This past Wednesday in the Miami
Marlins’ game against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park, Marlins’ outfielder
Ichiro Suzuki doubled in the ninth inning of San Diego’s relief pitcher
Fernando Rodney to collect his 2979 career hit in the Major Leagues. Combine that
with the 1278 hits he had in his seven years while playing pro ball in Japan
and that gives him 4257, which is one more than all-time MLB hit king Pete
Rose.
The baseball media would like
you to believe that Ichiro is now the all-time hits leader in professional
baseball, but that assumption would be completely false. Now, I’m not going to
take away from Ichiro’s accomplishments. I’ve been a fan of his since he came
into the game back in 2001. I’ve always admired his hitting ability. As a fan
(and a wannabe player) if I had my choice, I’d take 200 hits a year over 50
home runs anytime. Ten consecutive years of 200-plus hits, including a record
262 in 2004, as well as a lifetime batting average in MLB of .314 (give or take
a few points after his last game) is nothing to sneeze at.
In fact, if Ichiro is not a first-ballot Hall Of Fame inductee, it
would be a miscarriage of justice. However, to take what he did in Japan and
add it to what he did in the Majors and then try to say that he has more hits
than Pete Rose and should be recognized as the Hit King, well that’s just
ridiculous. And I’ll explain why in four points.
The first being combining hits of
two leagues. If you take Ichiro’s hits from the Nippon Baseball League and add
it to his MLB totals, then you would have to take Pete’s minor league hits
(427) and add them to his MLB hits, giving him a total of 4683 hits. And if you
do that, Ichiro has a long way to go.
Not only that, if you’re going to look at the combination of stats from
various professional leagues, you would have to do that with all records. MLB
would have to hire a few hundred statisticians and researchers to pour over all
stat sheets and box scores from the minor leagues in order to update the record
book. Sounds rather foolish doesn’t it?
Now you might be saying that the
Nippon Baseball League is superior to the minors, and you are probably right.
But to compare it to the calibre of play in MLB is ludicrous, which is my
second point. For example, Ichiro would have been hitting against inferior
pitching in Japan. And how many of his infield hits would have turned into
outs, given the higher quality of defensive ability of MLB players? And how
many of his extra base hits would have been run down by the likes of
outfielders such as Lorenzo Cain or Mike Trout? There’s a reason why Japanese
players have to prove themselves first in the Nippon League before getting a
shot in the Majors.
Let’s take a look at my third
point. If you want to put the NPL on par with MLB, then you would have to take
away Ichiro’s Rookie of the Year Award he won in 2001 at the age of 27, after
nine years of playing major pro ball in another league. After all, if the two
leagues are comparable and you want to include all stats, he isn’t a rookie in
2001 if he’s got nine years under his belt.
I hate to compare sports, but
that’s what the NHL did to Wayne Gretzky back in 1980. Since his first two
years of professional hockey were in the WHA, when the Edmonton Oilers joined
the NHL in 1979-80, Gretzky wasn’t considered a rookie due to his time in the
other league. The same would have to be applied to Ichiro.
Also, if you do it with one
record, you would have to do it with every baseball record. Barry Bonds would
no longer be the home run king, but rather Sadaharu Oh, who hit 868 home runs
in his 22 years playing in Japan.
I don’t believe Major League Baseball will change all the records, and I
doubt very much they will recognize Ichiro’s accomplishment as edging Pete Rose
off the Hit King throne. This is more a ploy by the media.
Which brings me to my fourth and final point: the Baseball Writers
Association of America, that band of merry fellows who have seen fit to
discredit any player they don’t think fits the image of baseball. This is just
another chance for them to diminish Pete Rose’s accomplishments. While MLB
stubbornly refuses to allow Rose back into baseball, the BBWAA could show some
support for him but they refuse to do so.
Rose’s gambling on baseball is a black mark on the game, or so they
tell us. But if you’re going to hero-worship a womanizing alcoholic (Babe Ruth)
or glorify the playing abilities of a racist (Ty Cobb), it smacks of hypocrisy,
then, to ostracize someone for something as simple as gambling on his own team
to win baseball games. But I digress.
Hats off to Ichiro for his outstanding career. I look forward to seeing
him get his 3000th Major League hit at some point this year. But that will
still be 1256 behind Pete Rose.
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