Pete Rose: "They're Trying to Make Me the Hit Queen"
By Kyle Koster
Pete Rose holds the Major League Baseball record for most hits in a career with 4,256. His mark hasn’t been seriously challenged since retiring in 1986. The only player who could have conceivably passed him is Ichiro Suzuki, who spent his first nine seasons playing in Japan. Since coming over to the Seattle Mariners in 2001, Ichiro has amassed 2,977 hits. If you combine the 1,278 he rapped out in the Nippon Professional Baseball League, he currently has 4,255.
There has been very little fanfare regarding Ichiro approaching this milestone because virtually everyone realizes a difference between the accomplishment and what Rose did.
Or so I thought. Rose appears to think he’s become the target of a widespread conspiracy to, well, I’ll let him explain.
"“It sounds like in Japan,’’ Rose told USA TODAY Sports, “they’re trying to make me the Hit Queen. I’m not trying to take anything away from Ichiro, he’s had a Hall of Fame career, but the next thing you know, they’ll be counting his high-school hits. “I don’t think you’re going to find anybody with credibility say that Japanese baseball is equivalent to major-league baseball. There are too many guys that fail here, and then become household names there, like Tuffy Rhodes. How can he not do anything here, and hit (a record-tying) 55 home runs (in 2001) over there? “It has something to do with the caliber of personnel.’’"
Rose’s desire to keep his Hit King moniker is understandable and directly related to his marketability. His concern that he may be eclipsed in popularity by Ichiro in Japan is more a reflection of his delusion. That happened long, long ago.
If anything, Ichiro has been unfairly marginalized as a player in this country. There is no doubt in my mind that he’d have obliterated Rose’s mark had he played his entire career stateside. The fact that he’s going to reach the 3,000-hit plateau after debuting as a rookie at the age of 27 is astounding.
There’s plenty of greatness to go around here.