MLB History: Remembering Ichiro, Randy Johnson and all things 2001

The 2001 baseball season was one of the best in MLB history, from beginning to end. With Ichiro retiring, I think it’s a good opportunity to look back at that season.

Let’s travel back in time. To the year 2001, one of the greatest in MLB history.

To start, let’s begin on March 24, 2001, when in a spring training game, Randy Johnson, eventual NL Cy Young winner that year, killed a dove as it flew across his pitch. It was remarkable to watch, and a good omen to the season, that we would see some crazy things.

While, perhaps, the bird didn’t get to see it. 2001 also happened to be the debut of two of the greatest player of all time.

Let’s begin with Ichiro Suzuki. Ichiro became the first Japanese position player to debut in the Major Leagues after moving over from the NPB. He didn’t do too bad that first year: leading the league with 242 hits, a .350 batting average, and 56 stolen bases.

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He walked away from that first season with the AL MVP and Rookie of the Year, and we all saw the beginning of what would be a remarkable MLB career. In 2004 he broke George Sisler’s single-season hits record with 262. Ichiro was fun to watch for a long time, and he ended his career perfectly in Tokyo yesterday.

Ichiro wasn’t the only player to make his debut in 2001, however.

Albert Pujols also made his MLB debut in 2001. He only had 130 RBI and won the NL Rookie of the Year. He is now only 18 RBI away from that illustrious milestone of 2000 and will become just the 5th player in major league history to reach that mark, which is simply remarkable.

2001 was also the season that Barry Bonds made MLB history by hitting breaking Mark McGwire‘s single-season home run record. To this day, Bonds stands alone with 73 single-season home runs.

Finally, the 2001 season ended in one of the greatest World Series ever.

It was a wild back and forth between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York, the Yankees. The home team won every game.

There were three blown saves and two extra innings games. Johnson threw a complete game shutout in the second game, threw 104 pitches in the 6th game, and came on in relief to get the win in the 7th game.

In Game 7, Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer in the history of baseball, suffered the only blown save of his postseason career. Then with the scored tied and Jay Bell at third, Luis Gonzalez hit a bloop single over the head of Derek Jeter and the Diamondbacks won their first World Series. The win also ended the Yankees streak of 3 World Series titles in a row.

With so much happening in 2001, it is most definitely one of the greatest seasons in MLB history.