Bonafide Baseball Hall of Famers

What does this have to do with the Hall of Fame?

Also, the single season hits record means nothing. Then again, you're obviously a Mariners fan, so you probably think 116 wins in the regular season means something.

 

Little O, did all of that in 21 seasons. He is only averaging 126 or so hits a season. Even with the last few dropoff seasons, that is not near enough in my mind.

He was the best defender I've ever seen growing up, but his offensive shortcomings cause him to miss out.

 

Cheap shots aside :, breaking an eight-decade-old single-season hits record and being a pioneer among Japanese position players absolutely ARE valid bullet points on Ichiro's Hall of Fame resume.

116 wins ... not so much (although that and a poem got some other players in once.)

 

Ichiro is Buehrle to me.

He did something that is rare and cool, but other than that, who cares?

Ichiro has a lot of hits, but not 3,000. He hasn't won a World Series, though he's played for some pretty good teams.

He hits a lot of singles, but he doesn't have a lot of stolen bases, despite his speed.

His arm is overrated, beyond overrated.

What is it that makes Ichiro so special? Being Japanese? I'm happy that he broke that barrier, but I'm not sure what that has to do with the HoF.

 

Ichiro is Buehrle to you? Yeah, you're speaking Martian or fungo to me here. I don't know what that means.

200 hits in each of his first eight seasons. 100 runs in each of his first eight seasons. Eight-time Gold Glove winner. Two-time batting champion. Holds the single-season hits record. Career .332 hitter. 2001 MVP and ROY.

And you're bitching because he hits a lot of singles and doesn't have 3,000 hits yet? Doesn't have a lot of SBs, but he's been top-5 in the league every year? Yeah, I don't know where you're going with this one. But wherever it is, I'm not following.

 

Case. Closed.

And I'm not much of an Ichiro fan, either.

 

The anti-Ichiro phenomenon is baffling to me. He's an obvious first-ballot Hall of Famer. He's recognized by almost everyone as one of the game's best players, and rightly so. And yet, there are people who denigrated him because, well, why?
To me, he is poorly understood baseball mathematics run amok. He doesn't walk or hit homers much, so he's overrated. This is missing the point. Hits aren't overrated, it was that walks used to be underrated (no more, obviously). There is no metric and should be no metric that makes a 200 hit, 100 run leadoff man who also steals bases and is an exceptional defensive player anything less than a big star.
He's done all this with a team that, aside from his first couple years, hasn't been too good. My classic Ichiro game was in 2004. In a loss in Seattle to the Sox, he wenf four for four, stole second four times, and never scored. Way to pick him up, fellas.

 

I would guess that's happened a few times to him.

This the game you're talking about? http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2004/B07200SEA2004.htm

Reached base five times -- 4-5, 1 BB -- stole four bases ... scored one run. M's lose 9-7 to the Sox at Safeco.

Ninth inning typified it:

MARINERS 9TH: FOULKE REPLACED EMBREE (PITCHING); VARITEK
REPLACED MIRABELLI (PLAYING C ); Suzuki singled to left; Suzuki
stole second; Winn walked; Boone struck out; Martinez was called
out on strikes; Jacobsen struck out; 0 R, 1 H, 0 E, 2 LOB. Red
Sox 9, Mariners 7.

 

That's the one.

 

Didn't Nilsson get stung by a bee... or something bizarre like that?

 

Nothing.... I do not think this word means what you think it means.

 

Amen to that.