For those who remember Ozzie Guillen as a White Sox player, they know he never saw a pitch he wouldn’t swing at, from eyelashes to shoelaces, from outer space to his inner reach.
Therefore, Guillen should feel like he’s watching an old tape when Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki comes swinging into U.S. Cellular Field this weekend.
“Hah,” Guillen says. “Ichiro has a better swing than me and he’s fast.
“He gets 200-some hits every year, I got 200 every three years.”
Guillen may exaggerate, but he is right, of course. The comparison between the two definitely ends at style.
As for substance, the most hits Guillen ever had in a season was 156, the highest average .288. Suzuki hit .350 as a rookie and is well on his way to the all-time hits record for a season, which the St. Louis Browns’ George Sisler set in 1920 with 257.
But what kept Guillen in the big leagues for 15 seasons is the same thing that makes Suzuki so good–they will nibble at any bait a pitcher casts; heck, they’ll bite on a bare hook if they think it will get them on base.
“It’s a joke,” Oakland’s Cy Young Award candidate Mark Mulder says. “I’ve thrown some great pitches on him and he still gets hits.
“When I throw a sinker in to any other lefty, they pull it foul or hit it off their foot. When I throw it to him, he hits a line drive down the third-base line. You just go, `What is that? How did he do that?’
“I throw the guy well and he probably has six or seven infield hits. It’s just that he gets hits in so many ways others don’t. He gets more hits of a different variety than anybody else.”
Actually, he just gets more hits, period, than anybody else.
He ended August with three hits, which meant he needed only 46 in September to pass Sisler. He has five already.
He comes to U.S. Cellular Field following a month in which he collected 56 hits and batted .463, becoming the first player with back-to-back 50-hit months since 1936.
“Ichi gets three hits,” teammate Bret Boone says, “like the rest of us get one.”
Suzuki, who came to the United States after winning seven consecutive batting titles in Japan, is on the verge of breaking one of baseball’s longest-held and least-known records, one that has been overlooked in these days of the Big Boom. Singles just aren’t sexy anymore.
But make no mistake, Sisler’s mark is overlooked only because it has been covered by dust for so long.
Of the top 10 hit producers for one season, only one did it after 1930. 1930!
And that one is Ichiro Suzuki in 2001 with 242. Not Pete Rose nor George Brett, not Barry Bonds nor Ted Williams, not Wade Boggs nor Ricky Henderson.
In comparison, the White Sox’s record is lefty Eddie Collins’ 224 in 1920. Frank Thomas never has had 200.
The Cubs’ record is Rogers Hornsby’s 229 in 1929. Their left-handed leader is Billy Williams with 205 in 1970.
How good a season is Suzuki having? Well, he leads the league in batting average against right-handers and left-handers, in day games and night games, on the road and with runners in scoring position.
He is averaging more than 1 1/2 hits a game.
It’s sort of a ballet with a bat.
“He does things you don’t think are possible,” says former Seattle teammate Ben Davis, now a catcher with the White Sox. “He’s unbelievable.
“But you watch him take batting practice and he hits balls farther than anybody. I would put my money on him in a home run contest.”
“My second year in Japan,” White Sox announcer Darrin Jackson says, “he hit 25 home runs and the league leader had only 28. When we were going to the All-Star series in Yokohama, he hit a ball out of the stadium in batting practice.”
That’s quite an accomplishment for a 5-foot-9-inch, 170-pound hitter who pokes the ball.
“Whoa, whoa, time out,” interrupts Mark McLemore, who played with Suzuki in his first three U.S. seasons. “First and foremost, he does not `poke’ the ball. People think he slaps the ball. I challenge anybody to get on the other end of the ball and try to catch it. . . . He drives the ball as hard as anybody.
“You have to use your talent. That’s what a home-run hitter does. Why knock a guy because he can outrun them? It’s not his fault he’s the Japanese Jet.”
So how do pitchers get Suzuki out?
“Soft and away, maybe,” a scout said.
But wouldn’t Suzuki slam that pitch into left field?
“I’m not saying it’s going to work,” the scout replied. “I’m saying that’s where you might pitch him to minimize the damage.”
“I just throw it and let him hit it and hope it lands in the right spot,” Oakland’s Tim Hudson says.
“He’s one of those guys,” McLemore says, “who not only takes advantage of a pitcher’s mistake but hits a good pitch too.”
“If you look at his past,” White Sox pitcher Shingo Takatsu said through an interpreter, “it’s not really surprising.”
Takatsu has not faced Suzuki in the United States and, because they were in separate leagues, rarely faced him in Japan.
When they do meet, perhaps this weekend, Takatsu said what pitch he would throw “would depend on the situation,” but you can be guaranteed something soft and away will come floating Suzuki’s way.
As Suzuki nears the record, the question is how much he will be pitched around–if that is possible–or walked intentionally because also-ran Seattle meets playoff contenders Anaheim, Oakland and Texas exclusively the last three weeks. Of course, Suzuki is so fast (he’s second in the AL in stolen bases), walking him could create the same situation as a double.
“No way you want to walk him,” Mulder says. “Maybe, if we’re tied for the division lead and there’s a runner on third.”
Another question is whether Suzuki would be walked as he approaches the record, just to keep a Japanese player from breaking an American record.
That has happened in the past when Americans approached Japanese records.
Jackson doesn’t think that will happen.
“Heck, I don’t think our players even know what the record is and who has it,” he said.
Maybe it’s because Suzuki plays in relative obscurity in Seattle instead of New York, and in the Pacific Time Zone instead of the Eastern, but pretty soon the news should “hit” them.
– – –
Suzuki by the numbers
First player to have three 50-hit months in season.
First to have 50 hits in back-to-back months since Joe Medwick in 1936.
First to have four 50-hit months in career since Pete Rose completed his last one in 1979.
217 hits put him on pace for 265 with 29 games left. The major-league record is 257, set by George Sisler in 1920 with the St. Louis Browns.
First to have 200 hits in each of his first four seasons.
Reached 200 hits in his 125th game (the Mariners’ 126th), the fastest since 1930.
879 hits in his three-plus seasons, most for player in first four seasons (old record, 841).
Since All-Star break, he’s hitting .469 (98-for-209).
Entering Thursday’s games
Leads league in multiple-hit games (67).
214 hits lead the AL by 43; .369 average leads AL by 25 points.
Leads league in average against left-handers (.407), average against right-handers (.357), average in road games (.390), average during day games (.396) and average with runners in scoring position (.359).
Hitting his stride
Ichiro Suzuki (left), who’s hitting .374 (.469 since the All-Star break), would have
to get even hotter to hit .400, which hasn’t been done since Ted Williams (right) hit .406 in 1941.
How could he do it?
In the final 29 games of the season: .520
That would equate to 66 of 127. He’s hot but not that hot.
Month by month:
April: .255
May: .400
June: .274
July: .432
August: .468
