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Cooperstown: Ichiro’s hitting only looks better with age
Sometime shortly after 1:30 p.m. ET today, Ichiro Suzuki goes into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Everyone has a favorite Ichiro story, and all of them are incredible.
Many who watched his batting practices insist that he could’ve hit 30 or 40 homers in a year if he wanted to, so impressive were his swing and routine. The stories of Ichiro’s presence in the clubhouse — many collected in this fun Rustin Dodd story — are plentiful and legendary. You have probably seen the clip of Ichiro comparing the temperature of a particular Midwestern city to that of a rat in a wool sock, reducing Bob Costas practically to tears. If not, now you have. Remember the time he missed a unanimous Rookie of the Year honor by one media vote? It shouldn’t have been that big a circus, but you can understand why it was: Ichiro was so cool that it was an affront not to maximally honor him.
I’ve always found Ichiro tricky. It feels like describing him by leaning on his stats leaves too much meat on the bone. There have been similarly elite ballplayers but no similar characters, so how could anyone encapsulate him by reading his Baseball Reference page?
Well, let’s do our best. You’ll hear at Ichiro’s induction about what a singular baseball person he is, but you’ll read in The Pulse about what an outlier of a statistical career he had:
- Ichiro is one of the weakest modern hitters to make Cooperstown. (Chill out! I’m about to compliment him!) While a career 107 OPS+ is comfortably last among Hall inductees who played 60 percent of their games in right field, Ichiro’s figure is depressed by a decade spent hanging around the league after his prime. But even at Ichiro’s seven-year peak from 2001 through 2007, he “only” hit 19 percent better than league average, far behind the career figure for almost every right fielder in the Hall of Fame.
- There is a good reason nobody cares about that: Ichiro was an even better pure hitter than you remember. It’s not just the 262 hits he had in 2004 to set a maybe-never-to-fall record ahead of George Sisler. It’s how quickly Ichiro sized up major-league pitchers and became impossible to get out. He isn’t the overall MLB hit king, but here’s the all-time leaderboard, via Stathead, for most hits in a player’s first seven seasons:Ichiro (1,354)
Kirby Puckett (1,243)
Paul Waner (1,237)
Chuck Klein (1,209)
- Actual hit king Pete Rose had 1,109 in his first seven seasons, starting when he was turning 22. Ichiro was 27 when he debuted. Sometimes, folks combine Ichiro’s Japanese league hit totals (1,278) and MLB total (3,089) and surmise that with 4,367 hits, he’d be the widely recognized hit king (ahead of Rose’s 4,256) if he had come to the majors earlier. I wouldn’t go that far, but in a real way, Ichiro is Rose’s only peer as a collector of hits.
- Exactly two hitters, ever, got 3,000 hits after their age-26 season: Rose (3,357) and Ichiro (3,089), decades later. Nobody else is within 150 of Ichiro, and the closest active player, Paul Goldschmidt, is just over halfway at 1,668 post-age-26 hits through Friday. Aaron Judge? Mike Trout? Jose Altuve? Sorry, not even close.
At the very least, Ichiro being 25th on the all-time hits list comically undersells how good he was at his job. They will never make one like this guy again.
News to Know
Pogacar in line for fourth Tour win
Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar is set to seal his fourth Tour de France win this morning in Paris (or possibly already has, depending on when you’re reading this), cementing him as the rider of his generation. The UAE Team Emirates star, 26, survived a brutal penultimate stage yesterdayand entered the final day, seen as mostly a formality, with a lead of more than four minutes over rival Jonas Vingegaard. The Athletic’s Jacob Whitehead has more on how Pogacar dominated the 2025 Tour.
More news
- Yankees star Aaron Judge has a flexor (elbow) strain that will send him to the injured list, but he is expected to return this season. Phew.
- A Venezuelan youth baseball team will not participate in the Senior League World Series because it was denied travel visas to the U.S. More details here.
- Two pieces of coach health news: Kansas’ Bill Self was released from the hospital yesterday following a heart procedure, and Colorado’s Deion Sanders returned to campus after dealing with an unspecified issue. Sanders is expected to address the media alongside his medical team tomorrow.
- Nigeria rallied from two goals down to beat Morocco 3-2 for its 10th Women’s Africa Cup of Nations title. Watch the game-winning 88th-minute strike.
- Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh hit his MLB-leading 40th homer of the season last night. Relive some of his best swings.
- Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford will not practice with the team next week as he continues to deal with back soreness. Read more.
What to Watch
📺 F1: Belgian Grand Prix
9 a.m. ET on ABC
I bring your attention to two good F1 stories from the past week: Madeline Coleman’s interview with an unusually open Max Verstappenand Luke Smith giving voice to something I’ve noticed but had a hard time articulating: F1 principals now get sacked like soccer managers.
📺 Soccer: England vs. Spain
Noon ET on Fox
The women’s Euros final is here, and it’s a doozy: a rematch of the World Cup final two years ago, where Spain triumphed — but England is the defending European title holder. Both teams needed extra time to survive their semifinals. Appointment viewing. 🍿
📺 MLB: Mets at Giants
7:10 p.m. ET on ESPN
Kodai Senga, pitching for New York, has thrown 80 and two-thirds innings and will almost certainly not qualify for the ERA title. His number is 1.79, though. Pretty good.
Get tickets to games like these here.
Pulse Picks
Years ago, Royals pitcher Gil Meche walked away from $12 million out of principle. What does he think about that decision now?
Chris Kamrani’s powerful, tragic story on a former Utah football player who was posthumously found to have Stage 2 CTE after a tortuous, decade-plus-long decline. — Mark Cooper
I recently revisited the podcast “Wind of Change,” which is a (sort of) investigation into the question of whether the CIA wrote The Scorpions’ “Wind of Change” to bring down the Soviet Union. I’m probably not selling it well, but it’s real good. — Phil Hay
Chandler Rome captured the state of disbelief Nick Kurtz’s parents werein after the A’s rookie’s historic performance Friday.
This small-serving microwave bread pudding recipe might change your life. — Torrey Hart
You can’t understand how important it is to break in a little kid’s glove so that ball perfectly caught doesn’t just pop out and … meltdown. I got a glove wrap (it ain’t bougie, here’s Walmart at under five bucks) and man, it helps. — Chris Sprow
Should Jonathan Kuminga take the qualifying offer with the Warriors? Fred Katz breaks down the layers.
“College Football 26” online dynasty mode. I’m playing in a league with some friends/coworkers and it has been dynamite. Am I 0-1? Yes. Still great. — Chris Branch
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Terry Francona’s excellent scoreboard video prank on Kevin Cash.
Most-read on the website yesterday: Kamrani’s story mentioned above.
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(Photo: Darren Yamashita / USA Today Sports)
