Baseball: just how hot is ichiro?

here is a list of the all time leaders for number of singles above the league average

The new top 10--

SINGLES YEAR DIFF PLAYER LEAGUE
1 Ichiro Suzuki 2004 100 191 91
2 Wade Boggs 1985 87 187 100
3 Ichiro Suzuki 2001 85 192 107
T4 Lloyd Waner 1927 76 198 122
T4 Rod Carew 1974 76 180 104
6 Rod Carew 1977 75 171 96
7 Richie Ashburn 1958 73 176 103
T8 George Sisler 1922 71 178 107
T8 Tony Gwynn 1984 71 177 106
T8 Richie Ashburn 1951 71 181 110
T8 Jesse Burkett 1901 71 181 110

Mariners: Ichiro sets AL singles record

by Fanball Staff - Fanball.com
Friday, September 10, 2004

News
Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki singled in the first inning of Thursday's game against the Red Sox. He now has 193 singles this season, which is a new American League record. Ichiro set the previous mark of 192 in 2001.

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What can we say at this point? Ichiro is good

Originally posted by toejam
What can we say at this point? Ichiro is good

Yep, he's good. Unbeleivable.

He'd do some damage if he was hitting for a contending team, no doubt.

Ichiro got the collar tonight going 0 for 4.

He has 229 hits, just 28 shy of tying Sisler's record.

Ichiro Suzuki broke the major league record with his 199th single of the season in the seventh yesterday against the A's. He bettered the mark of 198 set by Lloyd Waner of Pittsburgh in 1927. Suzuki said he wasn't aware of the record until he heard the Safeco Field crowd of 30,610 cheer.



"I didn't really understand why the fans were on their feet cheering for me," he said through a translator. "I didn't know what was going on."

Suzuki went 2-for-4, giving him 235 hits this season - 22 shy of the season record set by George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns in 1920. The Mariners have 15 games left.

Link



[Edited on 18/9/04 by TRD]

Ichiro is already 2 for 2 tonight in the 2nd inning.

that should put him back ahead of the pace that he needs to break the record, last night he also got 2 hits and that put him back on track to tie for most hits in a season

how many games are there left

11 games after tonight

3 for 3 in the 4th inning!



The single machine just hit his 3rd of the game.

So, what is the count now?

The Single Machine strikes again.

In the top of the 6th in Anaheim, Ichiro is 4 for 4 with 4 singles.

If I'm not mistaken, he is now 15 shy.

Ichiro's hit parade marches on as M's float into oblivion

So, what are we to make of Ichiro Suzuki's relentless pursuit of George Sisler's 84-year-old record for most hits in a season?

Is it a trumpet-and-fanfare event that deserves red carpet and high praise?

Or is it a hollow march that has threatened to become a selfish sideshow in these waning days of 2004?

Sisler's record of 257 hits in one season is a striking, hand-crafted relic from the past that still stands out amid the newer, sleeker records of today.

The fact that no one has put the mark of the old St. Louis Browns star into storage -- not Ted Williams, not Joe DiMaggio, not Pete Rose, not Tony Gwynn -- serves to magnify the degree of difficulty and seems to amplify Ichiro's achievement.

With 238 hits entering Tuesday night's game in Anaheim -- including a major league record 202 singles -- Ichiro currently is on pace to finish in a dead heat with Sisler at 257.

But with the Mariners reeking in their worst season since 1983 and with Ichiro having failed to even score 100 runs despite all of those times on base (he's at 91), how much, exactly, does his singular achievement mean?

More nagging, and more to the point, is this: As his team has stayed far south, has Ichiro's pursuit of the record become self-centered to the point that, more than anything, it is cheapening the record?

Twice in two days earlier this month, with a runner on second base and two out in a one-run game, when Seattle has needed the American League's leading hitter to knock a run-scoring hit, Ichiro has gone against convention and bunted.

The overwhelming conclusion among those who were watching: Ichiro is currently much more concerned with Ichiro than he is with helping his team.

www.sportsline.com...

:loudhorn:


I was surprised that this writer ended the article that Ichiro has acted selfish in pursuit of the record. Any thoughts???

Top of the 8th in Anaheim, Ichiro goes 5 for 5 with his 5th single.

i dont picture ichrio being selfish at all, many of the bunts and such come from the coach himself, blame him, i would to think that a batter owuld perfer to hit the ball than to lay out a bunt

Ichiro is 1 for 3 so far tonight after 5 innings in Anaheim.

That leaves him 13 short of Sisler's record with 10 games remaining after tonight. He should still get at least 2 more at-bats tonight so we'll see how he does.

Top of the 6th Ichiro comes up and delivers a 2-RBI single.

Now just 12 to tie, 13 to break George "Twisted" Sisler's record from the 20's.

