Ichiro

[TheEdge07]

Why are we celebrating 4000 hits when he only has over 2700 in the majors?When did mlb baseball start counting Japan stats?

[TheEdge07]

Why are we celebrating 4000 hits when he only has over 2700 in the majors?When did mlb baseball start counting Japan stats?

How can he win rookie of the year with 1300 from Japan?Thta would discount the 1300 hits from Japan cant have both..

[Marshall Bennett]

Why are we celebrating 4000 hits when he only has over 2700 in the majors?When did mlb baseball start counting Japan stats?
MLB doesn't count them and believe for the most part only the media is celebrating.

[Ocala Mike]

Exactly; it's media hype. In their defense, I think that every time I've heard the stat mentioned on MLB, ESPN, etc., they always qualify it by saying 4,000 hits in "professional" baseball.

[highnote]

Hands down, Pete Rose is the best. Not even close.

Pete Rose had 4,256 hits and Ty Cobb hat 4,191. According to media reports they are the only two players that have reached the number solely in the major leagues.

Ty Cobb should have an asterisk by his record. The league was not integrated when he played. Would love to know what his record would have been had he faced the likes of Satchel Paige or CC Sabathia on a nightly basis.

About half of Ichiro's hits came in Japan -- which would be like Ty Cobb playing in a segregated league. Ichiro is 59th on MLB all time hit list. Compare that to Jeter who is 11th.

[Valuist]

Who's celebrating? The guy is a great player and will be in the HoF but let's not kid ourselves thinking the competition level in Japan is on a par with the AL or NL.

[TheEdge07]

Hands down, Pete Rose is the best. Not even close.

Pete Rose had 4,256 hits and Ty Cobb hat 4,191. According to media reports they are the only two players that have reached the number solely in the major leagues.

Ty Cobb should have an asterisk by his record. The league was not integrated when he played. Would love to know what his record would have been had he faced the likes of Satchel Paige or CC Sabathia on a nightly basis.

About half of Ichiro's hits came in Japan -- which would be like Ty Cobb playing in a segregated league. Ichiro is 59th on MLB all time hit list. Compare that to Jeter who is 11th.

Petey also had the most at bats

several hitters better then Pete.

Carew
Gwynn
Boggs
Willliams

[Marshall Bennett]

Rod Carew had an eye for the ball as good as any hitter to play the game.

[Stillriledup]

Ichiro was 27 or 28 years old before he had even ONE MLB hit. He's less than 300 away from 3,000. THAT is the accomplishment we need to be talking about.

[highnote]

That's a good point, but it also says a lot that he was able to get the most at bats!

By the way, are you talking at bats or plate appearances? Maybe hits per plate appearance is the one stat that would allow a fair comparison of actual ability?


Carew was great. Ted Williams was no slouch, either. :)

Petey also had the most at bats

several hitters better then Pete.

Carew
Gwynn
Boggs
Willliams

[andtheyreoff]

Carew was great. Ted Williams was no slouch, either. :)

Well, according to you, we can't count Ted Williams' stats, considering baseball wasn't integrated for part of his career.

Might as well throw out Ruth, Gehrig, Johnson, Wagner, etc. as well.

[highnote]

Well, according to you, we can't count Ted Williams' stats, considering baseball wasn't integrated for part of his career.

Might as well throw out Ruth, Gehrig, Johnson, Wagner, etc. as well.


Not saying we shouldn't count them. Saying they should have asterisks by their names. Or the records should be broken into eras -- before Jackie Robinson and after.

If players benefit from PEDs, surely they benefitted from playing against weaker competition.

Ruth might have hit many fewer homers against today's pitchers.

Did Ruth ever face Satchel Paige when Paige was in his prime?

[jballscalls]

Loved watching Ichiro when he played in Seattle.

about 44 seconds in here you get a clip of one of my favorite throws he ever made, nailing Terence Long at third.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYAxk01E404

[cj]

Anybody think he would have racked up 4,000 hits had he played in MLB his entire career? I know I do.

[TheEdge07]

Anybody think he would have racked up 4,000 hits had he played in MLB his entire career? I know I do.

Agree

[Ocala Mike]

I found this about Satchel Paige from MLB; key word is "allegedly":

"He did get to play against major-league talent, though, competing in a winter league in California for elite black and white baseball players. He allegedly struck out Babe Ruth four times."

[Stillriledup]

Anybody think he would have racked up 4,000 hits had he played in MLB his entire career? I know I do.

Even if you say that 1200 Japanese hits are equivalent to 900 MLB hits, he will still easily eclipse 4,000 even if you translate 1200 down to 900. I think its closer than that, its not like he was getting hits off minor league pitching, those pitchers are good, his 1200 Japan hits is fairly equivalent to 1200 MLB hits so yeah, 4,000 is something he would have reached without much of a problem, i agree with you.