With a slap single off Blue Jays starter R.A. Dickey, Ichiro Suzuki joined one of baseballs most exclusive groups: the 4,000 hit club. Ichiro joined only Pete Rose (4,256) and Ty Cobb (4,189) as the only men in the history of professional baseball to reach the plateau, reaching the milestone in his 2,981st professional game. TSN.ca Baseball Editor Shane McNeil presents five reasons why Ichiros achievement deserves the recognition it has received. 1. Its the numbers that matter, not the details. While some might argue an asterisk for those Ichiro accrued in the Japanese Professional League, those arguments must also be tempered by a couple facts. Ichiro has registered more hits in Major League Baseball than any player in the first 13 years of his MLB career (2,722), eclipsing Paul Waners 2,648. The fact that he did not start his MLB career cannot and should not be held against him, since he was born and trained in Japan and naturally started his career. Ichiro has more hits from the age of 27 onward than the two men ahead of him which makes this achievement all the more astounding. Most players best years are prior to their 30th birthday. Ichiro did the majority of his work as a pro after that milestone. Moreover, Ichiro was actually registering fewer at-bats per season in Japan than he would have in North America. His highest single-season AB total with Orix was his 546 in 1994. His lowest single-season total with Seattle was 647 in 2002. While Ichiros Japanese averages were substantially higher than most of his MLB single-season totals (a .353 career mark vs. .320 in MLB), the greater number of at-bats means that had Ichiro been even a .300 hitter in the MLB he would have registered 200 hits per season, as opposed to the 180 or so he averaged in Japan. Call the Nippon Professional Baseball League inferior all you like, it only masks the reality that had Ichiro started in North America in 1995 – three years after his Japanese career began – he would still be at 4,000 today, health permitting. 2. Baseball needs something to be proud of. Whenever the “Steroid Era” is mentioned in connection to baseball, a few faces spring to mind. Perhaps its Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Perhaps its Jose Canseco or a younger Alex Rodriguez with the Texas Rangers. Maybe its Ryan Braun. The steroid problem in the Majors did not end with the Mitchell Report, nor is it likely to end with Biogenesis. However, what the Steroid Era has achieved is calling into question virtually every major landmark and achievement over the past 25 or so years, give or take a Cal Ripken. With Ichiros 4,000th hit – many of which never even left the infield – baseball has something to be proud of and its primarily based around one of the most elementary skills: Legging one out to first. 3. It allows MLB to celebrate one of its underappreciated greats. Ichiro has never been a spotlight hog, nor has he been a particularly flashy player. A wise man once wrote, “This... is a simple game. You throw the ball. You hit the ball. You catch the ball.” Ichiro did all three better than just about any player of his generation. While his 110 home runs wont win him any MVP votes, he managed a decade of achievement that is almost unparalleled in the most basic of baseball skills. Between 2001 and 2010, Ichiro never finished lower than seventh in the American League batting race, hitting .310 or better every single season. Over that same span he finished in the top 10 in stolen bases every season, winning 10 Gold Gloves over that span and was selected to 10 All-Star Games. Ichiro has played baseball in its purest sense better than the majority of his opposition as a Major Leaguer and – apart from his rookie season – drew surprisingly little attention to himself in the process. If he plays another two or three seasons in North America, there may well be a celebration for his passage of Rose and Cobb on the hit list. But he may not, so why not take the opportunity to celebrate the man and his achievement? 4. Its rare nowadays to see a true trailblazer at work. Ichiro was not the first Japanese player to hit North America, nor will he be the last. That said, he will undoubtedly be the first to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and will likely do so on the first ballot. Ichiro was not faced with the obstacles of being the first, like Jackie Robinson, but he is the first Japanese player and certainly the first Japanese hitter to have such a career. It is time to start thinking of Ichiro in the same vein as Roberto Clemente, his humanitarianism and martyrdom notwithstanding? Clemente was not the first Latin American ballplayer to hit MLB, but he was the first to become a true force in the game and has since carried the flag for the majority of the subsequent ballplayers to flood the Majors from the Caribbean. Will Ichiro open a similar floodgate for Japanese and Asian players to gain better prominence in MLB? Maybe not to the same extent as the close Caribbean cultures, but its not a stretch to think that Yu Darvish has Ichiro to thank at least in part for his current success and celebrity. 