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.

Former Yankees Updates & MLB History

A few former Yankees made a little bit of history this week so we felt like they needed to be talked about here on the blog. I’m sure you guys get tired of hearing me rant and rave about all the losing, benching Chase Headley and all that jazz so why not something a little different this afternoon?

Ichiro Suzuki was a Yankees player for two-and-a-half seasons after being acquired from the Seattle Mariners with the intention of milking every dollar they could out of his chase for 3,000 hits in the Major Leagues and his quest for the all-time hits record between the USA and Japan. Ichiro is still yet to hit the magical 3,000 hit plateau but he took another step closer this week with a game-winning single in Miami. Ichiro’s career MLB hit total now stands at 2,947.

I promised history in the thread title and a former Yankees relief pitcher, Caleb Cotham, helped the Cincinnati Reds make history as well this week. This is not the history you want to be remembered for though unfortunately. The Cincinnati reds bullpen set a new MLB record when the team surrendered at least one run in the team’s 21^st consecutive game. The man on the mound, Mr. Cotham. For all you trivia and history buffs out there remember the name Kelby Tomlinson as he hit the two-out infield single to score Hunter pence and set the record.

So there you have it. A whole posting without saying Chase Headley sucks! Well, we almost made it anyway. Enjoy the day Yankees family.