Chris Berman just referred to him as "Twisted" Sisler on ESPN, he's doing the Houston-SanFran game.

:party-smiley-018:

He ended up 4 for 6 tonight, that's 9 hits in the past 2 games!!!

He's now just 10 hits away from tying with 10 games to play, at his current pace it's a lock. 11 to break it.

I guarantee he doesn't get a hit tonight, the M's are off.










[Edited on 9-23-2004 by ProudAmerican]

Mariners
Up-close view of history

By Bob Finnigan
Seattle Times staff reporter


Ichiro begins his sprint toward first base after slapping another single against Anaheim this week. "His technique is so good he uses dropping the bat as part of his takeoff," says Mariners teammate Randy Winn.


ANAHEIM, Calif. — In almost every game this year, Randy Winn has had a unique perspective on Ichiro.

No one else watches the Mariners' hitting wonder, day after day for six months, from the on-deck circle.

But like everyone else, the Mariners' No. 2 hitter behind Ichiro marvels at what he sees and, as a hitter who wants to improve, tries to pick up a few pointers.

"Of all the games I've watched, I'd say his style is at its best right now," Winn said of Ichiro, who has 10 games left after yesterday's off day to get the 11 hits needed to surpass George Sisler's 1920 mark of 257 hits.

"It seems like — well, you can't really say perfected — but maybe he's as close to perfecting his approach as he has been."

The Seattle center fielder, who was the designated hitter the past two games because of a sore right knee, believes Ichiro goes to bat with a plan, even if he won't admit it.

"He goes up figuring how the pitcher is going to pitch him," Winn said, "and with that knowledge he decides how he's going to get a hit."

Ichiro's style is often contrary. Bust him in, as Winn put it, "and he fights it off and goes the other way. Other times he looks to pull. He changes pitch to pitch, at-bat to at-bat."

Winn used Ichiro's 5-for-5 game Tuesday as an example.

"He got a couple of ground-ball hits to the pull side in his earlier at-bats," he said of Ichiro's first and third times up. "And it's like he knew they'd change the way they'd pitch him, so he decided to go the other way, and his last two hits were to left."


Overall, since his 5-for-5 performance on Sept. 4 left him with 223 hits with 27 games to play, Ichiro is hitting the ball on the ground a bit more. Of 70 at-bats since, Ichiro is hitting .343 but only .286 (14 for 49) on the ground and .588 (10 for 17) when he gets the ball in the air. He has also struck out four times.

At his current pace, he would wind up with 263 hits in 162 games and 250 hits for 154 games, the first player to do that since 1930, which should satisfy even the strictest baseball traditionalists.

"It is starting to feel similar to Japan," Ichiro said after he had 11 hits in three games in Anaheim, including a Seattle-record nine in the last two games and eight straight during one stretch to tie another team mark.

"Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought it would be like Japan for me here, but it is starting to feel similar."

Winn laughed at the fact that his teammate has a phenomenal number of infield hits — about one quarter of his total — and has some seeing things.

Bret Boone is among those who swears Ichiro is off to a running start before he hits the ball.

"Two steps," Boone says for emphasis.

"That business of Ichiro being a step out of the box by the time he hits the ball is the biggest myth in baseball," Winn said. "But he has as quick a first step as anyone, and he has instant acceleration once he gets out of the box."

In Winn's up-close analysis, he attributes Ichiro's now-you-see-him-now-you-don't starts to a quick first step.

"He gets that quick step because he has an amazingly short follow-through," he said of his fellow outfielder. "Once he makes contact, his hands stay quick and keep his arms and bat close to his body rather than extended. His technique is so good he uses dropping the bat as part of his takeoff."

Like everyone else, he senses that Ichiro is going for the record

"It seems like he's making a push," Winn said. "Earlier this year he seemed to be just hitting, about as well as usual, which of course is very, very good.

"But I don't think he's focused on this until now. I know he says he doesn't pay attention to the record, but he has to be aware of it. For one thing, reporters talk to him about it all the time.

"When it comes down to it, I think he has a realistic shot."

Winn looks at hits like other good hitters, appreciating the fact that "200 hits is a lot of hits. Compare Ichiro to the guy leading the other league."

That would be Juan Pierre of Florida, with 203 hits.

"Ichiro has more than 40 hits more than him. That's better than one more hit every four games than the best guy in the National League.

"What's he got over the second half? It seems like he's hardly been stopped since the All-Star break. His norm is two or three hits, his week goes something like 3, 0, 2, 3, 0, 3, 4.

"You say it seems like he's been struggling for a few games and you find out he's hit .333 for the week. But at his level maybe that isn't so good. For a .370 hitter, .333 is struggling.

"I can't imagine a big-leaguer who wouldn't want to struggle like Ichiro."