TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Ichiro Suzuki, who becomes eligible next year for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, is already a familiar name at the Cooperstown, New York, museum, and part of its story of baseball's expanding global reach and evolution.

The hall, whose five inaugural members, including Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, were selected in 1936, expanded its membership to the Caribbean with Puerto Rico's Roberto Clemente in 1973.

There are currently six Hall of Famers from Cuba, five from the Dominican Republic, three from Puerto Rico, two each from Canada and Panama and one each from Venezuela and the Netherlands.

Suzuki, who recorded 10 consecutive 200-hit seasons and holds Major League Baseball's single-season hit record, is a strong candidate to be inducted when the results of the current ballot are announced Jan. 21.

If he is, he will be the first player in Cooperstown from Asia, although Japanese players are already well represented there.

Visitors are now greeted by a prominent display of two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani near the entrance.

The uniform he wore this year in his Los Angeles Dodgers debut in Seoul after signing a contract worth a then-record $700 million is there, along with the cap Ohtani hurled in the air when striking out Mike Trout to seal Japan's 2023 World Baseball Classic championship.

There is also a Hideo Nomo exhibit featuring a silhouette of his iconic tornado windup. Nomo led the National League with 236 strikeouts in his 1995 rookie of the year season, shattering a widely held perception that Japanese players could not compete in MLB.

Nomo, in turn, opened the door for Suzuki, who, throughout his career, has donated far more items than any other Japanese player, with over two dozen of his artifacts held by the museum.

Hall of Fame Director of Communications Craig Muder said that while Suzuki's contributions are not in the same ballpark as those of Hank Aaron or Lou Gehrig, he is "certainly in the top 10."

This is itself an achievement. Not only do donations require players' consent, but the items must also be objects the hall wants to obtain and pay to preserve.

The Hall of Fame now holds the Miami Marlins jersey Suzuki wore on June 15, 2016, when he had the 4,257th hit of a career straddling the Pacific, and surpassed Pete Rose for the most hits in the world's top-flight professional leagues.

"Generally speaking, we will look for one artifact per event," Muder said. "That's why we try to get the artifact that tells the best story about it. We only take about 25 percent of the pieces that are offered to us."

Other Suzuki items in Cooperstown include the spikes he wore when he broke the record, first set in 1920, for the most hits in a season, his Japan batting helmet from the 2006 WBC, a bat he used with his first pro club, the Orix BlueWave, and another from his 2001 American League rookie of the year and MVP season.

This last item, a slender black bat, is in sharp contrast to a short, thick one used by Cobb, who played a century earlier and held the record for career major league hits for decades.

Suzuki's defense, speed, and exceptional bat-to-ball skills marked him as a superstar unlike any American fans had seen since Cobb's heyday before Ruth's home run revolution transformed baseball in the 1920s.

Six years after Nomo changed minds about the ability of his countrymen to pitch in MLB, Suzuki proved Japanese could hit there as well.

Before ever playing in MLB, Suzuki batted .353 over nine seasons in Japan with three Pacific League MVP awards and seven straight batting titles.

On April 13, 2001, Suzuki, with the Seattle Mariners, and Anaheim Angels pitcher Shigetoshi Hasegawa became the first Japanese to compete against each other in an MLB game. The Hall of Fame now tells that story with a ball signed by both players.

"It was the beginning of a revolution," Muder said.

After a 19-year career and 3,089 MLB hits, Suzuki is now ready for the next step.

If he becomes the first Asian player in Cooperstown, it is almost certain Suzuki will not be the last, as others carry the torch further and lift baseball to yet unforeseen heights in the kinds of changes the Hall of Fame strives to document.

Just as Nomo and Suzuki transformed how MLB saw Japanese talent, Ohtani has taken it a step further. In the same way Ruth's home run power once did, Ohtani's ability to pitch and hit has changed perceptions of what humans are capable of on a ball field.

"Baseball is a game that transcends borders," Muder said. "There's no doubt about it. It always has and continues to."