OT - Ichiro has 3,000 hits
No love for 3,000 hits? I know it’s old news (Aug 7th)*, but we did get an A-Rod retirement thread on that day. I went back 7 pages looking for an Ichiro post and was surprised no one posted anything.
Ichiro is now one of 30 MLB players with 3,000 hits. Pretty cool that the 42 year old legged out a triple on his 3,000th hit. Ichiro and Rose are the only players with 3,000 hits in their first 16 seasons and he is tied with Rose for most 200 hit seasons (10). He started his “rookie” season as a 27 year old helped usher in the influx of Asian position players.
IMHO - Class act player with a beautiful swing and sure to be in the HOF. His jersey, cleats, arm guard and batting gloves he wore when he hit #3,000 were sent to the HOF.
My cool story – I met (briefly) his parents and wife after a Braves game last summer.
* I’ve been busy and neglected this blog recently. SIAP - I looked!
August 11th, 2016 at 10:20 AM ^
Cool story bro...more so since he started out at the "old" age of 27
August 11th, 2016 at 11:09 AM ^
he has been here 16 years and still cant speak to anyone without an interpreter.... he didnt even try to lean the language.... been kind of a prima donna....
August 11th, 2016 at 11:15 AM ^
Actually, he does know English, and in fact very well. He uses an interpreter because he is self-conscious about making a mistake while speaking. At least all the times I've heard him without an interpreter he sounded just fine.
August 11th, 2016 at 12:21 PM ^
I lived in Japan for quite awhile... that's most Japanese people actually. I was up north in Aomori but when I made it to the central parts of the country, most everyone there speaks English. They are just reserved about using it.
The grammar is quite different than Germanic languages... there's special rules for possessives, the subject is always at the END of what's considered a "sentence", counting (and cardinality) has dozens of rules -- for example, a different numerical modifier is used when referring to something short and fat shaped than would be used with say something long and thin shaped... I could go on and on.
The one thing which is easier about Japanese than English is Japanese is purely a phonetic language. It doesn't matter if the Roman spelling of a Japanese word is five miles long... just break it up into consonant/vowel pairs, consonant/vowel pairs, consonant/vowel pairs, and so on and it's impossible to mispronounce a word unless you're just not trying at all.
@Butch-dontcallm... is being a little harsh.
I was afraid to speak Japanese too for fear of messing it up... and I did badly one time. I took my pup to the vet for being sick and instead of saying the dog had the runs, I said I had diarrhea... the receptionist shrieked and ran to the back. Fortunately the vet was Western educated and we had a good laugh about it.
August 11th, 2016 at 11:23 AM ^
Is that you, Todd Grisham?
Ichiro can in fact, speak english. His pre-All-Star-Game pump up speeches (laced with profanity) are the stuff of legend. And he even took the time to learn spanish, which he speaks on the field to his hispanic teammates.
August 11th, 2016 at 12:46 PM ^
"he didnt even try to lean the language"
August 11th, 2016 at 10:15 AM ^
water is wet
August 11th, 2016 at 10:16 AM ^
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August 11th, 2016 at 10:58 AM ^
so do 29 other players.
August 11th, 2016 at 10:17 AM ^
Charlie Hustle is banned from baseball.
August 11th, 2016 at 10:17 AM ^
August 11th, 2016 at 10:19 AM ^
August 11th, 2016 at 10:49 AM ^
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August 11th, 2016 at 11:00 AM ^
are more than what Rose has. Pete's response: "so what, we are talking about MLB hits. Are we going to count high school, too." And then his obligatory "I'm the Hit King" reminder.
August 11th, 2016 at 11:25 AM ^
Pete Rose hit about as well as a High Schooler at the end of the career while he was trying to beat Cobb's record. On a team he managed and gave out the at-bats.
August 11th, 2016 at 12:49 PM ^
He became a full-time MVP level player with Orix at age 20. ... I imagine out here he would have landed in the Show at 22 at the latest.
Honestly, if Bryce Harper could handle playing 139 games in the bigs at 19, I'm thinking so could've Suzuki. ...
August 11th, 2016 at 10:22 AM ^
Can't imagine what his numbers would be if he started in MLB. One of the all time greats.
August 11th, 2016 at 10:23 AM ^
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/suzukic01.shtml?mobile=false
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August 11th, 2016 at 10:23 AM ^
Fun fact:
The only other MLB player with 3,000 hits to reach that particular plateau with a triple is Paul Molitor, who did it back in 1996. The two most recent players to achieve this are, perhaps not shockingly, Alex Rodriguez (last year) and Derek Jeter (2011), both with home runs.
August 11th, 2016 at 11:30 AM ^
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August 11th, 2016 at 10:25 AM ^
As a major leaguer he sure was under appreciated. But I think fans have been conditioned to ignore pure volume batters. Very Ty Cobb like (who played in the dead ball era). Not a ton of power but always hit for a very solid %. Congrats to Ichiro.
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August 11th, 2016 at 10:29 AM ^
4,300-ish total if you count NPB hits, as well.
August 11th, 2016 at 10:50 AM ^
Yeah. Reportedly Charlie Hustle flipped his shit at the notion counting Ichiro's NPB hits to the MLB total.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/bob-nightengale/2016/06/…
August 11th, 2016 at 10:33 AM ^
August 11th, 2016 at 12:37 PM ^
The hits numbers, side by side from ages 22 and up, are remarkably similar in scale.
