Congrats to Ichiro !!!

[phosetklr]

I'm not even that big of a baseball fan, but in case anyone missed it, Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners got his 200th hit of this season yesterday, oh, and also just in case you missed it, he has now had 10 straight seasons in which he has gotten 200+ hits! This has NEVER been done before, not ten straight seasons. He is now tied for the most seasons with 200 hits or more, with the great Pete Rose, but it took Pete 15 seasons to get his ten seasons off 200 hits or more.
I am very disappointed that the majority of the sports press just made a quick mention of this accomplishment. Is it maybe because Ichiro is Japanese? I was watching ESPN this morning, the Mike and Mike show? Yeah, it got like one mention from one of them....."Oh yes, and Ichiro got his 200th hit at the game, too". Totally lame that Ichiro isn't getting anywhere near the credit he is due!

 

[storm7400]

Well I believe its a combination of the Mariners being on the West Coast (which doesn't get nearly the sports attention it should because of the time difference) and losing, as well as the fact that Ichiro played professionally for all those years over in Japan and has basically just done it so consistently that its become expected.

 

[ndj101982]

I'm not even that big of a baseball fan, but in case anyone missed it, Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners got his 200th hit of this season yesterday, oh, and also just in case you missed it, he has now had 10 straight seasons in which he has gotten 200+ hits! This has NEVER been done before, not ten straight seasons. He is now tied for the most seasons with 200 hits or more, with the great Pete Rose, but it took Pete 15 seasons to get his ten seasons off 200 hits or more.
I am very disappointed that the majority of the sports press just made a quick mention of this accomplishment. Is it maybe because Ichiro is Japanese? I was watching ESPN this morning, the Mike and Mike show? Yeah, it got like one mention from one of them....."Oh yes, and Ichiro got his 200th hit at the game, too". Totally lame that Ichiro isn't getting anywhere near the credit he is due!

I believe that when it is all said and done, and we all look back on his career someday, he will go down as one of the greatest base-hitters that ever played this game. He will get more hits by the end of his career than most other players that play in the league for 15 or more years, and keep in mind that he didn't even come into the league until around age 27 or 28. He's actually only been around for about a decade or so and he must have around 2000 hits or so by now at least.

Also, Pete Rose played for like 22 or more seasons to get to over 4000 hits. His career batting average was barely over .300. Do I believe Ichiro chases this record if he started playing in the MLB at like age 21.....Absolutely. Probably doesn't reach it because I doubt he'd want to play until he's like 43 or something, but he'd definitely be on pace for it.

 

[phosetklr]

Thanks for your replies! ndj101982, I have to agree that if he were to have started out earlier he'd be chasing some very serious records. As it is, he's very quietly accumulating his own records. I wish him the best in the future, and I think major league baseball could use alot more dedicated athletes like him.

 

[CitY of MicA]

It's a remarkable achievement- that level of consistency. He is such a hard worker: so clever, great baseball smarts, terrific in the field, too, although he's not an infielder. And there's no one else who plays the game remotely like him- now or previously. He's an original- at least in America. I don't think he's underappreciated just because he's Japanese, however, or plays in Seattle (that does play a big part, I imagine- and the only time he ever saw the post season in MLB was his rookie year). There's such an emphasis placed on the power game that most everything else gets short shrift. Tony Gwynn faced a similar problem, although people eventually began to appreciate a guy who was a pure hitter. Despite all the records Ichiro has broken, he won't receive the attention he deserves until he breaks or meets one with which people are more overtly familiar, such as the 3000 hit plateau. Ichiro is worth appreciating if for the simple reason of staving off the boredom that sets in from watching 2nd basemen hit 20 home runs a year.

In Japan, they broadcast American baseball games in which a Japanese player takes part (it used be Mariners games, Yankees game due to Matsui, and Dodgers games for a few Japanese pitchers). During a brief trip to Japan, I remember seeing Ichiro do some remarkable things in Mariners games, and during the commercials in the American broadcast, Japanese broadcasters would come on to analyze Ichiro's at bats or play in the field. One time, Ichiro was at bat with a man on first. The first baseman was holding the man on, so there was a big gap between first and second. The pitcher was pitching him outside (he's a left-handed batter) to force him to hit to left, and Ichiro reached his bat out across the plate and managed to flick the ball between first and second for a base hit. It was such a smart play. He has a tendency to outhink the opposition. Incidentally, it would be interesting to see his career average with runners in scoring position- it's probably very high. He does a lot of things really well.

Here are a few old articles/pages about him:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCI/is_12_63/ai_n6355547/
http://miscbaseball.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/some-trivia-about-ichiros-262-hit-season-in-2004/

 

[Backstep]

It's not just a west coast issue, it's also a Pacific Northwest issue. ESPN and company haven't always given proper attention to the Seahawks either. If you look at Seattle's season leading up to Super Bowl XL, there was a lot more attention on Pittsburg and on other playoff contenders that year (Patriots, anyone?).

As for Ichiro himself, I hope he can go for at least another five years so that he can really shatter the record books. I also hope he finds himself on a team capable of winning a title so that he can get the ring he deserves before he retires.

One way or the other, it'll be a lot of fun to watch when he's elected to the hall of fame.

 

[CommBoy]

Thanks Ichiro for giving us Mariner fans something to look forward to every year when there is not much else a lot of the times. It has been awhile since we had a good team, but he always does his part to help the team and has been the number one reason that the Mariners still have a bit of revenue coming in every year.

I agree with the other posts about the NW not getting the coverage it deserves at times, but it was nice to see at least something from each sports news program on the achievement.