FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Where to begin with Ichiro Suzuki? With how he’d appropriate his daily lunch of chicken wings from seven to five pieces, or vice versa, as needed to weigh 172 pounds?

How he’d put his ear to his bat and tap it with his finger for a harmonic sound only he heard to decide it was worthy?

Or, since he was in Cooperstown Wednesday as a newly elected Hall of Famer, the starting point to explain Ichiro could be the proper Hall of Fame story. He stood at his Miami Marlins locker in 2017 and told how he’d gone to the Baseball Hall of Fame on his own six times, alone and in awe, in a personal pilgrimage.

He studied the players, breathed baseball artifacts and appreciated the full museum right down to a piece of art on the wall called “The Dream.” It showed kids playing a pickup game in an open field as an outline of the Hall of Fame shimmers above the clouds. He saw himself as one of those kids once.

“It was a special painting,’’ he said through his interpreter.

It wasn’t for sale, he was told. So, he called the artist and commissioned him to paint a similar one. It hangs in his home, the dream complete.

This is a column in full praise of Ichiro. It wasn’t his three seasons with the Marlins that got him voted into the Hall of Fame. He was 41 when he arrived in 2015. He hit no better than the .291 in 2016. But he’s in the Hall because of everything you saw in those seasons.

He was proof of how talent and character go hand-in-hand on the path to excellence. He worked out on personal exercise machines that were stored in a trailer that first spring training, and other Marlins players watched him.

He kept his bats in a humidor because he felt any moisture affected the bat’s weight and, therefore, his swing. He polished cleats with a brush and rubbed his glove with oil in a manner big-league players left for clubhouse attendants.

“My tools have to be right,’’ he said.

Within the Marlins, there was consensus that Ichiro bore little relation to the standards they knew, and it changed them. Improved them.

“He made his teammates better,’’ then-Marlins president David Samson texted. “He made the front office better. It’s like you were in the orbit of another world of baseball player.”

That’s why on Tuesday, Samson was in Seattle, where Ichiro played most of his career, for the Hall of Fame announcement. It’s why Samson was flying to Cooperstown for Wednesday’s ceremony as he texted thoughts on Ichiro like this:

“When he got his 3,000th hit in Colorado with a triple, we were in the clubhouse toasting the accomplishment with the team, and I asked about whether he was trying to hit a home run,’’ Samson said. “He smiled and said being the second player ever to have a triple as 3,000th hit was exactly what he wanted.

“And he knew Paul Molitor was the other player. Truly incredible.”

The big question when Ichiro signed with the Marlins was if a seven-time Japanese batting champ, 10-time American League All-Star and AL Most Valuable Player winner would be content as a pinch hitter and fourth outfielder on a young team.

“Consider me young, too,’’ he said.

Three developing Marlins outfielders — Giancarlo Stanton, Pablo Ozuna, Christian Yelich — got a daily lesson in greatness. They also learned Japanese swear words. Ichiro had a healthy sense of humor that way.

“Nice shirt,’’ he’d say to Marlins in English in greeting.

Of course, he showed up his first day that first Marlins spring training in a bright T-shirt that the abundant Japanese media photographed and splashed across their papers. The second day, he showed up in a different T-shirt. His picture and new T-shirt became a daily thing in Japan until the 15th day.

“This is the last one,’’ he wrote on the back.

The funniest part is the Marlins or South Florida media knew nothing of until it was done. It’s something he did on his own, just for fun.

An older player can bless teams if done right. When Ichiro was a Marlin, Jaromir Jagr showed young Florida Panthers how to work. Just before that, Ray Allen had added a necessary element to the Miami Heat’s Big Three. The Dolphins got a similar story in Calais Campbell, at 38, this past season.

Samson said Ichiro was the only player he met who asked for a sample Marlins jersey beforehand. He wanted to make sure his cleats matched.

“I knew greatness was upon us,’’ Samson texted.

Greatness is in things big and small, you see. The Marlins saw it up close for three years. Cooperstown gets him now.

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