When Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese-born player to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he became the 22nd player born outside the United States (including Puerto Rico, which, though it is a U.S. territory, competes as its own entity in international competitions such as the World Baseball Classic) to join the exclusive fraternity of baseball royalty in Cooperstown.

• Ichiro Suzuki becomes first Asian-born MLB player in Hall of Fame

Here is a look at Ichiro and the other 21 players in this category, grouped by their country of origin. And just as Ichiro broke through for the nation of Japan this year, another great player currently on the Hall of Fame ballot -- Andruw Jones -- could very well do the same for Cura?ao in the years ahead.

Canada: Fergie Jenkins and Larry Walker
Jenkins, who hails from Chatham, Ontario, became the first Canadian-born Hall of Famer in 1991, the year before a Canadian team won the World Series for the first time (the Blue Jays won back-to-back titles in 1992 and ¡¯93). The right-hander, who was elected on his third ballot, was the 1971 National League Cy Young Award winner and posted a 3.34 ERA with 3,192 strikeouts over a 19-year MLB career spent with the Phillies, Cubs, Rangers and Red Sox.

Walker, a native of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, was elected to the Hall of Fame in his 10th and final year of eligibility in 2020, becoming the first Canadian-born position player to be inducted at Cooperstown. Over a 17-year Major League career in which he played for the Expos, Rockies and Cardinals, the right fielder hit .313/.400/.565 (141 OPS+) with 383 home runs and 230 steals. He was a five-time All-Star and a seven-time Gold Glove Award winner, as well as a three-time batting champion and the 1997 NL MVP.

Cuba: Martin Dihigo, Jos¨¦ M¨¦ndez, Minnie Miñoso, Tony Oliva, Tony Perez and Cristobal Torriente
Dihigo played in the Negro Leagues and in the Latin American winter leagues from 1923-45. A two-way star, the Cidra native led the Eastern Colored League with a .375 batting average, a .737 slugging percentage, a 1.212 OPS, 14 home runs and 3.6 bWAR over 43 games with the Cuban Stars East in 1926.

He was also a two-time All-Star with the New York Cubans. As a position player, he primarily played second base, though he could play all nine positions. As a pitcher, he had a 3.27 ERA over 17 seasons. He also managed the Cubans from 1935-36. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1977.

M¨¦ndez, who hailed from Cardenas, was also a two-way player who had a 20-year professional career in which he played seven in the Negro National League with the Kansas City Monarchs and 11 in the Cuban Winter League. Known as ¡°The Black Diamond,¡± he was a star on the mound, posting a 3.46 ERA in seven seasons with the Monarchs.

Considered to be ¡°the Jackie Robinson of Latin players,¡± Mi?oso became the first dark-skinned Latin player in AL/NL history when he debuted with Cleveland in 1949. His career would take off after he was traded to the White Sox early in the 1951 season. From 1951-57, the left fielder from Perico -- who sometimes played third base -- was a five-time All-Star, won the first of three career Gold Glove Awards and finished among the top four in AL MVP voting three times.

From there, Mi?oso played two more seasons with Cleveland before returning to the White Sox and playing a season each with the Cardinals and Washington Senators. He played one final season with Chicago before retiring, but he returned to baseball in 1976, appearing in three games at the age of 52. He played two more games for the Sox at age 56 in 1980. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2022.

Oliva, a native of PInar del Rio, was also elected to Cooperstown in 2022. During a 15-year career spent entirely with the Twins, the right fielder was the 1964 AL Rookie of the Year, an eight-time All-Star and a three-time batting champion.

P¨¦rez was a key member of the ¡°Big Red Machine¡± Reds of the mid-1970s. The corner infielder, who hails from Camaguey, was a seven-time All-Star and a two-time World Series champion with Cincinnati. Over a 23-year career in which he also played for the Expos, Red Sox and Phillies, he finished with a career .804 OPS and 379 home runs.

Torriente, who was born in Cienfuegos, was a five-tool center fielder who played for the Chicago American Giants, the Kansas City Monarchs, the Detroit Stars and the Louisville Black Caps of the Negro Leagues from 1920-32. He also played 13 seasons in the Cuban Winter League. In 1920, he led the Negro Leagues by hitting .411 while posting a 1.085 OPS. He led the Negro National League with a 1.079 OPS in 1924.

In 2006, Torriente was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame for a career that included a series in his native Cuba against Babe Ruth and other Major Leaguers in which he out-hit and out-homered the Colossus of Clout.

