Prior to his arrival, Major League Baseball had seen some Japanese players, and even a few hitters, but nothing before like Ichiro Suzuki. Over the course of his first ten seasons in the big leagues, it was easy to miss what he accomplished.
People leaned on his reputation as a speedy, slap-hitting singles specialist who benefited from the spacious expanse of Safeco Field: Ichiro was a left-handed hitter–already more likely to reach base on shorter singles and bleeders–and he did have an inordinate number of career hits in that ten-year span that came as singles (about 80%.) When Ichiro set the single season hit record of 262 in 2004, he had only 37 extra-base hits. Safeco was known as a pitcher’s park with power alleys of 390 feet in left-center and 386 in right-center.
All the naysayers had what appeared to be adequate support when they made slap-hitting, banjo claims about Ichiro’s baseball skills at the plate. Or did they…?
Prior to the start of the 2011 season, Ichiro had played 10 full seasons in the majors and amassed a career average of .331, with 2244 hits in 1588 games. His lifetime average at the time placed him #23 on the all-time list, though many of the players ahead of him played about twice as many games (in much longer careers.)
When factoring in the hits he accrued during the seasons he played in Japan prior to coming here (1278) only Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron and Stan Musial had more hits than Ichiro. And that was after only ten seasons in the Majors. There were disparagements against that argument, considering how the talent and competition in Japanese leagues paled compared to MLB in the States.
So, let’s look just at what Ichiro has accomplished since he came here at the age of 27.
Only Albert Pujols, also a ten season veteran that year, ranked higher at the time on the all-time list for career average among active players . Ichiro’s 2244 hits prior to the 2011 season placed him at #158 on the all-time MLB list, 12th among active players. His 383 stolen bases ranked 75th all-time, but 5th among active players.
That already placed him in great company. Sure, he arrived as an experienced 27 year-old, in his baseball prime. But, if anything, Ichiro played better than advertised.
Here is something compelling: Ichiro had 200 hits in every one of his first ten seasons in the bigs–a feat repeated by no one in history. In fact, it takes a great deal of combing to find any hitters who amassed something close to that many 200-hit seasons in their careers.
In his rookie year, Ichiro stroked 242 hits, and in the nine subsequent seasons never hit fewer than 206 (’05.) He was also remarkably durable, as he had only once played fewer than 150 games (146 in 2004.) In his other nine seasons, Ichiro played more than 157 games, including six seasons with 161 or 162 games. In those latter two seasons, Ichiro scored more than 100 runs eight times and stole more than 30 bases nine times. During that decade, his low was 26 stolen bases in 2009; his high, 56 in 2001. They say speed kills and speed dies, but Ichiro later stole 42 in 2010 at the age of 36. During his ten seasons, Ichiro batted as high as .372 (2004) and as low as .303 (2005), though he hit above .320 six times.
There are two likely arguments against the brilliance of Ichiro: his propensity for hitting singles and that he was already an established player in his prime (27) when he arrived. These are both viable arguments. Here are some of the other premier hitters over the years for comparison:
Boggs, also known for most of his career as a slap-hitter, made his major-league debut in 1982 and spent 18 years playing the hot corner for teams throughout the AL East, concluding his career with the upstart Devil Rays, for whom his number is retired. Boggs had 3010 career hits and a .328 career average, currently #39 on the all-time list. Never a power threat (118 career HRs) or a speed threat (24 career SBs and 61 career triples) Boggs did,however, hit a large number of doubles: 578, #24 all-time.
However, Boggs played 81 games per year in Fenway Park during his salad days and was known to slap doubles off the Green Monster with regularity. During his Sox years, Boggs often hit more than 40 doubles; he barely exceeded 20 doubles in any of the seasons he played as a member of the Yankees and Rays.
Boggs had seven career 200-plus hit seasons and seven career 100-plus run seasons, numbers not far behind Ichiro’s. Boggs played more than 160 games only once, when he logged 161 as a twenty-seven year old. Five times Boggs exceeded 150 games and another five he played at least 140 games.
What to make of this comparison? For sake of argument, here are the seasons Boggs logged when he was between the ages of 28 and 37. During that ten-season span, Boggs had 1890 hits (354 fewer than Ichiro.) His seven 100-plus run seasons all came during that time, though his average fluctuated from .368 down to .259.
The percentage of Wade Boggs’ career hits which were singles? 75%.
Rod Carew made his major-league debut in 1967 at the age of 22 and played nineteen seasons. His years in MLB yielded a career average of .328 (also #40 all-time) and he tallied 3053 hits. Carew, slightly speedier than Boggs, racked up 445 career doubles, 112 triples and 353 stolen bases. Carew’s power numbers were comparable to Boggs’ and Ichiro’s: 92 career HRs to 118 and 90, respectively, so he was more of a ball-in-play guy than many others.
Carew had four career 200-plus hit seasons and exceeded 100 runs only once, but perhaps the latter comparison is unfair due to the fact that Boggs and Carew were almost never leadoff men. Carew may have played nineteen seasons but only exceeded 150 games four times. His injury history was spotty, but ever-present. Like Ichiro, Carew played for some egregious teams, as he landed with the Twins near the end of their mediocre years and reached the Angels before they began to succeed.
During the ten seasons between when Carew was 28 and 37 years old, he roped 1837 hits (407 less than Ichiro) and his average fluctuated between .305 and .364 during full seasons.
Carew’s career percentage of singles was 79%.
