UPDATE: Ichiro Suzuki is baseball’s all-time hits leader.
After leading off the first inning with a single, the Miami Marlins outfielder laced a double down the right field line in the ninth inning Wednesday to give him 4,257 career hits between Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league and Major League Baseball, one more than Pete Rose had in his MLB career.
Call Rose the MLB’s all-time leader if you like, but don’t discredit Suzuki for what he did in Japan. Rose can have the MLB record; Ichiro is now the new world record holder.
ORIGINAL STORY: Father Time be damned, Ichiro Suzuki just keeps on hitting.
The 42-year-old outfielder recorded his 4,256th career hit Wednesday during the first inning of the Miami Marlins’ game against the San Diego Padres, tying Pete Rose for the most hits in baseball history.
And he did so in the most Ichiro way possible.
Ichiro has made a career of getting on base with hits like that, and his name will forever be etched into the record books because of it.
Of course, Rose’s record number of hits all came in Major League Baseball, while Ichiro recorded the first 1,278 hits of his career in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league. Still, it doesn’t make Suzuki’s accomplishments any less impressive.
Ichiro now has 2,978 hits in his MLB career and needs just 22 more to reach 3,000.
Thumbnail photo via Jake Roth/USA TODAY Sports Images
