Will Ichiro Suzuki Make it to the Hall of Fame?

It is going to be interesting to see when Ichiro Suzuki retires from baseball if he gains admittance to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Statistically, the only thing that might keep Ichiro Suzuki out is if he fails to fulfill the minimum requirement of having played at least ten years in the Major Leagues. But with Ichiro Suzuki currently only 32 years old, it is not at all improbable that he will play until he is 37, which would be long enough. If he does, and if Ichiro Suzuki continues to play as he has for the past five and a half seasons, he will more than likely be inducted into Cooperstown at some point, based on his all-around skills.

If the name of the game is scoring runs, then Ichiro Suzuki is the poster child for that aspect of baseball. Ichiro Suzuki has scored 561 runs in his first five full seasons in the Major Leagues, and is easily on pace in 2006 to score over 100 runs for the sixth straight year. A star in his native Japan, Ichiro Suzuki was the first Japanese born position player to play in the Major Leagues, signing with the Seattle Mariners in November of 2000. In 2001, Ichiro Suzuki was named the American League’s Rookie of the Year and also the Most Valuable Player; only Boston’s Fred Lynn in 1975 was thusly honored. In 2001, Ichiro Suzuki became the first man since Jackie Robinson to lead all of baseball in batting average and stolen bases, as he hit .350 and stole 56 bases. Only the Twins’ Tony Oliva in 1964 had won a batting title as a rookie until Ichiro Suzuki did that in 2001.

At five-foot-nine and weighing 170 pounds, Ichiro Suzuki is built for speed. The left-handed hitter will often slap at the ball and seemingly be on his way to first before he has even made contact. He is always among the league leaders in infield hits, as he is capable of beating out many balls that most players would be thrown out on. Ichiro Suzuki puts an incredible amount of pressure on infielders to field balls he has hit cleanly and make a strong throw; anything less and he will be standing on first base.

Ichiro Suzuki is the only player to ever begin his Major League Baseball career with five consecutive 200 hit seasons, and there is no indication he will not achieve that plateau in 2006. Currently hitting .365 with 111 hit in 71 games, he is on a pace to accumulate a remarkable 253 hits this year. What is even more remarkable is that if he does that, it still will not be the Major League record for hits in a single season, which Ichiro Suzuki currently holds at 262 in 2004. In 1920, Hall of Famer George Sisler had a 257 hit campaign for the old St. Louis Browns, a mark that stood 84 years until Ichiro Suzuki claimed it as his own two years ago. The least amount of hits Ichiro Suzuki has had in one year is 206.

As for stolen bases, Ichiro Suzuki has ranked in the top five in baseball every year since his arrival from Japan, where he is worshipped as an icon. He also has added a Gold Glove to his trophy case for each of his years in the States. Ichiro Suzuki possesses perhaps the best throwing arm in all of baseball, and from his right field position he has gunned down 55 runners on the bases. He has committed only a dozen errors in five and a half years, giving Ichiro Suzuki a fielding average of .994.

In 2004, Ichiro Suzuki annexed a second batting title with a .370 average. In addition to all of these accomplishments, Ichiro Suzuki has led the American League in singles every year he has played, intentional walks twice, times on base once, and total at bats three times. Showing his durability, Ichiro Suzuki has played in at least 157 games since his inception into the American game.

Barring injury, and allowing for a bit of a fall-off, Ichiro Suzuki will have collected at least 2,000 hits if he plays a full ten years. He will have scored at least 1,100 runs, and stolen more than 300 bases. Ichiro Suzuki will probably have won at least two more Gold Gloves, and he is capable of winning at least one, maybe two more batting titles. Only the Twins’ Joe Mauer is ahead of him for the batting crown in the American League right now, and as a catcher, one would expect Mauer to wear down and eventually be passed by Ichiro Suzuki, which would give him a third title in six years. Ichiro Suzuki is the equivalent of a Rod Carew, except faster, and Carew, in a 19 year career, had but four 200 hit seasons. Carew also scored over 100 runs in a season exactly once. Wade Boggs, another player that one could compare Ichiro Suzuki to, had his seven 200 hits all in a row, from 1983-1989. Ichiro Suzuki is much quicker than Boggs ever was, and scores more runs per year than the Hall of Famer did. If he makes the full ten years, there is no doubt that Ichiro Suzuki belongs in the Hall of Fame if he keeps rising to the high standards he has set thus far.