In August 2022, the Seattle Mariners inducted the legendary Ichiro Suzuki into the Mariners Hall of Fame.

With our in-park celebration and digital coverage, we turned the weekend-long celebration into an international event, with audiences from around the globe tuning in to the ceremonies, re-living Ichiro’s greatest moments and coming together to honor a sports icon.

We put a focus on getting fans involved throughout this historic weekend, both in-park and at home. We streamed the induction ceremony across our digital platforms, and shared bite-sized, digestible clips in real-time. We created custom videos including a special tribute video, congratulatory remarks from the game’s biggest stars, messages from Mariners fans, and even a special congrats from Ichiro’s beloved dogs.

With the intention of creating an international event, we aimed to make our content more accessible. We worked with MLB Japan to use dual captions – in English and Japanese – on many of our posts and collaborated with the @MLBJapan social handles.

In a callback to Ichiro’s most memorable interaction with a fan during his career, we invited Iris Skinner to throw out the first pitch. Skinner went viral in 2010 for her reaction when Ichiro leaned over her, attempting to catch a foul ball, and didn’t know Ichiro himself would be catching her first pitch this year. Her reaction this time went viral too, becoming our most-viewed video of the year.