Ichiro Reaches 3,000 MLB Hits!
Ichiro has finally done it.
In what has felt like a foregone conclusion since 2001 – you know, the year in which he was an All-Star, Gold Glover, Silver Slugger, AL Rookie of the Year, and AL MVP – Ichiro Suzuki has finally reached and entered the 3,000 hit club, doing so in style, with a stand-up triple off the right field wall.
Watch history unfold, as Ichiro stepped up to the plate with one out in the top of the seventh inning at Coors Field yesterday, with 2,999 career hits to his name:
Earlier this season, we watched as Ichiro grabbed professional hit #4,257 (1,278 of them came in Japan), and wondered if he was actually the new MLB Hit King, ahead of Pete Rose. While we couldn’t quite grant him that distinction, there was no doubting his place in baseball history.
Here’s a quick, 30-second promotional video dating all the way back to his debut with the Mariners in 2001:
In his rookie season, Ichiro collected an outrageous 242 hits (at the time, that was the ninth most in a season ever) en route to a .350/.381/.457 slash line and all of those awards I listed above. Three years later, he broke the single season hit record, by cracking a cool 262 hits for the Mariners.
Like I said, 3,000 was a forgone conclusion.
With his hit yesterday, Ichiro became the 30th player in MLB history to enter the elite 3,000 hit club, tying Roberto Clemente with an even 3,000. Check out the calls from all of those famous final hits, below. It’s a pretty funny collection to watch:
Lastly, let’s hear some final thoughts from the man, himself, including his relief and excitement from securing a place in history:
