Much of the talk in baseball lately has focused on PEDs and the Biogenesis scandal that has rocked the sport yet again. On Wednesday night, however, that took a back seat as Yankees outfielder Ichiro Suzuki collected his 4,000th career hit.
In the first inning against the Toronto Blue Jays, Ichiro hit a single off of starter R.A. Dickey for the historic mark. The game was stopped as he was recognized and greeted by teammates.
At this point, there’s little argument that Ichiro is one of the greatest hitters the game has ever seen. There would be widespread debate had the outfielder accumulated all of his hits in Japanese baseball. With 2,722 career hits in Major League Baseball and fewer than half that in in the Japanese Pacific League where he began his career, though, there’s no question that Ichiro would be a superstar no matter where he played.
Next up for Ichiro is Pete Rose‘s 4,256 career mark. At 40, he is slowing down, obviously. Still, he has already managed 115 hits this season and another 256 isn’t too unrealistic if he plays two more years.