5. He may not be done yet. Ichiro may well be in his final act in the Majors, but there is no way to know for certain. A quiet man by nature, Ichiro has made no allusions toward retirement any time soon, nor has he hinted about a possible return to Japan. At 39, Ichiro is two years younger than Cobb was at the time of his retirement and a full six years younger than Rose in his final season as a player. Its not out of the realm of possibility to play two more seasons and should he do so he still has both men to pass, as well as the incredible milestone of possibly reaching 3,000 hits in the majors – an asterisk-less achievement if ever there was one. He is also still yet to play a World Series game, so a competitor of his stature could also be holding out to win a Championship before calling it a career. Either way, the man still has plenty to play for. http://www.steelersrookiestore.com/Steelers-Carnell-Lake-Jersey/ . 1 position. The Mustangs (6-0), who beat Queens 50-31 last weekend, earned 17 first-place votes and 287 points in voting by the Football Reporters of Canada. Western was last ranked first in the country in October 2011. http://www.steelersrookiestore.com/Steelers-Greg-Lloyd-Jersey/ . Now, with Game 6 set for Fenway Park and an 8:07 p.m. ET first pitch, the Detroit Tigers face the unenviable task of having to beat the Boston Red Sox twice, on the road, to advance to the World Series. http://www.steelersrookiestore.com/Hoodie/ . After Martin Skrtel put the Reds in front from close range at Stamford Bridge after only four minutes, Hazard hit back in the 17th with a superb strike. Etoo gave Jose Mourinhos team a decisive lead from Oscars back pass in the 34th. http://www.steelersrookiestore.com/Steelers-Marcus-Gilbert-Jersey/ . Thousands of fans at Mosaic Stadium will be cozying up to each other in an effort to stay warm in chilly temperatures and block the Prairie wind that locals say can knock your socks off. http://www.steelersrookiestore.com/Steelers-Heath-Miller-Jersey/ .com) - The women will also have a new champion at the Australian Open. Stats are great for reporting events, but when it comes to the raw tools and skills that drive those events, things quickly get trickier. When things that dont have a one-to-one relationship with a particular event, we need to use numbers in a more indirect fashion. The good news is that baseball is a data-rich game, so there are lot of numbers to work with when gauging tools or things on the major league level that border on the intangibles.SPEED Measuring a players speed is difficult on multiple levels. First, theres no direct measure of straight-line speed in baseball. Even if you had every player in baseball run a 40-meter or 100-meter dash in spring training, it still wouldnt directly measure their baseball-relevant speed. Running the bases is a different activity than running to a line after hearing a starters pistol.But there are a number of ways to indirectly measure a players speed: stolen base attempts/success, baserunning stats, triples percentage, outfield range, and GIDP as a percentage of grounders hit all give us an idea of a players baseball speed.Bill James developed Speed Scores a few decades ago, and they tend to get the job done.dddddddddddd I calculate my own Speed Scores as part of ZiPS, with a few other things, including adjustment for opportunity, age, longer-range looks than a single season, and even park effects. You might be scratching your head at how a park would affect speed, but beyond the playing field itself, parks that cause different styles of baseball have an effect on the stats that make up speed score. In the charts below, Im not including pitchers.TOP 10 (min. 50 MLB PA in 2016)1. Jarrod Dyson, Royals 2. Socrates Brito, Diamondbacks 3. Raul Mondesi Jr., Royals 4. Trea Turner, Nationals 5. David Dahl, Rockies 6. Billy Hamilton, Reds 7. Mallex Smith, Braves 8. Dee Gordon, Marlins 9. Orlando Arcia, Brewers 10. Jemile Weeks, PadresBOTTOM 10 (min. 50 MLB PA in 2016)?1. Peter OBrien, Diamondbacks 2. Justin Bour, Marlins 3. Kevin Plawecki, Mets 4. Rene Rivera, Mets 5. Dae-Ho Lee, Mariners 6. Ryon Healy, As 7. Prince Fielder, Rangers 8. Martin Maldonado, Brewers 9. Jett Bandy, Angels 10. David Ortiz, Red Sox Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys China Stitched Jerseys China Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Store Youth NFL Jerseys Cheap Wholesale Nike NFL Jerseys Discount NFL Jerseys Wholesale NFL Camo Jerseys Wholesale NFL White Jerseys Wholesale NFL Camo Jerseys White NFL Jerseys Cheap Camo China NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Jerseys NFL China ' ' '