Recording 4,000 hits isn't easy. Just ask Yankees manager Joe Girardi.
"I didn't have 4,000 hits my whole career, and you can go back to tee-ball," Girardi said after the Yankees' 8-4 win over the Blue Jays in the first game of their doubleheader yesterday.
Girardi may have topped out at 1,100 career hits, but Ichiro Suzuki is on the cusp of the milestone after a two-hit performance in Game 1, which increased his total to 3,999, combining his time in Japan with the major leagues.
Ichiro had a chance in the eighth inning to make history, but swung at the second pitch he saw and grounded out to first base.
Getty Images
SLAP HAPPY: Ichiro Suzuki directs a double for career hit No. 3,998 in the third inning of Game 1 yesterday. He also singled in the seventh.
"That last at-bat, the fans really let me know that they actually know [about the milestone] and that it's going make me feel good," he said through a translator.
Ichiro did not start the second game, but scored the winning run in the 3-2 victory after coming in as a pinch runner in the bottom of the ninth, stealing third base and scoring on a Jayson Nix single.
While 4,000 is all but a formality, it should come as no surprise that it wasn't about the numbers for him.
"The 4,000 is just as important as any other number for me," Ichiro said. "Not necessarily just the 4,000 but just the fact that you are getting a hit in a game. If you don't produce, you're not going to play in games so me producing in games is what's good for me."
In Game 1, Ichiro went 2-for-5 with a third-inning a double and a seventh-inning single to go along with two runs scored.
There are 28 members of MLB's 3,000 hit club, and Ichiro (2,721) could join them some day. Added to his 1,278 hits he recorded in nine seasons in Japan, he would become the third player to record 4,000 professional hits, joining Pete Rose and Ty Cobb.
"I think that is a goal that's easier to make," Ichiro said about 3,000 hits in the majors. "I don't think anybody will say anything about the 3,000. There will be no debating on how many."
Of those hits in the major leagues, 2,533 came with the Mariners, and 188 have come in pinstripes.
It isn't about the personal accolades for Ichiro, although there are many. The 39-year old outfielder — a seven-time All Star, seven-time Gold Glove winner and three-time MVP in Japan — has had a seamless transition to the majors when he joined the Mariners in 2001. Suzuki has made 10 All-Star teams, won 10 Gold Gloves, three Silver Slugger awards, is a two-time batting champion and won the 2001 American Leaue MVP.
"I'm trying to get a hit every time. I'm definitely excited to get those at-bats so I can get some hits," he said.
A career that started in Japan in 1992 as a member of the Orix BlueWave is still going strong 21 seasons later. Ichiro has recorded 200 hits in 10 of his 13 seasons in the major leagues and will end up in Cooperstown once his career is over, a place he has visited many times.
"Baseball was born here and as I play the game and as I have been able to have some of my numbers go up against some of the greats, I love to know about them, about their history," he said.
david.satriano@nypost.com
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