"... it is reasonable to argue that pitchers Ichiro faced in Japan from 1992-2000 were better than those Rose saw in the Majors in the early 1960s."
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/06/ichiro-suzuki-4256-pete-rose-hits-japan-mlb-npb
After Ichiro left the Orix Blue Wave (as a 4-time league MVP) and became a 27 yo Mariners rookie, he smacked a whopping 242 hits with Seattle and won the AL MVP. He then hit 208 hits at 28; 212 at 29; 262 at 30.
Rose, at 27 with the '68 Reds, had 210 hits. Then 218 at 28, 205 at 29, then 192 at 30 ...
Which leads me to believe that Ichiro's 153 hits in his final season with Orix (in a 144 game season) is likely similar to what he would have recorded if playing with Seattle instead. He hit 141 in Japan in 1999. 181 in 1998. 185 in 1997. 193 as a 22-year-old.
I believe Itchy Balls would have broken Rose's record straight-up had he played here his entire career.
August 11th, 2016 at 2:21 PM ^
August 11th, 2016 at 6:54 PM ^
It was one of his rookie-year nicknames given by Seattle teammates, I remember ...
August 11th, 2016 at 11:03 AM ^
Calling Ichiro a pure volume hitter is fair, but that makes him much more like Rose than Cobb. Cobb led the league in HR once and finished in the top 10 on 10 other occasions. He is also 4th all-time in number of seasons leading the league in slugging percentage with 8, including 6 in a row. 4th all-time in doubles, 2nd in triples. Not exactly a pure singles hitter.
August 11th, 2016 at 11:21 AM ^
Every single HR Cobb hit in 1909 (the year he led the league) were inside-the-park home runs due to ballpark dimensions. Ichiro is a very similar hitter regarding power, as Cobb was nothing like a power hitter.
August 11th, 2016 at 2:55 PM ^
Without seeing Cobb's hits it's hard to say he was nothing like a power hitter because all his home runs were inside the park home runs. Most ballparks in the early 1900s had huge dimensions and very few players hit the ball out of the park. Before the Cubs moved to Wrigley, their ballpark was 560' to center. Before the Red Sox moved to Fenway it was 635' to center at their old park. In the early 1900s Tiger Stadium, then Briggs Stadium, was 467' to center.
Without seeing his hits it's hard to know whether he was hitting worm burners that rolled forever or ripping the ball 300'+ .
August 11th, 2016 at 4:20 PM ^
is second all time in doubles with 746. Ichiro has 351.
Triples is hard to compare because the game is so different now than when Cobb played. The career leaders in triples is made up almost exclusively of players who played in the 1800s and early 1900s. The only 'modern' day players that I recognize ahead of Rose in career triples are: Musial, Mays, Willie Wilson, George Brett, Lou Brock and Roberto Clemente. Musial has the most of those guys and he barely cracks the Top 20.
Agree on Cobb though. HRs were so rare in his time that his power numbers are usually overlooked due to what he did with his batting average.
August 11th, 2016 at 10:29 AM ^
I wouldnt call ichiro's swing beautiful. Its just highly effective which is as intended. Ill give him credit in that he perfected the style like no other japanese player
August 11th, 2016 at 10:55 AM ^
his hands, hips, and bat are in perfect postion.
August 11th, 2016 at 10:36 AM ^
...is the fact that Ichiro hates Cleveland.
“To tell the truth, I’m not excited to go to Cleveland, but we have to,” Ichiro said. “If I ever saw myself saying I’m excited going to Cleveland, I’d punch myself in the face, because I’m lying.”
August 11th, 2016 at 10:59 AM ^
August 11th, 2016 at 11:54 AM ^
I think MGrowOld likes Cleveland.
August 11th, 2016 at 10:50 AM ^
There's a local connection to his 3,000th hit as well. The pitcher who gave up that hit is Chris Rusin who played at Dearborn Divine Child back in the mid 2000's
August 11th, 2016 at 11:04 AM ^
There's a Barry Bonds interview (remember him?) floating around where he says Ichiro smacks em out of the park like nobody's business in batting practice all the time. BB himself says Ichiro would easily win the all star game home run contest if he tried.
http://deadspin.com/barry-bonds-says-ichiro-could-win-the-home-run-derb…
August 11th, 2016 at 11:23 AM ^
August 11th, 2016 at 12:19 PM ^
There's nobody in the game with more respect for the game, better focus, or better preparation. Read Ichiro on Ichiro sometime or just google how he considers his bats sacred.
August 11th, 2016 at 2:49 PM ^
I was at the game he hit 2,999 and was out by a half step in that game for 3,000. We were calling for him to look at us in right field, but he was all business.
August 11th, 2016 at 3:01 PM ^
August 11th, 2016 at 11:14 PM ^
Good Lord... just stop.
August 11th, 2016 at 3:55 PM ^
August 11th, 2016 at 3:55 PM ^
August 11th, 2016 at 3:59 PM ^
and one hell of a player over the last 16 years. Still playing the game at a very high level for a guy that is almost 43 years old. Congrats to him for #3000