Ichiro: 'All my stuff' will go to Cooperstown when I die

Five years after Ichiro Suzuki retires - which isn't imminent, by the way; he has talked about playing until he's 50 - the inimitable Japanese star will assume his rightful place in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

When he does decide to call it quits, Suzuki will take some time to cherish the memorabilia he accrued throughout his illustrious career - his first MLB hit, for instance, and his 262nd hit from his record-setting 2004 campaign - but, he said, that stuff will eventually end up in Cooperstown, too.

"We have this understanding," the Miami Marlins veteran told Bob Nightengale of USA Today. "When I die, all my stuff will go to (president) Jeff (Idelson) and the Hall of Fame. Maybe Jeff will be dead before me, but we have this understanding it will all go to the Hall of Fame."

For now, though, Ichiro is too busy padding his Hall-of-Fame resume to seriously reflect. Heading into the 2016 campaign, his 16th in the big leagues, the 42-year-old sat 65 hits shy of 3,000 for his MLB career. Some were skeptical, after watching the former MVP hit just .229 last year, that he'd be able to get it. Turns out he might do it before the All-Star break.

With another three-hit performance Monday in San Diego - his fourth multi-hit effort in as many starts - Ichiro boasts a .350 average through 53 games this year and remains just 23 hits shy of the illustrious 3,000 mark. Including the 1,278 hits he accrued in Japan, Ichiro is just one base knock shy of tying Pete Rose's all-time record of 4,256, too.

Though Rose himself doesn't put much weight into Ichiro's accomplishments in Nippon Professional Baseball, Idelson emphatically stated that the Hall of Fame will recognize Ichiro when he owns the all-time record for hits as a professional baseball player.

"Absolutely we will," Idelson said. "Four thousand, two-hundred and fifty-six hits in any league is out of this galaxy in terms of difficulty. It's a ridiculous amount of hits, and the fact that he did it in Japan and the major leagues has its own set of challenges different from the ones that Pete faces. Acclimating to this culture is a challenge of itself."

Seemingly, once he collects his 3,000th hit, Ichiro will have accomplished everything one can reasonably accomplish in baseball outside of winning a World Series. He was an MVP. He was an All-Star 10 times and won 10 Gold Glove awards, too. Seven times, he led the American League in hits. In 2004, he stole more bases than every other MLB player. Among Japanese-born players to make the jump to the big leagues, Ichiro has no rival.

He's still hungry, though.

"To me, I look at it as, 'What have I done?'" Suzuki said. "Obviously, people can argue and say what about the 262 hits, and the two batting titles I have, but I still think I can do more and want to do more, because I think I can. That feeling eats at me more than anything else."