Seattle Mariners: Why Ichiro is the Real Hit King

Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki retired from Major League Baseball on Thursday night in Tokyo, Japan. He exited the game in the 8th inning to a huge ovation and teammates like Dee Gordon and rookie Yusei Kikuchi in tears.

Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki had a lot of great moments in his career, but it is hard to argue that one of the best moments was in San Diego when the 42-year-old (at the time) got hit number 4,257, passing Pete Rose as the hit king of baseball.

Critics enjoy arguing that Pete Rose is still the hit king because he originally got the record while playing 24-year career in MLB, and Ichiro tallied his hits through both Japan and the MLB.

But, regardless of who says what, Ichiro is the “Hit King.”

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Ichiro started his journey to the big leagues playing for the Orix Blue Wave in Nippon Professional Baseball league in Japan. He played nine seasons, logging 1,278 hits before reaching Seattle. Then, in 18 seasons with the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees, and Marlins Marlins, he logged another 3,089 hits.

Pete Rose logged 4,256 hits in his career in the majors, but in the minor leagues, Rose only got 427 hits.

When people do not credit Ichiro as the “Hit King”, they inevitably say that he almost played a decade in Japan before he even got to face major league pitching.

While that is fair, just imagine that the Nippon Professional Baseball league is just like the minor leagues–because in a lot of ways it is. The pitching is not Major League Pitching just like in the Minors and players go from that league in Japan to play with a team in Major League Baseball.

Yu Darvish, Masahiro Tanaka, Kenta Maeda, Shohei Ohtani, and Yusei Kikuchi are some notable players that make the long journey over to the United States.

Then, you could bring up the fact that Ichiro did not just play a couple of years in Japan, but he played nearly a decade there, which some would say is too long.

But there are literally hundreds of minor league baseball players, whether it is Single-A, Double-A, or Triple-A, that go on 10-hour bus trips for ten years just to get a cup of coffee in the big leagues.

So, all Ichiro really did was stay in the minors for nine years before he got called up to the big leagues to have a Hall of Fame career.

Minor league hits count as professional hits, so if Pete Rose’s 427 minor league hits count, then Ichiro’s Japan hits should count as well.

Ichiro will be the first player ever to be inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which is no small accomplishment.

Ichiro is undoubtedly the real “Hit King”, especially when you realize the circumstances are similar to those of Pete Rose’s.