Pete Rose Is Not Happy That People Are Counting Ichiro's Hits In Japan Towards His Career Total
After going 3-for-4 last night against the Padres, Ichiro Suzuki has 2,977 hits as a Major League Baseball player.
He’s 23 hits shy of becoming the 30th member of the 3,000 hits club, which would be the icing on the cake for what has been a Hall of Fame career. But for those who have followed Ichiro’s storied career, they’d know that his playing days didn’t start here in America, but rather in his native country of Japan. Before making his major league debut on April 2, 2001 with the Seattle Mariners, Ichiro came to the MLB having already collected 1,278 hits over nine seasons in Japan.
The all-time record for hits in a major league career was set by Pete Rose, who had 4,256 hits over 24 major league seasons. Between Japan and the MLB, Ichiro has 4,255 hits, just one hit shy of tying Rose’s record…if you count his hits in Japan. Rose was asked how he felt about fans who counted Ichiro’s hits in Japan towards his all-time hit total.
“It sounds like in Japan,’’ Rose told USA TODAY Sports, “they’re trying to make me the Hit Queen. I’m not trying to take anything away from Ichiro, he’s had a Hall of Fame career, but the next thing you know, they’ll be counting his high-school hits.
“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?
I mean, he’s not wrong. There’s a reason why guys who can’t get a job in the MLB go to Japan, and why the best talent in Japan leaves to come to the MLB. It’s not nearly the same level of competition, and that’s stating the obvious. And to be quite honest, I don’t think I’ve seen one person say that Ichiro’s hits in Japan are the equivalent to hits in the MLB. However, I don’t think that means that they should be ignored, or the accomplishment shouldn’t be recognized. Sure, the competition in Japan isn’t as good as the competition in the MLB, but it’s still professional baseball.
Having more hits than Pete Rose as a professional baseball player is certainly one hell of an accomplishment, and baseball fans will acknowledge that. However, that doesn’t make Ichiro baseball’s Hit King, because he’s not. That being said, do I think that if Ichiro began his career in the MLB instead of Japan, would he have surpassed Rose’s all-time hits record? I do. He came into the MLB as a 27-year-old, sprayed 242 hits and won the MVP and the Rookie of the Year award in 2001. Three years later, he set the single season hits record with 262 hits as a 30-year-old in 2004. Here we are 12 years later, and he’s hitting .350 in 2016 as a 42-year-old. There’s no doubt in my mind that Ichiro would’ve had more hits than Rose if he came into the MLB the same year he started playing professional baseball in Japan as an 18-year-old in 1992.
Rose’s record is safe. In terms of players who are on pace, close enough, or young enough to even come close, that player doesn’t exist. The closest player to Rose’s record is Alex Rodriguez, and he’s 40 and 1,158 hits away. After that, besides Ichiro, the next closest is Adrian Beltre, and he’s 37 and 1,428 hits away. We’ll probably never see a hitter pass Rose’s all-time hits record, but it makes for interesting conversation to wonder what might’ve been had Ichiro began his professional baseball career in the MLB.