Suzuki, who now is in his 16th season playing Major League Baseball, has actually had 4,278 professional hits throughout his career.
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History will show that the Miami Marlins outfielder – in his 16th season – pulled a 2-0 pitch from Chris Rusin of the Colorado Rockies to rightfield, the ball hitting high off the wall. He also holds the all-time single-season record for the most hits in 2004 with 262 hits.
Between 50 and 60 members of the Japanese media were following Ichiro from series to series hoping to be present when he reached his 3,000-hit. “I feel like I should have gotten this two years ago”. “I was happy to give it to him”.
With Ichiro, there will always be the “what if?” question.
A-Rod, 41, debuted in the Majors at age 18. This is the most hits in professional baseball, eclipsing the MLB record of 4,256 by Pete Rose.
Suzuki brought with him his unique method of preparing for games. The article begins with a hypothetical question about how many hits the Japanese player might have racked up in the majors if he had started in the USA rather than Japan, where he tallied 1,278 hits.
Personally, I wish Ichiro Suzuki had recorded his 3,000th hit at Wrigley Field last week – as long as the Cubs won the games.
But in his first regular-season game on April 2, 2001, he rapped out two hits.
Overall this season, Cueto is 13-3 with a 2.73 ERA.
Ian Desmond was the hero for the Texas Rangers as he scored the go-ahead single in the 11th inning of their 5-3 win over the Houston Astros.
The median WAR on the list is Cal Ripken’s 5.3. “It’s a lot of hits in a relatively short period of time”.
In terms of batting average through the 3,000-hit season, Ichiro now ranks 13th with a.314 lifetime clip. There was never a believe that he could reach such a milestone, but he has. His entire training regimen, and it seems his every waking moment, is focused on getting the next base hit.
Ichiro, who in 2001 became the first Japanese position player, or nonpitcher, in Major League Baseball, joins Roberto Clemente (Puerto Rico), Rod Carew (Panama) and Rafael Palmeiro (Cuba) as the only members of the 3,000-hit club born outside the United States. Ichiro became the fourth, with 3,000 hits, 507 stolen bases and a career.314 batting average. There’s still more that we need to do as Japanese players. But his biggest accomplishment came years earlier when proved that Japanese hitters could succeed in Major League Baseball. He was the first position player from Japan to ever play Major League Baseball, and fittingly he is the greatest.
“Obviously I wanted to see it go over the fence”, Suzuki said through a translator.
“We were able to hug him on the field, and that was cool”. “I want to pay tribute to him for setting a shining record in Japanese and USA baseball”.
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In the press conference following Sunday’s game, when his 93rd career triple put him into one of the most elite clubs in baseball history, Ichiro echoed that sentiment. “To get to this 3,000th hit, we’re not there yet”. While this may not be an official record, he may just break the Major League Baseball record as he has stated in the past that he plans to play 8 more years or until he reaches the age of 50.
