Ichiro didn’t pass Pete Rose, but it doesn’t matter

Ichiro has had a great career. One that will certainly land him in Cooperstown, and may just get him there on the first ballot. It’s a career that will include more than 3000 hits in Major League Baseball alone, and keep in mind he didn’t make his major league debut until he was 27 years old in 2001. It was in that year that he won both the Rookie of the Year and the Most Valuable Player award. He’s been an All-Star 10 times, and has 10 Gold Gloves to his name. By any measure a fantastic player and a fantastic career. And it is still going! At age 42 in Miami he is hitting nearly .350 on the season!

But he hasn’t passed Pete Rose. The same way he didn’t really pass 4,000 hits a few years ago with the Yankees. And really, we as baseball and sports fans should realize this.

Wednesday afternoon, Ichiro picked up two hits, and by some, it was viewed as a passing of Rose as baseball’s Hit King. He has only passes Rose if we view the Japanese league as equal to Major League Baseball. And the fact is that it isn’t.

Dan Szymborski of ESPN wrote Wednesday about the comparison between Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball, the Japanese majors. Essentially, Nippon Professional Baseball would fall somewhere between AAA and MLB as far as talent level goes. This of course makes perfect sense. Think about failed MLB players who later go to Japan and make a nice career for themselves.

And with that said, there is really no discussion about whether Ichiro or Rose is the Hit King. The easy answer is Rose. But the conversation that does become interesting is how close Ichiro would be had he started his career in the Major Leagues when he was far younger than 27, say when he was 22 like the average high level prospect.

If Ichiro could have played his whole career in the Major Leagues, he would be approaching Rose’s tally anyway. And he may actually have passed it in the Major Leagues alone.

Bottom line, and this is what shouldn’t be forgotten, is that Ichiro is a fantastic player. An All-World player. One of the best of this generation. He’s a guy who just knows how to stick his bat out, make contact and get hits. He’s going to reach 3,000 hits in his 16th season in the majors. He is hitting nearly .350 in his 16th season, as a 42 year old veteran. Oh, and he happens to still play the outfield every single day.