Japan celebrates Ichiro Suzuki collecting his 4257th kind of big league hit. I really wish Ichiro played his entire career in Major League Baseball. Since Japan does not have minor leagues, Ichiro spent his first two seasons mostly on the bench. In MLB, his obvious talent might have made him a full time player at 19 or 20, and given him a legitimate shot at the major league record for hits.
Ichiro, Pete Rose, and Ty Cobb all share the trait of putting the ball in play, trying to direct the ball, and using speed to eek out a few more hits. If some young player wants to break the hit record, that appears to be the way to go.
>Since Japan does not have minor leagues, Ichiro spent his first two seasons mostly on the bench.
That’s actually not true. Ichiro spent much of 1992 and 1993 playing for the farm team for the Orix BlueWave. He actually had an additional 156 hits playing for them. (Stats are here)
Ichiro’s biggest problem his first two seasons was that the Orix manager Shozo Doi didn’t think Ichiro could hit, despite the fact that he hit .366 his first year with the farm team and .371 his second. Akira Ohgi became the Orix manager in 1994 and decided that there was nothing wrong with Ichiro’s batting style. And the rest is history.
NPB Card Guy » Thanks for the claification. Sounds a little like Boston with Wade Boggs.
It has been fun seeing Pete Rose try to downplay the Japanese major leagues, like somehow hits their don’t count as much. For me, Ichiro has the record now.