Ichiro Chases History, Or Does He?

It could happen on September 26 in Texas, on a Sunday afternoon when the Lone Star State will have turned its sporting eye away from the fading Rangers in favor of the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Longhorns. Or it might happen the next night in Oakland, as the A's push for the playoffs.

Though the time and place are yet to be determined, one thing seems certain. Seattle Mariner right fielder Ichiro Suzuki appears well on his way to topping one of the longest standing records in the game, George Sisler's all-time single-season record for base hits. Gorgeous George hammered out 257 hits for the St. Louis Browns back in 1920; this year, Ichiro is on pace for 267. (This isn't Ichiro's first trip up this ladder, by the way. In his "rookie" year of 2001, he garnered 242 base hits, the ninth highest total of all-time.)

But just how historic might Ichiro's season turn out to be? Check out the top-23 single-season hit totals of all-time on the table below to get an idea. Ichiro's current stats are included at the bottom for comparison's sake. Even if he were to bring a stick of salami to the plate for the rest of the season, he's sure to jump deep into this list within a week or so.

* Not in the Hall of Fame.
Ichiro's statistics as of September 8, 2004.

First, let's take a closer look at the 21 men at the top of the list. Only six of them are not already Hall of Famers, but one of those six (Wade Boggs) is certainly on his way, and there's a faint flicker of hope burning for another (Don Mattingly). Good company, to say the least.

Most of these players had their fantastic seasons prior to 1938. The only men to add their names in the last half-century are Rod Carew in 1977, Boggs in ‘85, Mattingly in ‘86, Darren Erstad in 2000, and Ichiro himself in '01. Clearly, this club is getting more and more exclusive with each passing year.

Also of note is the fact that only Sisler and Ichiro will appear twice on this list. To pound out as many as 237 hits in a season is amazing; to do it twice in three or four years is almost incomprehensible.

But all of this only points out the obvious: Ichiro is enjoying a marvelous season at the plate. So let's return to the original question: how historic is this season as compared to the others on the list?

To find an answer, let's look at the last six columns in the table, where Ichiro's season can be put in its proper perspective. In comparison to the 22 other campaigns, Ichiro's numbers suffer. Take a look:

Ichiro, of course, is a singles hitter. He has a total of 191 singles through 135 games, just one off his own American League record set in 2001 and 11 short of Wee Willie Keeler's major league record from 1898. Are singles bad? Certainly not, but since Ichiro neither walks with regularity nor slugs for extra bases, his season cannot be fairly compared to the others on the first table.

That being said, Ichiro must be commended for his early-season consistency (he hit .315 through June 30) and his late season surge (.432 in July, .463 in August, and .500 in September), all while his team has long since fallen out of the pennant race. He's now had four straight 200-hit seasons. Only 10 other players in the history of the game have done that, and Ichiro is the first to start out a career that way. Next week some time, he should push his career hit total past 900, easily a record for the first four years of a major league career.

And so even though his season doesn't quite measure up to some of the other great offensive seasons the game has seen, it's historic in its own right. During the next three weeks baseball's spotlight will shine on the pennant races, but as the Mariners play out the string in relative obscurity, their right fielder deserves a little time in the sun. Move over, George. Here comes Ichiro.