In 1994, Ōgi Akira replaced Doi Shōzō as manager of the Orix baseball team. Ōgi saw a young player of the farm team, Suzuki Ichirō, moved him up to the first team at once and had him bat second. That year, the player changed his registered name to Ichirō. With his own style, the furiko dahō, pendulum batting, he finished with 210 hits, the first season of 200 hits in the history of Japanese professional baseball.
Under Doi, according to one account found in a single source, the young player had been told: “If you do not change that way of batting, I will not use you on the first team.”