Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Pete Rose's Mouth Is In The News Again

I won't sugar coat it... I'm not a fan of Pete Rose. And I don't believe he should be in the Hall of Fame. He didn't break some little, unknown, rule in Major League Baseball. When you walk into every locker room in the league you'll see a big sign telling you that gambling on the game is against the rules. But Pete did it anyway.

Simply put... you break the rules, you deal with the consequences. It doesn't matter if you're a career backup in MLB, or a perennial All Star. Just like if two people commit the same crime, their punishments should be the same, regardless if one person is homeless and the other could be our next President.

Not that I have anybody in particular in mind.

So when I read that Pete Rose doesn't think the hits Ichiro Suzuki accumulated in Japan should count towards the hits record, which Ichiro is one hit from tying, I was ready to lash out at Pete again. But after reading his comments, and thinking about them for a minute, it turns out I agree with him.
"I'm not trying to take anything away from Ichiro, he's had a Hall of Fame career, but the next thing you know, they'll be counting his high school hits." - Rose
Okay, comparing hits from Nippon Professional Baseball and high school is ridiculous, but he has a point.

  1. Major League Baseball draws from the best players around the World, while Nippon Professional Baseball has limits to the number of foreign players that are even allowed on any team's active roster (the last I saw it was four).
  2. Many players that couldn't cut it in MLB went to NPB, such as Tuffy Rhodes. Tuffy hit 67 home runs between the Majors and Minors across 10 seasons (6.7 HR/yr), but hit 464 homers in 13 seasons in Japan (35.69 HR/yr).
  3. While position players such as Hideki Matsui and Ichiro Suzuki have had excellent MLB careers after coming from Japan, there are many more Japanese hitters that have done little to nothing in the States. Look at the MLB careers of Kenji Johjima, Tadahito Iguchi, Kazuo Matsui, Akinori Iwamura, Kosuki Fukudome, and So Taguchi... to name only a few.

Over the years I've heard from many people that Nippon Professional Baseball is a step above Triple-A, but a step below MLB. Some would say NPB is the equivalent of Quadruple-A baseball.

With all that in mind, and although I'm not a fan of the guy, Pete Rose will continue to be the hit king.

4 comments:

  1. so basically the only players that will have a shot are those that sign as high school players or sign as international draft signings. so what's that, less than 20% of baseball players?

    I was looking at ichiro's numbers, if he was only in the MLB, i guarantee he would have destroyed that record. he put together 1200 hits in 7 seasons in japan (minors for 2 years), with about 30 fewer games in a season.

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    Replies
    1. Who said MLB players that sign out of college, or come from another league, aren't eligible? I said only hits accumulated in MLB should count towards the hits record.

      Now, if you want an international hits record, that's fine. Just remember that the best hitter from Nippon Professional Baseball, the Baseball Federation of Cuba, or any other foreign league is not as good as the best hitter in MLB.

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    2. Wasn't arguing with you. Pete Rose started at 22, I'm just saying majority of players go to college, hence not being drafted until 22, and then going to the minors first.

      So unless you get drafted out of high school, or get drafted as international signing, you won't be in majors at 22.

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)