Congratulations to Ichiro on recording his 4,257th professional hit yesterday. It's definitely an impressive accomplishment. But this whole discussion of whether Ichiro or Pete Rose is the all-time hits leader is just stupid. More than 1,000 of Ichiro's hits came in Japan. That's not the Major Leagues! Rose got all of his in the Majors. Pete Rose is the all-time hits leader. He has been since 1985 and he will be for the foreseeable future.
Pete Rose didn't want to hear it when people started talking about Ichiro passing him, and I don't blame him. Major League Baseball never said that Icihro's Japanese stats counted, and that's really the only voice that matters on the subject. So why are people trying to create a controversy that doesn't exist? Is it just because it's Pete Rose? If it is, you need to get over yourselves. Because guess what? His gambling has nothing to do with the number of hits he got.
To me, this is just as ridiculous as the Barry Bonds-Hank Aaron argument. Regardless of whether you feel all of the home runs Bonds hit were legitimate, he still hit them. The Major League record book says 1. Bonds 762, 2. Aaron 755. The moral judgment isn't a part of it. Barry Bonds' home runs all counted, and he is the record-holder. It's not arbitrary. And, frankly, those people that insist Aaron is the record-holder are just idiots. Whether you like it or not, Bonds hit those home runs. If Major League Baseball acknowledges that he holds the record, then he holds it.
People don't like Barry Bonds because of what he (allegedly) did. That's why they're so quick to try and invalidate his record. It's the same thing with Pete Rose. People can't get over what he did. He's been a pariah ever since he was banned, and I'm not sure if it helped or hurt his case when he finally admitted to his gambling all those years later. Pete Rose is a "bad guy." He committed the cardinal sin. He bet on baseball. But that doesn't diminish what he did on the field during his otherwise Hall of Fame career (he'd have gotten in on the first ballot if he was eligible and everyone knows it). Pete Rose's ban and Pete Rose's hits record are completely separate things independent from each other.
We saw this a few months ago with hockey. Jaromir Jagr moved into third place on the all-time scoring list and people began to wonder if he'd be close to Wayne Gretzky's record if he hadn't lost time due to the lockouts and his years in the KHL. There was lots of speculating and some projecting (I even did a post about that), but no one suggested that Jagr's stats in the KHL or any other pro leagues should count. Why? Because it's a beloved figure, Wayne Gretzky, the Great One, who holds the record.
Likewise, do we include ABA stats for Julius Erving or CFL stats for Doug Flutie or WHA stats for Gretzky? Of course not. Those are recognized as completely separate leagues. AFL stats do count. But that's only because that was part of the merger agreement with the NFL. No one tries to argue that stats from those leagues should count, so why should this be any different?
Nippon Professional Baseball is not the Major Leagues. It's a very high level. But it's not the same thing. Sadaharu Oh hit 868 home runs during his career. If we're counting Japanese stats, how come he's not the all-time home run leader? According to Major League Baseball, Sadaharu Oh's official career home run total is 0.
Had Ichiro come over earlier, I have no doubt he'd be approaching Rose's record right now. He had 200 or more hits in each of his first nine seasons, so if he'd made his debut at 21 instead of 27 and hit at that pace, he'd be closing in on 4200 hits right now. As it is, however, he's not even at 3000 yet. He'll get that at some point in July, but 3000 is not 4256. Say he ends this season at 3056, he'd still need 1200 more, and he's 42 years old. He's said he wants to play until he's 50, but this isn't the In-His-Prime Ichiro that was getting 200 hits on a regular basis for the Mariners 10 years ago.
Ichiro is an all-time great. He's by far the most successful Japanese player ever to cross the Pacific and play in the Majors. And five years after he retires, he'll be the first Japanese player inducted into the Hall of Fame.
None of this takes away from Ichiro's incredible achievements. On both sides of the Pacific. And you can't help but be in total awe of his longevity. But he's not the all-time hits leader. Pete Rose is.
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