Ichiro

[tornado]

headlines are all over - Ichiro Suzuki has 3999 hits and is sure to get his 4000th hit shortly....

but....here's the catch --
whoever is pushing this whole concept of 4000 hits is being a bit dishonest...
Ichiro's first 1,278 hits came in the Japanese Leagues (8 seasons) which are roughly
the equivalent of maybe Double-A minor league ball......extremely few major-league-caliber pitchers..

Ichiro has 2,721 hits in the Major Leagues barely good enough to put him inside the Top 60 all time in Major League hits.

There's a funny joke from Joe Girardi about including T-ball hits but here's the question -
is Ichiro a HOF'er based on his 13-year career in the Majors...?
nobody else gets to add their minor league stats to their Major League stats and sneak into the HOF!

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130820&content_id=57603606&notebook_id=57633652&vkey=notebook_nyy&c_id=nyy

[Da Coach]

Most fans and baseball purists agree that his hits in the Japanese League have no business counting toward his Major League total or any MLB records.

But what he has done is amazing! He did not play his first Major League game until he was 27 1/2 years old, and in less than 13 seasons, he has 2,721 (an average of well over 200 hits per year, to go along with a lifetime OBP of.362. He has also been one of the best defensive outfielders in the game, maybe in MLB history.