Surely if there is a player comparable to Ichiro, it was the hit-king, Charlie Hustle? Pete Rose debuted for the Red in 1963 at the age of 22 and is number one on the all-time hit list with 4256 hits, though his career average was only .303. During his 26 seasons a player and player-manager for the Reds and Phillies, Pete also racked-up 746 doubles, 135 triples and 160 homers, so it would appear that he had more power than the other three men. He also played seven more seasons than Carew, eight more than Boggs, so that could account for some of the difference. For as much as his hustle earned Pete his reputation, Rose stole only 198 career bases: well ahead of Carew and the near-glacial Boggs, but far shy of Ichiro’s 383 over his first ten years.
Rose logged 10 career 200+ hit seasons and 10 100+ run seasons, so he topped Ichiro in the latter category. Pete did not amass his 200-hit seasons in consecutive years, nor during the first ten years of his career. Rose also gained a slight advantage from the supporting cast on the Big Red Machine. Rose remains among the standard-bearers for durability played more than 150 games in seventeen seasons, nine of which saw him in action more than 160 times.
When Pete was between 28 and 37 (1968-1977) he totaled 1857 hits (387 less than Ichiro) and his average fluctuated from .284 to .348.
Rose career percentage of singles was 76%.
Could we find adequate comparison to Ichiro in the Splendid Splinter. Let us forgive Ichiro if he has yet to take on the heady task of publishing his own version of The Science of Hitting: the baseball-bible worn thin by many hopeful young men who wanted to walk in even one of Ted’s shoes. Ted Williams debuted in 1934, at the age of 20, and played twenty seasons in the bigs, retiring with exceptional numbers even though he lost many of his prime years to military service.
As Teddy Ballgame was the last man to hit over .400, there is little question on his value as a hitter. Due to his seasons limited by service and injury, Williams scraped out “only” 2,684 hits (not even enough to be among the top fifty all-time.) But he is #10 on the all-time list for batting average (.344), so he made those hits count.
Hardly a speed-merchant (24 lifetime stolen bases), Ted smote 525 doubles, 71 triples and 521 homeruns. He also scored 1,798 career runs for Sox teams that were sometimes in contention. Playing in the (at the time) major-league-standard 154 games per season, it may not be surprising that Williams never tallied a 200+ hit season, but he did rake more than 180 hits for seven seasons, so he held his own. He also had nine 100-plus run seasons and played in 150-plus games four times; with four more at 140 or more.
In the years between ages 28 and 37 (1946-1955), Williams had 1303 hits though he only played in 43 total games in the 1952 and 1953 seasons. His average swung between .317 and .346.
Ted’s percentage of career hits as singles is remarkably low (58%) which underscores his well-earned reputation as an extra-base man.
The Iron Horse, another stellar ballplayer whose career was cut short, debuted in 1923, at the ripe young age of 19. He played sixteen more seasons and finished with 2,721 hits, 534 doubles, 163 triples and 494 homeruns. Gehrig also stole 102 bases and scored 1888 runs in his career. He stands at #19 on the all-time career average list with a lifetime .340.
Lou Gehrig was neither hampered by injury as often, nor as perturbed by fewer games each season: he had eight 200+ hit seasons and 13 seasons with 100 or more runs. Over his career, Gehrig never batted lower than .295; he maxed out at a more than respectable .379.
In the years when he was between 28 and 36 (Gehrig died at age 36, so his seasons for comparison to Ichiro are fewer) he cracked out 1582 hits and batted between .295 and .363.
Much like Williams, Gehrig’s extra bases diminish his career percentage of singles, all the way down to 56%.
Could it be that Ichiro’s closest statistical comparison is the original hit-king? He of the metal spikes, the hard slides and the foul reputation, so diametrically-opposed to Ichiro, who gave an enormous percentage of his salary for Tsunami-relief in Japan?
The Georgia Peach debuted in 1905, at the age of nineteen and lasted a remarkable 24 seasons in the major, through countless death threats, threatening behaviors (he once charged a heckler in the stands), and self-abuse.
Hardly a power man—Cobb hit only 117 career HRs—he did set a standard for hits (4191) thought to be unbreakable until Rose came along nearly fifty years later. Cobb’s 723 doubles ranks him 4th all-time, and his 297 triples is #2. Until the modern era, Cobb held one of the longest-standing baseball records, in stolen bases, with 892 (still #4 all-time.) A terror on the base-paths, he scored 2245 career runs (50 behind Rickey Henderson’s #1) and averaged a ridiculous .367 for his career.
Ty Cobb racked up nine 200+ hit seasons, eleven of them with more than 100 runs (including one at age 41.) His season low at the plate was .323 (at age 42!), his high was an unimaginable .420. A picture of durability for the middle part of his career Cobb had six seasons with more than 150 games and another five with greater than 140. Cobb’s 28-37 year-old years (1914-1923) saw him batting between .334 and .401, when he amassed 153 hits.
Cobb’s career percentage of singles is 73%.
So what to make of Ichiro’s ten year run? The six other men on the list probably enter nearly every “Greatest Hitter of All-Time” discussion, and for three (Gehrig, Williams and Carew) the gushing about the purity of their hitting strokes continues to this day.
What Ichiro did in his ten first seasons rivaled what these other five men did in the ten best years of their careers, when taken in terms of pure hitting. In fact, not one of them did all of this in the time between his 27th and 36th birthdays: he had nearly 400 more hits in those ten seasons than the next closest among these men (Boggs) during that span in their careers and, in the case of Boggs, most of those hits came in the early half of those ten years. By the time he was 36, Boggs was all but done.
What Ichiro did has been accomplished by no other player in any ten years of his career, and Ichiro did it ten years in a row. So, take a moment to celebrate what the first Japanese position player accomplished in the first ten years of his MLB career. Take longer than that and he was probably already at Second Base.