At which he reveals that not only does he speak excellent idiomatic English, but all those cryptic pronouncements were carefully crafted gags. Especially the New Guinea beer one. Oh, and he read the USSMariner website almost daily, and posted occasionally under an alias. Once he even posted to a game thread, from the dugout, using his cell phone.

I haven’t seen a source of stats for Japanese players that breaks out infield hits, but my suspicion is that at least a part of that may be due to him beating out balls on grass that would’ve got to the infielders faster on the carpets in Japan.

I can’t find an official source either, but my unofficial tally has him with 189 infield hits in Japan out of 1277 (14.80%) and per Fangraphs he has 273 infield hits in MLB out of 1723 total (15.84%).

Based on that there may be a small effect like that but it’s about 2 or 3 hits per season at best. (Assuming the underlying data is correct.)

Can anyone come up with a better term than “professional” to mean MLB + Japan?
Minor leaguers, who are payed for playing, are professionals. So it would seem that professional totals would include minor league stats. Also independent leagues, for that matter. Also winter ball.

Professional Major Leagues? Although I’m sure some other leagues besides MLB and NPB would vie for that title as well.

I’m looking forward to his commencement speech.

$*&&%&Y @))*$&$&$&, !**@&#&& %($*$#&& %))$((*% &#$**%)…

I just hope that Ichiro! will not only be remembered for his playing ability but also for proving that Asian players can succeed in America. He’s not on par with Jackie Robinson of course, but future generations of Asian ballplayers have him to thank.

I’m looking forward to his commencement speech.

I haven’t seen a source of stats for Japanese players that breaks out infield hits, but my suspicion is that at least a part of that may be due to him beating out balls on grass that would’ve got to the infielders faster on the carpets in Japan.

Ichiro’s infield hit rate isn’t actually that high, due mostly I suspect to his ability to hit almost any ball squarely.

If you’ll recall in 2004 teams (like Oakland, surprisingly enough) started to play their infield in agaist him all the time, and as a result he just got more hits by hitting the ball into the outfield.

But, regardless of how high his infield hit rate is, it would still make sense that he’d get more of them on grass.

Speaking through an interpreter, Suzuzki said after the game that he disputes those who downplay his milestone because more than 1,200 of his hits came in Japan.

”If you look at it, my pace of getting hits in the United States is actually quicker than in Japan,” Suzuki said. ”So I guess if people want to say those kinds of things, one thing I’d like for them to look at is that statistic.”

I haven’t seen a source of stats for Japanese players that breaks out infield hits, but my suspicion is that at least a part of that may be due to him beating out balls on grass that would’ve got to the infielders faster on the carpets in Japan.

WRT the Cooperstown discussion, there’s a dated (2004) but nonetheless interesting article that comes up with

a list of 16 retired outfielders with between 2100 and 2800 hits, a career average over .300, and a slugging percentage under .480. The hits criteria needs 2100 hits because I found three more with between 2000 and 2100 hits who aren’t in the Hall. The upper limit applies because after that, everyone who also has a career .300 average is in. The .300 average is certainly applicable to a high average hitter like Ichiro, and, as I said above, I can’t see his career average dipping below .300. The cap on slugging percentage is meant to weed out sluggers, who are not good comparisons for Ichiro. Twelve of the sixteen are in the Hall: Fred Clarke, Richie Ashburn, Heinie Manush, Lloyd Waner, Enos Slaughter, Edd Roush, Kirby Puckett, Jim O’Rourke, Kiki Cuyler, Hugh Duffy, Joe Kelley, and Billy Hamilton. The four who aren’t are Al Oliver, Jimmy Ryan, George Van Haltren, and Patsy Donovan. It seems clear that Ichiro is either in or very near Hall of Fame territory already.

“I was 18 at the time, and I got called up to the Majors in July,” he said. “To myself, I actually refused to get called up, because I didn’t think it was my time yet. But the order came, so I had to go. I was in the mood of not agreeing to the [promotion], but I got a hit. That’s what I remember about it.”