Alex Rodriguez is a master politician, afraid to take a stance on almost any subject for fear of offending someone. That was the case when he was asked about his former Yankees teammate Ichiro Suzuki’s career hits total.
Though Rodriguez tried to avoid offering an official opinion on the matter, if you read between the lines on his comments, it seems he feels Ichiro’s hits in Japan should not be counted towards his career total.
“I think the major leagues is the major leagues,” Rodriguez said via the New York Daily News. “This is greatest league in the world. All due respect to any league out there including all of them, to me, the major leagues – there’s only one.”
Rodriguez did call Ichiro one of the best singles hitters he’s every played with and expressed his admiration of the outfielder’s achievements, so you know he wasn’t about to stray from his typically diplomatic stance. But that comment seems to say it all.
And you know what? A-Rod is right. MLB is just a better league. As Pete Rose has also said, plenty of players who were really good in Japan falter in the US. Likewise, plenty of players who couldn’t hack it in MLB have been successful in Japan.
Though Ichiro’s 1,278 hits in Japan should not count towards him being the all-time hit king, they should be used in discussions when talking about how prolific of a hitter Suzuki is. The question is really whether or not he could have broken Rose’s record had he played his entire career here. It certainly seems like a reasonable possibility.
