Today is a great day for baseball. Ichiro Suzuki got his
4000th hit in professional baseball (1,278 in Japan's Pacific League and 2,722 in the American League of Major League Baseball). He's now in a class with Ty Cobb (4,191 hits) and Pete Rose (4,256 hits). In classic Ichiro style he demurred on the achievement:
“[Mine] is a record that is from two leagues,” Ichiro
told reporters before last night’s game. “Those guys did it in
one league. I don’t think you have to put me in that same
category as them.”
Being congratulated by his teammates and manager, Joe Girardi.
Acknowledging the cheers of the crowd.
Ichiro is not only a great baseball player, but a man of character with true class.
2 comments:
Erm...rilly?
Japanese hits? Isn't that like including Double-A hits? AAA?
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I see where you're coming from, OG. And, of course, this is not an official MLB record. But, for me Ichiro is one of major league baseball's greatest hitters, and this is something to be celebrated. So, I am. Heh.
The following stats lead me to think Ichiro would have done just as good had he done all his hitting in the MLB. But, we'll never know for sure.
1. At least 240 hits in one season. Ichiro comes in number 1 (262)--breaking the record set by George Sisler in 1920 (257). He's also number 10 on the list with 242. George Sisler is the only other player who appears twice on the list (at number 2 and number 9).
2. Ichiro is tied with Rogers Hornsby for number 2 on the list of players with most 215+ hit seasons. He and Hornsby had 5 seasons. Paul Waner is in first place with 7 seasons.
3. Ichiro is tied with Pete Rose in first place for number of seasons with 200+ hits (10). Pete Rose's are in 5 groupings of seasons; Ichiro's are consecutive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_major_league_baseball_hit_records
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