By PHIL KIVER
Contributor
Another horrific season for the Seattle Mariners. We were both born in 1977 so I can certainly identify with their woes.
As a Homer for the M's I was following Ichiro all season long. It should not be a secret to a fan that he had his 10th year in a row with over 200 hits. However he has been slighted by the press with their omissions from the coverage. When the statistics are laid before you, the argument that he is the greatest hitter that ever lived will be apparent even to the ghost of Ted Williams.
Ty Cobb and Pete Rose have both had 10 seasons of 200 plus hits, but never 10 in a row. However the lowest total Ichiro has ever had in his 10 years was 206 hits. Both Rose and Cobb had seasons with lower hit totals than that while still managing to get over 200.
So Ichiro really stands alone as the only player in history to have 10 seasons of more than 206 hits let alone 10 years in a row. Ted Williams, the last player to hit .400, only averaged 139 hits a season while Ichiro has averaged 331 hits a year. Yes I know the seasons were different lengths over time, but to make it fair we can look at hits per game which levels the playing field regardless of the era. Ichiro has 1.41 hits per game, followed by Cobb with 1.38 or 174 hits a season. Ted Williams has 1.15 hits a game with 139 hits a season, while Rose, the all-time hits leader, has a paltry 1.14 hits per game or 177 hits a year.
Power hungry fans loathe the infield single, yet Ichiro still gets to first base. Purists say as a leadoff hitter he should draw more walks. Well I want to point out a game from 2009 which should satisfy both camps. Ichiro hit a walk off single to the outfield to beat the Yankees and future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera. The next night he hit a walk off home run to once again beat the Yankees and their historic closer.
After the double by Edgar Martinez in 1995 these two hits are the most powerful highlights I can recall in Mariners history. Oh and Ichiro is ninth all time with leadoff homeruns with 32 in his career and the only player to have an inside the park home run at an All-Star game, which he has played in all 10 years of his career.
But baseball is all about stats. Ty Cobb's career average is .366 but in his rookie year he batted below .300. Ichiro's career batting average is .331 he has never batted below .300 in any of his 10 seasons. In his rookie year he won the batting title batting .350, rookie of the year and MVP. Williams is next with a career average of .344 and one season below .300. Williams never had a season of more than 200 hits.
As a veteran I'll acknowledge his five years of service between WWII and Korea. Ichiro gave up the first nine years of his baseball career by playing in Japan. So that comparison is basically a wash with perhaps Ichiro losing more at bats in his prime than Williams. Lastly Pete Rose had nine seasons of sub .300 batting.
As for Ichiro's time in Japan, a Rangers fan in Texas laid it out at a Mariners game in Arlington in 2002. He stated that, “Ichiro was not qualified to win rookie of the year in 2001 because he played in Japan previously.” Well if that is the case then he would have over 1,200 more hits added to his total. Either he was a rookie or he wasn't. For the record I don't think stats from Japan should count.
That said I once purchased a ball signed by Ted Williams, but I got a ball signed by Ichiro in person “the greatest hitter that ever lived.”
Phil Kiver is a Cheney High School and EWU graduate.
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