On Wednesday, the Seattle Mariners got hammered by the White Sox 15-3. Ichiro went three-for-three with a walk a run scored. Thursday, the Mariners lost their seventh straight and eleventh in twelve games, this time 2-0 to the A’s. Ichiro went three-for-four in that Greg Smith combined seven-hitter.

 

Not much new on the Mariner front as they battle the nasty Nats for the worst record in baseball. Ichiro on the other hand is really starting to heat up as his current six-game hitting streak (14-28) has raised his average to .315, just eight points behind Joe Mauer of the Twins for what would be his third American League batting title. He’s also on track for eighth straight 200 hit season, a feat accomplished only by Wee Willie Keeler at the turn of the century.

 

Keeler played from 1892-1910 with the New York Giants, Baltimore Orioles, Brooklyn Superbas, and the New York Highlanders (Yankees). He was a career .341 hitter that hit .300 16 times in 19 seasons including one .400 season. Keeler started the 1897 season hitting safely in 44 straight games, a record matched only by Pete Rose in 1978. Keeler was such an accomplished bunter that he was responsible for the third-strike bunt rule and authored the quote, “Hit it where they aint”.

 

Ichiro has 169 hits and has 35 games to get 31 hits in what has been a miserable season for a team that many prognosticators projected to battle the Angels for the AL West crown and possibly the wild card. Ichiro got off to a relatively slow start and for the first time in his career, has had a better second half than first.

 

Not yet 35, Ichiro recently passed the 3000 hit mark, MLB/Japanese League combined. At this writing, Suzuki in his seven pl us seasons in Seattle has an amazing 1761 hits including a record 262 in 2004. It’s not inconceivable that if Ichiro could healthy, he could still get 3000 MLB hits despite starting his career at twenty-seven. If he were to accomplish this feat his 4278 combined hits would surpass Pete Rose’s mark of 4256 hits.

 

A five tool player that has stolen 310 bases and owns seven Golden Gloves, Ichiro is one of the underappreciated players of this generation and when it is all said and done, will go down as one of the greatest players of all time.