Ichiro Suzuki Reaches 3,000 Hits, Again Breaking Ground for Japanese Players
Ichiro Suzuki, the baseball pioneer who proved 15 years ago that Japanese hitters could succeed in Major League Baseball, reached a hallowed milestone Sunday when he became the 30th player to compile 3,000 hits.
Suzuki, a Miami Marlins outfielder, tripled to right field against the Colorado Rockies to join one of the most elite groups in baseball in his 16th season in the big leagues. Pete Rose, the career hits leader, is the only other player to collect his 3,000th hit by his 16th season.
Suzuki is the first player from Japan to reach 3,000 hits and just the fourth player born outside the contiguous United States to do so. He joins Roberto Clemente, who was from Puerto Rico; Rod Carew, from Panama; and Rafael Palmeiro, from Cuba. Suzuki is also the first player to reach 3,000 hits while playing for the Marlins.
The hit came as the Marlins chase a playoff spot. They were 58-52 entering Sunday’s game, tied for second in the National League wild-card race.
Suzuki, making a rare start, pulled a 2-0 pitch from Chris Rusin to right field, and the ball hit high off the wall, missing a home run by about 10 feet. For all his success hitting balls the opposite way, Suzuki also has pull power, and he reached third base standing to join Paul Molitor as the only players to triple for their 3,000th hit.
Suzuki’s teammates poured out of the dugout to congratulate him, and the fans at Coors Field gave him a standing ovation as he waved his helmet in appreciation.
Suzuki came into the season needing 65 hits to reach 3,000 and has performed above expectations, given his age, 42, and his offensive numbers over the last three seasons. A part-time starter, he went into Sunday’s game batting .317 with an on-base percentage of .388, among the Marlins’ leaders in both categories.
But after he collected his 2,998th hit on July 28, Suzuki struggled briefly, going 0 for 11 over seven games before recording his 2,999th hit on Saturday.
“It took a long time for me,” Ichiro told reporters in Denver. “Obviously I’ve been feeling this for the past two weeks, and not getting an opportunity to get in there, getting a pinch-hit every night, that was tough. For me, I feel like I should have gotten this two years ago.”
Suzuki recently stated that reaching the 3,000-hit plateau as part of a winning team that is competing for a playoff spot is one of the most satisfying aspects of the accomplishment.
“Are you at the end and can barely play and are just chasing this number and can barely get there?” he asked rhetorically through an interpreter last month. “Or are you part of a team trying to win ballgames, going about your business properly as you go past that number? I think that is what I want to experience, and that is what is important for me.”
Suzuki made his major league debut with the Seattle Mariners in 2001, amid considerable skepticism that he could replicate the success he had achieved as a professional player in Japan. He had a small, wiry physique, leaving some to wonder if he might be physically overwhelmed by big league pitching, and unusual batting mechanics, in which he practically sprinted out of the left-handed batter’s box as he made contact with the ball.
But in his first regular-season game on April 2, 2001, he rapped out two hits. It was a prophetic debut.
That season he reached 242 hits, the first of a record 10 consecutive 200-hit seasons, and he batted .350, setting the tone for a major league career that will almost surely culminate in his induction to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., where no Japanese player has yet been enshrined.
Before Suzuki signed with the Mariners, the only Japanese players considered good enough to excel in the major leagues were pitchers.
Suzuki almost instantly shattered the old perceptions, leading directly to the signings of several more players from Japan, including Hideki Matsui by the Yankees, Kazuo Matsui by the Mets and Kosuke Fukudome by the Chicago Cubs.
But while Hideki Matsui achieved notable success in the Bronx, neither Kazuo Matsui nor Fukudome came near the statistical heights achieved by Suzuki, who has led baseball in hits in seven seasons, has a career .314 batting average, and has 507 stolen bases.
