Miami Marlins: Ichiro Suzuki surpasses Pete Rose’s hit record

Miami Marlins outfielder Ichiro Suzuki passed Pete Rose for all-time hits during his time in both Japan and MLB.

Ichiro Suzuki will go down as one of the best hitters in not only MLB history, but in the history of professional baseball around the world.

He entered Wednesday needing one hit to tie Pete Rose‘s mark of 4,256 hits, with Suzuki’s total combining his hits in MLB with his time in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.

Needing that one hit to tie, Suzuki got two and passed Rose’s all-time mark in the process.

There are those, including Rose, who will disagree with Suzuki being deemed the all-time hit leader, but his accomplishment is still worthy of being acknowledged. He was able to parlay a great career in Japan into an even better one in America.

Rose may not believe Suzuki deserves credit for his feat, but he cannot deny Suzuki the honor of being one of the game’s best hitters when he reaches the 3,000 hit mark soon.

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Suzuki finished Wednesday’s game with 2,979 career MLB hits, and is closing in on the milestone thanks to a .349 batting average this season.

Reaching 3,000 hits assures Suzuki a spot in the Hall of Fame, even though he was likely going to receive a spot regardless of whether or not he reached the mark this season.

The fact he is closing in on 3,000 hits is even more remarkable when remembering he was 27 years old as a rookie when he debuted with the Seattle Mariners in 2001.

If he had debuted at the age of 20 or 21 he may have been able to actually break Rose’s MLB record.

Next: Will we see another player reach 3,000 hits?

The hit mark achieved by both Rose and Suzuki is something that may never be reached by any other player, so it is important to take a second to appreciate one of the game’s greatest hitters of all time. Suzuki has helped to pave the way for Japanese position players to play in Major League Baseball, and will enter the Hall of Fame as soon as he is eligible.