A journalist takes a photo of a jersey (R) worn by Dodgers’ Japanese player Shohei Ohtani at the beginning of the current season, on display to the media before the start of a press conference on US-Japan baseball, at the US ambassador’s residence in Tokyo on April 18, 2024, while an image of former Japanese star player Ichiro Suzuki (C) is pictured on a television screen. Photo by RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP via Getty Images

The National Baseball Hall of Fame is planning a new Transpacific Baseball Exhibit that highlights the baseball relationship between the United States and Japan. The exhibition is scheduled to open in Cooperstown in July 2025, which coincides with when Ichiro Suzuki is expected to be inducted into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.

Some items in the exhibit will be on display at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Among them is something new from this year — a Dodgers jersey worn by Shohei Ohtani during the team’s first homestand at Dodger Stadium from March 28-April 3.

Also in the exhibit is a ball pitched by Hideo Nomo during his no-hitter for the Dodgers on September 17, 1996 at Coors Field in Denver.

How lucky was I to start my career in 1995 during Nomomania under the O’Malley family, who led the way in Japan in the 1950s?

Here, I’m sharing a ball from Nomo’s first no-hitter and a jersey the #Dodgers and Shohei Ohtani donated during his first homestand with the franchise. pic.twitter.com/LSNQSWWJ4e

— Josh Rawitch (@HOFprez) April 19, 2024

Pitchers Michael Crotta, Mitch Lively, and former Dodgers reliever Chris Martin were among the American players who spoke with Tim Keown at ESPN about their time with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan, and how Ippei Mizuhara helped them and others during his five years (2013-17) with the team:

American players arriving in Japan for the first time were often insulated and vulnerable. The broad range of services required from an interpreter shows how a person entrusted with the responsibility can facilitate — or infiltrate — the life of a player dependent on his language skills.

“He was my lifeline over there,” Lively says. “The translators are literally an extension of you. You don’t have a means of communicating, no means of filling out paperwork. You can’t live without them, and I looked at them as my friends, not team employees.”

Dodgers prospect Zyhir Hope, a 19-year-old outfielder at Low-A Rancho Cucamonga, was discussed by Ben Badler at Baseball America on a podcast Friday about minor leaguers off to strong starts this season.

Davy Andrews at FanGraphs dove deep into one of the most important questions of our time — how many times have major league players heard the song ‘Centerfield’ by John Fogerty during their lifetimes?