Dominican Republic: Adrian Beltré, Vladimir Guerrero, Juan Marichal, Pedro Martinez and David Ortiz
Beltr¨¦, a native of Santo Domingo, was a late bloomer, but when he emerged, he became one of the elite third basemen in the game. After making his Major League debut with the Dodgers in 1998 at age 19, he posted an .835 OPS with 20 home runs in 2000. In ¡¯04, he had a breakout campaign in which he smashed an MLB-leading 48 home runs and finished runner-up in NL MVP voting.

He spent the next 14 seasons with the Mariners, Red Sox and Rangers, finishing with 477 home runs and five Gold Glove Awards (two Platinum Glove Awards) for his stellar defense at the hot corner. With 95.1% of the vote, Beltr¨¦ was elected to the Hall of Fame on his first ballot in 2024.

Guerrero was signed by the Expos out of Nizao when he was 18, and within three years, he was in the big leagues. Over a 16-year career with the Expos, Angels, Rangers and Orioles, the right fielder was a nine-time All-Star, an eight-time Silver Slugger Award winner, the 2004 AL MVP and posted a .931 OPS with 449 home runs. A notorious bad-ball hitter with a cannon for an arm in the outfield, he was elected to Cooperstown on his second ballot in 2018.

Marichal became the first native of the Dominican to be elected to the Hall of Fame when the Baseball Writers¡¯ Association of America voted him in with 83% in 1983. The ¡°Dominican Dandy¡± dominated for the Giants in the 1960s -- he had a 2.57 ERA in that decade and earned nine of his 10 career All-Star selections, doing it all with his signature leg kick.

Following in the footsteps of Marichal, Martinez became one of the greatest starting pitchers of all-time with a tremendous run in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The diminutive right-hander was signed by the Expos out of Manoguayabo at age 16 in 1988. He made his MLB debut in 1992. By ¡¯97, he was one of the most dominant hurlers in the game, winning the first of three Cy Young Awards after posting a 1.90 ERA with 13 complete games.

Over the next eight seasons, Martinez led his league in ERA four times, strikeouts three times, WHIP five times and won back-to-back Cy Young honors in 1999 and 2000 with the Red Sox. In 2000, his 291 ERA+ was the highest in a single season among qualified starters in AL/NL history. He was elected to the Hall on his first ballot in 2015.

A teammate of Martinez¡¯s in Boston, Ortiz was one of the greatest sluggers and most clutch postseason performers in baseball history. After being released by the Twins and signed by the Red Sox following the 2002 season, ¡°Big Papi¡± rapidly rose to stardom. Over the next 14 seasons with Boston, the hulking slugger from Santo Domingo launched 483 home runs and was named an All-Star 10 times.

Ortiz helped lead the Red Sox to their first World Series championship in 86 years in ¡¯04, and then two more titles in ¡¯07 and ¡¯13. In ¡¯04, he was named AL Championship Series MVP in Boston¡¯s historic comeback from a 3-0 series deficit to the archrival Yankees. He was also the MVP of the 2013 World Series, in which he hit .688 with two homers.

Japan: Ichiro Suzuki
As the first position player to make the jump from Japan¡¯s Nippon Professional Baseball, there were a lot of expectations on the shoulders of Suzuki. And he not only lived up to them, but he surpassed them. In his 2001 rookie campaign with the Mariners, he became the second player in MLB history to win his league¡¯s Rookie of the Year Award and MVP Award in the same season (also Fred Lynn in 1975).

That season, Ichiro led the AL with a .350 batting average, 242 hits and 56 steals while posting an .838 OPS, earning the first of 10 straight All-Star selections and 10-straight Gold Glove Awards for his stellar defense in right field. The Nishi Kasugai-gun native set a single-season hits record with 262 in 2004, and he finished with 3,089 MLB hits during his illustrious career. He was elected to the Hall of Fame on his first ballot in 2025, missing a unanimous selection by one vote after paving the way for future stars like Hideki Matsui and Shohei Ohtani.

Netherlands: Bert Blyleven
Blyleven was born in Zeist before moving to California and being drafted by the Twins out of high school in 1969. He made his MLB debut just a year later, immediately becoming one of the best starters in the game. Through his first six seasons, he posted a 2.78 ERA and was selected as an All-Star in 1973.

Midway through the 1976 campaign, Blyleven was traded to the Rangers. Over the next eight seasons with Texas, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, the right-hander pitched to a 3.26 ERA in over 1,500 innings. In 1985, he was traded back to Minnesota, but led the Majors with 293 2/3 innings over which he had a 3.16 ERA and 24 complete games, finishing third in AL Cy Young Award voting.

Blyleven spent the next three seasons with the Twins before finishing his 22-year career with the Angels. In all, he had a 3.31 ERA and 3,701 strikeouts. He was voted into the Hall of Fame in 2011.

