Riding Suzuki
Ichiro Suzuki, the right fielder for the Seattle Mariners, is chasing the record for most hits in a season for a major league player (257, by George Sisler, in a 154-game season in 1920).
Yesterday, Ichiro somehow went five-for-five at the plate, raising his average to .379.
I saw Ichiro play in his rookie season in America (he’d previously played eight seasons with the Orix BlueWave in Japan). I had great seats for a Mariners-Indians game at Safeco field. In a late-inning, close game, Ichiro was up to bat. The M’s had a runner on third, and the Indians decided to bring the infield in to try to stop the run from scoring on a grounder.
Ichiro was incredulous. He stepped back from the plate for a moment, lowering his bat and not-quite-giving a cocker spaniel tilt. He hit the first pitch perfectly over the head of Cleveland’s shortstop (the wonderful-fielding but not very tall Omar Vizquel), dropping it right on the edge of the grass: run scores, Ichiro safely aboard. That moment at the plate was artistry.
(By the way: It was pretty funny seeing him stand next to Indians’ first baseman Jim Thome, who is built much like Thor. Ichiro looked like his son.)
In his short time in the league, Ichiro’s accomplished plenty with his bat, his incredible speed, and his monster throwing-arm, but I really didn’t think he had a chance at catching Sisler when I read about his numbers a month ago. When I saw the box score this morning, I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations:
Ichiro’s got 27 games left this season. He projects out to 119 more at-bats (he barely ever takes a walk). To get the 34 hits necessary to tie the record, he needs to hit .285 for the remainder of the season. He’s currently at .379, as I mentioned.
So that got me wondering: Just how many hits would Ichiro need to get his average up to the holy land of .400?
If the at-bats project out (in other words, if pitchers don’t start walking him intentionally), Ichirio would need 60 more hits to get up to .400. With 119 at-bats left. Meaning he’d need to hit over .500 in the last 27 games to get there.
If it were any other player, I’d say that’s impossible.
