carried him to the rival Yankees had only been announced hours earlier, Mariners fans gave their Japanese batting champion a standing ovation.

Ichiro, graceful as ever, bowed deeply to the stands, an honorable farewell to the team that had been his home for the nearly 12 years and a bittersweet end to the Ichiro era in Seattle.

It’s difficult to understate the impact of Ichiro on the Mariners, Major League Baseball (MLB), and the Japanese major league, Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Before his 2001 debut, no position player had ever made the transpacific leap from NPB to MLB. Though pitchers, most notably Hideo Nomo, had been in the league since 1965, few believed NPB position players could hit as well as their western counterparts.

It is fitting that Ichiro would be the player to defy those expectations. His first manager with the Orix Blue Wave didn’t like his unorthodox batting stance and kept him in the minors, but Ichiro refused to change. A new manager gave him a shot in 1994, and he burst onto the scene as a 20-year-old, hitting .385 and setting a NPB record with 210 hits in just 130 games. He won the first of seven straight Gold Gloves, seven consecutive All-Star selections, and three straight MVP awards, piling up 1,278 hits and a .353 average in his seven seasons in Japan.

Many questioned Seattle’s decision to pay $27 million for Ichiro, adding his size and lack of power to the usual stereotypes about Japanese players. Ichiro answered those critics with a debut season for the ages, becoming just the second MLB player ever to win both the Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year awards. His 242 hits, the most by any player in one season since 1930, surpassed Shoeless Joe Jackson’s rookie record of 233, set in 1911. With his .350 average, Ichiro became just the second rookie ever to win a batting crown, and his 56 steals were also tops in the league.

In that same season, the Mariners won 116 games and the American League West, but lost to the Yankees in the league championship, denying Ichiro the perfect ending to a storybook season. Many expected him to return to the playoffs again, but it would be his only taste of the postseason in a Mariners uniform. This lack of success could not, however, be blamed on Ichiro, who continued to pile up records in a career that appears destined for the Hall of Fame.

The year 2001 was the first of 10 straight seasons with more than 200 hits for Ichiro, breaking a record set by Wee Willie Keeler, and the first of eight consecutive seasons with more than 200 hits and 100 runs scored, a record he shares with Lou Gehrig. Ichiro has led the league in hits seven times, joining Ty Cobb and Pete Rose in that category. Keeler, Gehrig, and Cobb are all in the Hall of Fame, and only Pete Rose’s baseball gambling prevents him from joining them. Since the legendary .405 season of Ted Williams in 1941, six other players have hit for a better season average than Ichiro’s 2004 mark of .372. Three of those players, plus Williams, are in the Hall of Fame.

Except for a World Series ring, the last barrier preventing Ichiro from becoming the first Japan-born player in the Hall of Fame is the 3,000-hit plateau. Besides Rose and Rafael Palmeiro (whose legacy is tainted by steroids), every eligible player with 3,000 hits is a Hall of Famer. Until 2011, Ichiro seemed a lock to reach that mark, too. He’d collected 2,030 hits during the 2000s, more than anyone else, even though he didn’t play in 2000. By age 36, Ichiro had 2,244. If he maintained his 200-hit pace, he would reach 3,000 hits at age 40. That’s old for a ballplayer, but Ichiro had shown no signs of decline in his game, age-related or otherwise.

Until 2011. Last season, Ichiro hit below .300 and collected fewer than 200 hits, both for the first time. Some whispered he’d lost a step, but it could easily have been the challenge of playing for a losing team. In Ichiro’s 11 seasons with the team, the Mariners finished dead last six times, third place twice, and lost more than 90 games five times.

And so, despite the difficulty in seeing him in pinstripes, Mariners fans realize that the perennial contender Yankees may be Ichiro’s best path to a ring. If he re-signs with the Yankees, or a similarly talented team, next season, the lineup around him might allow him to revitalize his hitting instincts and reach 3,000 hits to pave a sure, and much deserved, path to the Hall of Fame.

Asian-American sports fans can thank Ichiro for proving that Japanese NPB players could not only survive, but thrive, in Major League Baseball. Since 2001, 10 other NPB players have come across the Pacific to play in the majors. Three have earned World Series rings, and one — Hideki Matsui — also won the 2010 World Series MVP. Without Ichiro’s success, few of them would have gotten a chance to play in the U.S.

Some fans may complain at the low price New York paid during the trade or the price Seattle paid for Ichiro during his time with the club. Others may blame him for not lifting his teammates to victory, instead of the other way around. But true Mariners fans, along with true baseball fans everywhere, wish Ichiro the best with his new team. We will never again see his equal, the graceful and modest man who proved that baseball talent doesn’t care on which side of the Pacific you were born.