Ichiro with 4,000 Career Hits in Pro Baseball

One of the most accomplished hitters today reaches a milestone that involves careers on two different continents.

With a single to left off of the Blue Jay's pitcher R.A. Dickey, Ichiro Suzuki now has 4,000 career hits in the highest levels of professional baseball. This mark goes back to when he debuted in Nippon Professional Baseball in 1992. As for how many hits he has playing Major League Baseball, Ichiro now has 2722 hits in a 13 year career.

If you count careers at the highest levels of pro baseball, Ichiro is only the third player ever to cross the 4,000 hit mark with the other two being Pete Rose and Ty Cobb. While Rose and Cobb's hits have all come while playing Major League Baseball, it's still an impressive milestone in terms of an international mark.

It also makes you wonder if Ichiro would've gotten to the 4,000 hit mark if he had started his career in the Majors. Ichiro has more hits than anyone since his MLB debut in 2001 and also set the new single season hits record in 2004 with 262.

It's fun to play "what if" but there's no doubt that Ichiro is a living legend of the game on an international scale.

P.S. Yanks would win 4-2... whatever.

Ichiro Traded to Yankees, Debuts in Seattle?

This last weekend hasn't been that great for the Nation. The good news was the fact that the Yankees got swept by the A's (like Oakland again). The bad news to take that away was the fact that the Yankees made an addition to their clubhouse. Longtime Mariner, Ichiro Suzuki, has been traded to the Yankees for a couple of pitching prospects. What made things even more intriguing was the fact that he made his Yankees debut that very day. Why? Because the Yankees were in town visiting the Mariners in Seattle. That's right. Ichiro's Yankee debut was against his old team at Safeco Field. Ichiro went 1 for 4 as the Yankees won, 4-1.

A little surprising that Ichiro leaves the team after so long and looks to be playing his farewell series over the next few days. Seems a bit proper for the fans of Seattle to have a chance to say goodbye to Ichiro before he leaves Seattle. I'm not sure how much Ichiro will help the Yankees considering that his batting average has been going down over the last few years. Sure, he can still play and that short RF in Yankee Stadium will help him but they are still getting a player that used to be in his prime.

While many will be intrigued as to how Ichiro will help the Yankees, I am more interested to see where he goes after this season is over and he is a free agent. Will the Yanks still want him then or will he have to find a new home?