Nine years ago, Ichiro Suzuki finished the 2004 season with 262 hits, which broke the all-time record. He finished other seasons with 242, 238, 225, and 224 hits.
Thanks to Ichiro, I think we might have forgotten just how many hits 220 are.
Ichiro debuted in our majors in 2001. Since then, there have been exactly eight 220-hit seasons ... and of course Ichiro has five of them. Here are the other three:
221 Juan Pierre (2004)
221 Michael Young (2004)
221 Jose Altuve (2014)
and of course Altuve's got a few games left, which means he'll almost certainly finish with the most hits by any non-Suzuki since Darin Erstad's 240-hit 2000 season (he finished eighth in the MVP balloting, which now seems sort of a bad joke).
But of course numbers are one thing, and then there's this:
Okay, so maybe that's not as impressive as Vladimir Guerrro singling off a pitch that bounced first. But making any sort of contact with both feet off the ground is still pretty nifty. Between that and Altuve's 221 hits, I can't help but wonder if we're not appreciating him quite enough. Batting average be damned, we're still looking at a guy with an 839 OPS and 54 steals who's exactly 1 Altuve tall. He's one of the most interesting players in a long time, and I can't wait for him to become famous.
