Ichiro Suzuki has become the 30th player to record 3000 major league hits. Ichiro’s 7th inning triple on Sunday off of Rockies’ left-hander Chris Rusin put him into that select company.
More on the 3000 hit club after the jump.
Some notes on Ichiro’s accomplishment.
- Ichiro is fourth player born outside the continental US to reach 3000 career hits, following Roberto Clemente (Puerto Rico), Rod Carew (Panama) and Rafael Palmeiro (Cuba).
- Ichiro is the oldest player to record his 3000th hit, four days older than Rickey Henderson when the Man of Steal reached 3000 on the final day of the 2001 season (MLB does not recognize Cap Anson‘s National Association hits, so Anson is credited with his 3000th NL hit aged approximately 45 years, 5 months).
- Ichiro’s major league debut at age 27 is the latest of any member of the 3000 hit club. Wade Boggs is next with an age 24 debut. Half of the 3000 hit club debuted age 20 or younger.
- Ichiro reached his milestone in game 2,452 and plate appearance 10,322 of his 16-year career; only Pete Rose has also reached 3000 hits by his sixteenth season.
- Ichiro matches Paul Molitor as the only searchable players to record a triple for their 3000th hit.
- Ichiro is the 15th player (and 13th of the last 20) to notch hit number 3000 in August, September or October; since this milestone has become a celebrated feat, it has evidently also become a more urgent priority to reach by season’s end.
The table below records particulars on the milestone knock. You can sort on any field by clicking on it. I’ve used Baseball-Reference.com as my source, but alternate claims (see the Hall of Fame’s 3000 hit club exhibit) for 3000th hits are referenced in the footnotes.
[table id=316 /]
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Notes:
* denotes an approximate value
(1) MLB only recognizes Anson’s NL hits, with his 3000th (of 3022) coming late in his 22nd and final season, aged approximately 45 years, 5 months. The HOF (and Elias) credit Anson with 3081 NL hits, including his 60 walks in 1887 which, in that season only, were credited at the time as hits.
(2) The HOF credits Honus Wagner‘s 3000th hit as his single off of the Phillies’ Erskine Mayer on June 9, 1914.
(3) Allen Russell is the other Senator pitcher in this game who may have surrendered Tris Speaker‘s milestone hit. The HOF credits Speaker’s 3000th hit as his single one day earlier off of the Senators’ Tom Zachary.
(4) The HOF credits Eddie Collins‘ 3000th hit as his single off of the Tigers’ Rip Collins on June 3, 1925.
Some observations on the above table.
- Craig Biggio and Derek Jeter recorded their 3000th hits in 5-hit games.
- Stan Musial is the only player to record his 3000th hit as a pinch-hitter.
- Recent players have often been accorded the honor of being removed from the game after recording their 3000th hit. No such luck for Hank Aaron; after playing the entire first game of a double-header, Aaron notched his milestone knock in the first inning of the second game, and then played the rest of that 15-inning marathon.
- Four CYA winners (all in the AL) and two other CYA runners-up have surrendered 3000th hits. Dennis Eckerlsey was the defending CYA winner when he surrendered Dave Winfield‘s 3000th hit, with Winfield scoring the game-tying run as Eckersley recorded the 9th of a career-high 10 blown saves that season.
- Ichiro is the seventh winner of the RoY award to reach 3000 hits (without looking it up, who are the other six?). Two RoY winners have surrendered 3000th hits, including Jon Matlack who did so in his rookie season.
- The 1928 Athletics had three players (Eddie Collins, Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb) who had already reached the 3000 hit plateau. Only three other teams (the 1996 Orioles with Cal Ripken, Eddie Murray and Rafael Palmeiro; and the 2012 and 2013 Yankees with Ichiro, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez) had three current or future 3000 hit club members.
- The most current or future 3000 hit club members to play in the same game is five, when the Orioles (Ripken, Murray, Palmeiro) and Yankees (Wade Boggs, Derek Jeter) tangled in three games on Sep 18-19, 1996.
- Five of the last six 3000th hits have gone for extra bases. That’s almost as many as the preceding six extra-base 3000th hits (out of 23).