Quote Originally Posted by mr.miracle View Post
Has anyone ever been told exactly why Ichiro is allowed to have his first name on the back nameplate of his jersey's? Nobody else is allowed to do this as the back should say Suzuki. It seems that MLB is setting a double standard here. I was told that it was done to placate the Japenese ownership of the Mariners as well as the Japense people in general in order to keep their interest high in both Ichiro and baseball here in the states in general.
i believe that you are correct in the fact that it is to placate the Japanese people. according to wikipedia- "It was during the 1994 season that he began to use his given name, "Ichiro" instead of his family name, "Suzuki" on the back of his uniform. Suzuki is the second most common family name in Japan, and his manager introduced the idea as a publicity stunt to help create a new image for what had been a relatively weak team, as well as a way to distinguish their rising star. Initially, Ichiro disliked the practice and was embarrassed by it; "Ichiro" was a household name by the end of the season and he was flooded with endorsement offers." so basically the mlb has let him use ichiro instead of suzuki because it is most likely in the best interest of the league to not mess with a good thing.