Crazy Thought of the Day: Ichiro is Not the Hits Leader
Congratulations need to go out to Ichiro Suzuki for continued greatness while here in the states. Not many Japanese baseball players have been able to successfully make the transition from Japan to MLB, and especially have sustained success.
The American game had a way of humbling even the best Japanese players, but Ichiro excelled here, immediately. He was the rookie of the year after slashing .350/.381/.457 with 242 hits, and by the way, he added 59 stolen bases.
He would hit .300 or better for the first 10 years of his MLB career, collecting more than 200 hits in each of those seasons. In 2004 alone, he collected 262 hits on his way to hitting .372. During his 16 year MLB career he has compiled 2,979 hits, and will (barring injury) surpass the magical 3,000 hit mark in 2016 – as a 42 year old.
But that’s not all Ichiro has been. He won 10 consecutive Gold Glove Awards, collected an MVP in his rookie season, swiped 500 stolen bases, and gained a reputation as someone you never even think about taking an extra base on. But not only that, if he wanted to hit 30 home runs per season, he could have been that guy as well. Many would tell stories on how Ichiro would belt home runs into the upper deck, one after another, during batting practice. He chose, and smartly so, to remain the contact hitter that will eventually earn him a first ballot entry into the Hall of Fame.
What Ichiro isn’t…
He is NOT the all-time hits leader. In no way, shape, or form is he the record holder for hits. That title belongs to Pete Rose, regardless of how hard some want to take it away.
Do you remember the saying in school, “a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle isn’t a square?” Well that is how I feel about the differences between MLB and Japanese baseball. Sure there are phenomenal players in Japan. Sure some can play at a high level here in the states. It is just very far and very few between. Outside of Ichiro and Hideki Matsui, the list of the best Japanese players is very thin. And not for the lack of trying.
There have been a total of 54 Japanese players to come to play in the MLB, currently there are only nine on a big league roster. While those that are active have shown that they are quality big league players, the vast majority of Japanese players do not last very long state-side. Some of this can be attributed to Japanese players coming here after already playing several big league seasons, but most of this is attributed to the American game just being far superior to any other league on the planet.
This isn’t a knock on Japan, or their baseball leagues. But it tells you something when high level prospects that didn’t pan out in America all of a sudden become superstars when playing in Japan.
Case in point, Wladimir Balentien.
Balentien was supposed to be a great power hitter for years, playing alongside Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, and Jay Bruce. He was a top 10 prospect in baseball, and allow fans sitting 450 feet away a chance for a souvenir nightly. But his perplexity to swing at bad pitches out of the zone kept him to a .221/.281/.374 slash line, and after three seasons in Cincinnati he found himself out of baseball.
So like any young talented player would do, he looked for a way to continue to play the game, which is when Japan came calling. Just four years after leaving MLB, Balentien became the new single season HR leader in Japan.
Balentien isn’t the only example. One of Chicago Cubs fans greatest goto stories, Tuffy Rhodes. Tuffy memorably hit three Opening Day home runs off of New York Mets great, Doc Gooden back in 1994. He went on to blast five more that season, and only hit 13 total homers in his MLB career, that sprayed across six seasons. He then went to Japan where he became legend, tying Sadaharu Oh’s single season record of 55 long balls. A man with a .224 lifetime MLB average, was one of the greatest to play the Japanese game.
Yet we sit here with the likes of Mark Grace calling for baseball to include Ichiro’s accomplishments from Japan, making him the new all-time hits leader in baseball. While Grace’s word on hitting should be valued a lot more than mine (career .175 hitter in high school, I was a late bloomer), I wholeheartedly disagree with Mark on his statement.
“I cannot believe it’s not a bigger deal in Major League Baseball. Shame on us for not making a bigger deal out of it,” Grace told USA Today. “You’re talking about breaking Pete Rose’s record. I couldn’t care less if he got some of those hits in Japan or in Antarctica. You’re getting hits at high professional levels. That’s huge. I’m in awe of the guy.”
While Pete Rose has become bitter at times for his thoughts on baseball, and baseball’s constant urge to erase him from the coffers of the game, I couldn’t agree more with his thoughts on including Ichiro’s Japanese hits in his MLB total.
“I don’t think you’re going to find anybody with credibility say that Japanese baseball is equivalent to Major League Baseball. There are too many guys that fail here, and then become household names there, like Tuffy Rhodes. How can he not do anything here and hit [a record-tying] 55 home runs [in 2001] over there? It has something to do with the caliber of personnel.”
Should we start adding the stats of Tuffy, and Balentien, and whomever else that couldn’t hack it here to their big league totals? Of course we wouldn’t!
That is why you cannot add the accomplishments, and yes I do still believe they are accomplishments, of Ichiro from Japan to his MLB totals. While he is great, and he was great there, the game in Japan just isn’t the same as the game here.
