Ichiro approaches 3,000 career hits

BY RYAN DIVISH | Tacoma News Tribune • Published July 24, 2008

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Barring the unforeseen, Ichiro Suzuki will notch the 3,000th hit of his professional baseball career at some point during the Seattle Mariners seven-game road trip that begins today in Toronto.

After a 1-for-6 performance in Wednesday's 6-3 12-inning loss to the Boston Red Sox, Ichiro was just five hits shy of the magical milestone.

Of course, much like Ichiro the player, his accumulation of 3,000 career hits will be unique considering he will have done it in two different professional leagues.

During a nine-year career with the Orix Blue Wave of the Japanese professional league, Ichiro racked up 1,278 hits. Its an impressive number, especially considering Japanese seasons are approximately 30 games shorter than Major League Baseball seasons and in his first two seasons Ichiro appeared in fewer than 40 games total.

Since he burst upon the scene with the Mariners in 2001, Ichiro has racked up hits at a prodigious pace, averaging more than 200 hits per season and pushing his total with the Mariners to 1,717 in 7 1/2-plus seasons.

It's the most by any player in an eight-year span in major league history. And while it seems like 200 hits is a given for Ichiro every season, if he accomplishes the feat again this year it will tie him with Wee Willie Keeler with the most 200-hit seasons in major league history eight.

It was Keeler's single-season record that Ichiro broke in 2007 when he racked up 238 hits.

So with 3,000 approaching, he was asked what the number meant to him.

"Well, the number 3,000 means 3,000," he joked through interpreter Ken Baron.

When it comes to his own personal accomplishments, Ichiro often prefers others - particularly the media - to discuss them. His philosophy is that the accumulation of numbers and records is a result of his almost obsessive preparation.

"He doesn't really need a hitting coach," Mariners manager Jim Riggleman told reporters. "He's got it figured out. He gets the information, he gets the scouting reports, and all that, but as far as mechanics of the swing and that type of thing, he's not referring to the hitting coaches."

When he does get No. 3,000, it will put him among the elite among Japanese baseball players. Only one player, Isao Harimoto (3,085), has more career hits than Ichiro. And its only a matter of time before Ichiro passes him to become Japan's all-time hits leader.

At age 34, with his commitment to conditioning and his ability to avoid major injury, Ichiro could be a candidate to get 4,000 career hits.