Panama: Rod Carew and Mariano Rivera
Carew, who hails from Gatun, was one of the best pure hitters to step in the batter¡¯s box. A master with the bat, he won seven batting titles over a 19-year career spent with the Twins and Angels. He was the 1967 AL Rookie of the Year, the 1977 AL MVP, an 18-time All-Star and finished with a career batting average of .328. He was elected to the Hall on his first ballot in 1991.

Rivera was a legendary closer from the dynastic Yankees of the late 1990s and early 2000s, racking up an MLB-record 652 saves and proving to be among the greatest postseason pitchers of all time. The Panama City native had a 2.21 ERA over 19 Major League seasons, utilizing a devastating cutter to baffle opposing hitters for nearly two decades.

He won five World Series rings with New York and was the MVP of the 1999 World Series and the 2003 ALCS. In 96 career postseason appearances, Rivera posted an incredible 0.70 ERA with 42 saves. He is the only player to be elected to the Hall of Fame unanimously, receiving all 425 votes in the BBWAA balloting in 2019.

Venezuela: Luis Aparicio
Aparicio was a brilliant defensive shortstop for the White Sox, Orioles and Red Sox over an 18-year big league career, winning nine Gold Glove Awards and earning 13 All-Star selections. The Maracaibo native was the 1956 AL Rookie of the Year and received MVP votes in 10 seasons, including a runner-up finish in ¡¯59.

He was also a major threat on the basepaths, leading the league in steals in each of his first nine seasons. That included over 50 steals in a season four times. Aparicio finished with 506 career steals and was inducted at Cooperstown in 1984.

Puerto Rico: Roberto Alomar, Orlando Cepeda, Roberto Clemente and Ivan Rodriguez
One of the best all-around players of his generation, Alomar shined defensively at second base, at the plate and on the basepaths during a 17-year MLB career. He played for the Padres, Blue Jays, Orioles and Cleveland before finishing his career with brief stints with the Mets, White Sox and D-backs.

Overall, Alomar was a 12-time All-Star, a 10-time Gold Glove Award winner, a two-time World Series champion (with Toronto in 1992 and ¡¯93) and the MVP of the 1992 ALCS. He was voted into the Hall of Fame in 2011.

Cepeda, known as the ¡°Baby Bull¡± during his 17-year career, was born in Ponce and signed by the New York Giants three years before the franchise relocated to San Francisco in 1958. The outfielder/first baseman debuted in the Majors in that year and won the NL Rookie of the Year Award. He earned an All-Star selection each year from 1959-64, finishing second in NL MVP voting after belting a league-leading 46 homers and driving in an MLB-best 142 runs in 1961.

Later in his career, Cepeda would play for the Cardinals, Braves, A¡¯s, Red Sox and Royals, winning the NL MVP Award and a World Series ring with St. Louis in 1967. He finished with a career OPS of .849 and 379 homers before being inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999.

Clemente is widely considered the greatest Puerto-Rican born player in baseball history. ¡°The Great One¡± hailed from Carolina and was signed from there by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1954. He was selected by the Pirates in the Rule 5 Draft later that year and debuted with Pittsburgh in ¡¯55. While it took a few seasons for Clemente to blossom, once he did, he became an all-time great.

From 1960 until his tragic death in a plane crash as he was delivering relief supplies to an earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua on Dec. 31, 1972, Clemente hit .329/.375/.503 with 214 home runs and 84.1 bWAR. He was the 1966 NL MVP, won four batting titles, was an All-Star in 12 of those 13 years, won 12 Gold Glove Awards in right field and the 1972 World Series MVP Award ¨C he hit .414 in that Fall Classic with two doubles, a triple and two homers en route to winning his second World Series ring.

Clemente collected his 3,000th career hit on the final day of the 1972 season, two months prior to his death. The five-year waiting period for Hall of Fame eligibility was waved in his case, and he was selected by special election for posthumous Hall of Fame induction in 1973.

Rodriguez, who was born in Manati, is counted among the elite catchers in MLB history. He was an All-Star and won a Gold Glove Award behind the plate in 10 consecutive seasons from 1992-2001, and he was the 1999 AL MVP.

After spending the first 12 seasons with the Rangers, Rodriguez played for the Marlins, Tigers, Yankees, Astros and Nationals. In 21 seasons, he belted 311 homers, was a 14-time All-Star and a 13-time Gold Glove Award winner. He was also the 2003 NLCS MVP with the Marlins and helped them win the World Series that fall. He was inducted at Cooperstown in 2017.