Time Machine: Ichiro or Pete - Who was the better player?

This story originally appeared in the Japanese newspaper Yukan Fuji in 2010.

TOKYO — Patience please. You may be sick and tired of reading about Ichiro Suzuki and Pete Rose comparisons, but please bear with me. A few more comments on the subject are necessary to point out that there are substantial differences between two of the greatest hit makers of all time.

Dan Szymborki of the Baseball Think Factory put the two on par recently when he indicated Ichiro’s hits in Japan should also count in the equation. Using some Sabermetrics formula, he calculated that Ichiro’s total of 1,278 hits in the Pacific League were the equivalent of 1,228 MLB hits. That would put Ichiro’s present total at 3,519 career hits, just 737 behind Rose’s total, something Ichiro should easily be able to accomplish over the next four seasons. (Note: Ichiro retired with 3,089 MLB hits).