Ichiro Suzuki wants to play until he’s 50

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Ichiro Suzuki is 43 years old. He's the oldest position player in Major League Baseball, and the second-oldest among active players, behind only the Braves' Bartolo Colon. That's not nearly old enough for Ichiro to be impressed with: He recently said that he wants to play until he's 50 years old, and he assured his interviewer that he wasn't joking about that.

As is, Ichiro has already somehow played for 16 years in MLB despite not even joining a team there until he was already 27 years old. He began his professional career in Nippon Professional Baseball at 18, amassed 1,278 hits, then headed to the Mariners to begin one of the greatest careers in MLB history. And the fact that that’s not nearly enough for Ichiro is either sad or inspiring, depending on how you approach things.

The sad part is Ichiro not being able to even fathom what retirement is like, and suggesting "I'll just die" once he's done playing baseball. Like, it's a great line and a better headline, but also, hey wait a second, Ichiro, life isn't all work, you know. We need to find Ichiro some extracurricular activities. He doesnt' want to be on the couch, so they need to be active, probably outdoorsy. We've got seven years, everyone: He's not planning on retiring until 50. We can figure this out for the sake of one of our favorites.

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