Ichiro Suzuki (Pool photo)

       OSAKA (Kyodo) -- Ichiro Suzuki, who spent a few days coaching the Chiben Wakayama High School baseball team in December, offered his congratulations after the team won its third national summer championship on Sunday.

       The 47-year-old Suzuki, who amassed 4,367 hits in top-flight pro baseball in Japan and the major leagues, retired in March 2019. In February 2020, Suzuki completed the course of study needed for former pros to coach amateur high school and college players in Japan.

       "When I first visited the Chiben Wakayama High School ground, I felt it was a team that truly aspired to be No. 1 in Japan," Suzuki said in a comment. "In order to do that, I think they have kept up with their hard practices and dealt with frustration."

       Suzuki praised the team for bouncing back after failing to qualify for the spring invitational tournament, the other major high school event held each year at historic Koshien Stadium.

       "From the depths of not qualifying for the spring invitational you have managed to ascend to the pinnacle to achieve what you really desired, to be No. 1 in Japan, and in so doing have taught me once more how exciting baseball is."

       The team's manager, former pro catcher Jin Nakatani, said, "It's simply amazing that a high school player who is really pursuing that goal of a national title could meet a superstar and receive instruction from him."

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