Late last year, several New York Yankees players, including Ichiro Suzuki, were chatting around the batting cage when the subject turned to Suzuki’s remarkable career and longevity.
Brett Gardner, the Yankee outfielder, asked Suzuki what he would do when he retires in, say, five years. Suzuki, then a month away from his 41st birthday, looked surprised, according to second baseman Kelly Johnson.
“Five years?” Suzuki said. “You think I will play five more years?”
If not, Gardner asked, then how long?
Ichiro flashed that cagey, playful smile of his and exclaimed, “Ten years.”
There was some laughter, Johnson said, including Suzuki’s staccato belly laugh, but Johnson remembers thinking, “Wow, he really wants to play until he is 50.”
Suzuki will turn 42 in three weeks, but the number that is more attainable than 50 is 3,000. Through Friday, Suzuki had 2,935 hits. He intends to play on, perhaps again with the Marlins next year, so that coveted number — and another intriguing one — is within reach.
Suzuki probably will not play nine more years. But he clings to the belief that he could, illustrating the resolve that has helped make him one of the most accomplished hitters baseball has ever produced.
“That’s a true story about the 10 years,” Suzuki said through an interpreter on Friday in an empty clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park. “They might have thought it was a joke, but that’s how I feel. Physically fit, capable. There is no letting up on that.”
Suzuki was signed by the Marlins during the last offseason to be a fourth outfielder, but he has played more than expected because of injuries, mainly to Giancarlo Stanton. Through Friday, Suzuki had played in 150 of the Marlins’ 159 games, with 391 at-bats.
On June 18, he had played in 64 of the Marlins’ 68 games and was batting .294. Since then, his average has plummeted to .233, but the Marlins feel he has still helped with his consistency, his defensive abilities and the example he sets for their younger players. The New York Post reported in September that the Marlins would like to have him back.
“Today, that would be the highest possibility,” Suzuki said.
Suzuki’s pursuit of 3,000 hits would also make him attractive to the Marlins, or to any other team that might sign him, and reaching that mark would generate another intriguing comparison.
If Suzuki gets to 3,000, he will have accumulated more hits, including his 1,278 hits for the Orix Blue Wave in Japan, than Pete Rose. Rose is the career hits leader in major league baseball with 4,256.
Suzuki’s hits in Japan do not count toward his major league résumé. But he needs only 43 to match Rose.
“I think he already has a Hall of Fame career,” Rose said in a telephone interview. “He had 200 hits 10 times, and he’s closing in on 3,000 hits. I’ve been there, done that, so I know how hard it is. He’s a good defensive player, too. I’ve enjoyed watching him his whole career.”
But Rose has a quick rejoinder when Suzuki’s hits in Japan are mentioned.
“If you say those hits in Japan are professional hits,” Rose said, “then my hits in the minor leagues are professional hits, too.”
Rose, who began playing in the major leagues at 22, had 427 hits in the minors.
Suzuki joined the Seattle Mariners at age 27 and rapped out 242 hits in his rookie season, batting .350. It was the first of 10 200-hit seasons (a record), which includes 2004, when he had 262 hits to break George Sisler’s single-season record by five.
During those years, Suzuki averaged 224 hits as all of baseball marveled at his craftsmanship. If he had been allowed to join the major leagues at age 22, like Rose, that average would translate to 1,120 additional hits. But the agreement between Japanese baseball and the major leagues barred Suzuki from coming to the United States before 2001.
When he played for Orix from age 22 to age 26, Suzuki had 853 hits, but the Japanese leagues played only 130 or 135 games at the time.
Suzuki understands why people will not recognize his hits in Japan. It came up in 2013 when he reached a combined 4,000 professional hits. If the baseball world did not fully appreciate the accomplishment, Suzuki showed he did by presenting all his teammates and members of the public relations staff with signed, commemorative “Ichiro” bats.
In August this year, Suzuki matched Ty Cobb’s career mark of 4,189 hits and was given a standing ovation by the fans in St. Louis.
“People are going to say this or that about the combined numbers,” Suzuki said. “There are people saying things on both sides. That’s great for baseball. I don’t have anything to say about that.”
What is indisputable, though, is 3,000. Suzuki would become the 30th player to reach that plateau, which he says is far off on the horizon.
“I’m 65 away,” he said. “For a player who has to look at the lineup every day to see if he is going to play, it is still far away, that number. If I was playing every day, it would be a different story.
“But that is where I am right now. I have to prepare myself to play well today so I can play tomorrow.”
Preparation is Suzuki’s byword.
His daily routines are legendary around baseball, from his stretching to his batting practice to his banter. When pitchers are shagging fly balls in the outfield during batting practice, Ichiro playfully yells at them to move back and give him room, sprinkling in some salty language in both English and Spanish.
“His routine is the exact same every day,” Gardner said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It makes me wish I could do more.”
During batting practice, Suzuki often unleashes some unlikely power for his size and wiry physique. Johnson once inquired how Suzuki manages it, considering he has only 113 career home runs.
“In batting practice,” Suzuki told him, “every pitch is 3-0.”
Johnson said he could still hear Suzuki’s signature fist bump with every player in the dugout before each game, when he would walk the length of the bench exclaiming “Bam” with each one.
“It was just great to be around him every day and watch,” Johnson said.
Suzuki is also famous for his offseason workouts, with batting, long-toss and exercise sessions daily, both in the United States and in Japan.
“He takes off two days a year,” Yankees pitcher C.C. Sabathia said. “One day after the season ends, and Christmas Day.”
That may be changing. If Suzuki is going to play well into his 40s, there could be some concessions to age in the offseason, he said.
“Now, it’s a little more than two days off,” Suzuki said. “It’s three.”
Then came the belly laugh, echoing in the empty clubhouse.
On Friday, with only three games left in a losing season, a cold rainstorm forced the early postponement of the Marlins’ game against the Phillies. Suzuki went to the stadium anyway to work out. The turnout for the day: Suzuki and perhaps four teammates.
No one was available to throw batting practice, so Suzuki did what he often does anyway. He took one of his bats to practice his swing in his hotel room at night. There are still games to prepare for, still many more hits to add up.
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