Here is my analysis of comparing Ichiro Suzuki with Pete Rose.
Being Ichiro played in Japan for his first few years, we cannot make a fair comparison with his lifetime batting. I have thus taken his first 15 years in the United States major leagues with a side-by-side comparison of similar age in years for Pete. A slight advantage in this goes to Pete being his birthday is earlier in the year for which I used a year earlier for him. Their birthdays are about 6 months apart on the calendar (with no respect to year). This minor difference can pretty much be explained in the increased longevity for people.
Below is the tabulation of years 2001 to 2015 for Ichiro and 1968 to 1982 for Pete. I made an extrapolation for the year 1981 stats since there was a strike in that year.
The first entry for each of the stats are for Pete Rose and the second is for Ichiro Suzuki.
| AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BA |
| 626,692 | 94,127 | 210,242 | 42,34 | 6,8 | 10,8 | 49,69 | 3,56 | .335,.350 |
| 627,647 | 120,111 | 218,208 | 33,34 | 11,8 | 16,8 | 82,51 | 7,31 | .348,.321 |
| 649,679 | 120,111 | 205,212 | 37,29 | 9,8 | 15,13 | 52,62 | 12,34 | .316,.312 |
| 632,704 | 86,101 | 192,262 | 27,24 | 4,5 | 13,8 | 44,60 | 13,36 | .304,.372 |
| 645,679 | 107,111 | 198,206 | 31,21 | 11,12 | 6,15 | 57,68 | 10,33 | .307,.303 |
| 680,695 | 115,110 | 230,224 | 36,20 | 8,9 | 5,9 | 64,49 | 10,45 | .338,.322 |
| 652,678 | 110,111 | 185,238 | 45,22 | 7,7 | 3,6 | 51,68 | 2,37 | .284,.351 |
| 662,686 | 112,103 | 210,213 | 47,20 | 4,7 | 7,6 | 74,42 | 0,43 | .317,.310 |
| 665,639 | 130,88 | 215,225 | 42,31 | 6,4 | 10,11 | 63,46 | 9,26 | .323,.352 |
| 655,680 | 95,74 | 204,214 | 38,30 | 7,3 | 9,6 | 64,43 | 16,42 | .311,.315 |
| 655,677 | 103,80 | 198,184 | 51,22 | 3,3 | 7,5 | 52,47 | 13,40 | .302,.272 |
| 628,629 | 90,77 | 208,178 | 40,28 | 5,6 | 4,9 | 59,55 | 20,29 | .331,.283 |
| 655,520 | 95,57 | 185,136 | 42,15 | 1,3 | 1,7 | 64,35 | 12,20 | .282,.262 |
| 653*,359 | 111*,42 | 212*,102 | 27*,13 | 8*,2 | 0,1 | 50*,22 | 6*,15 | .325,.283 |
| 634,398 | 80,45 | 172,91 | 25,5 | 4,6 | 3,1 | 54,21 | 8,11 | .271,.229 |
I did not include the slugging percentage since they really are quite similar.
As we see above, Pete had some stand-out years yet Ichiro has the edge over Pete on yearly stats as some years had some exceptionally high stats for hits and average. If lowering the threshold for what constitutes a stand-out year there is more evenness yet Ichiro edges out Pete on yearly hits and average. The extrapolated year for 1981 was exceptional of Pete for his age yet it comes with an asterisk as it is an extrapolation.
Whereas Pete did considerably better in producing doubles and did so in great fashion, Ichiro made up considerably better in getting to second base when considering his mighty base stealing. Though base stealing is significant, it really counts if can turn into runs and we see Pete still beats out Ichiro on runs despite the base stealing. Also, with Pete making doubles, it meant greater runs batted in. The RBI yearly stat is dependent also on the team to enable greater at-bats as well as others producing on the team to get on base. We see there is an influence on this which helped out Ichiro. Pete also didn't fall off as fast as Ichiro. Given these dependencies and Pete's lasting ability, Pete was more productive in producing RBIs.
Pete was able to maintain a high level of playing ability a couple years beyond that of Ichiro. Pete's longer constancy edges over Ichiro though in totality they ended up producing about the same since Ichiro's earlier years were more productive than that of Pete's.
Based on how well Ichiro did in the United States and without delay, there is no doubt he already possessed the ability to have excelled in the United States had he started his professional ball playing here that would produce some rather excellent lifetime stats, particularly in hits.
I understand Pete is sore about Ichiro, however, his contention should be that if Ichiro gets into the Hall of Fame, his stats stand up just as well, if not slightly better, to be admitted as well. I think Pete should drop his hit king stance and move towards being the modern-day doubles king. Pete ranks #2 on the all-time list in doubles, not far from Tris Speaker. Albert Pujols, on the other hand, put out more doubles on average per season than did Pete but it's yet to be seen if he has the lasting power to surpass Pete in lifetime doubles. I think the king of doubles is greater than the king of singles and I feel Pete should embrace this as well.
I admired Pete in seeing his effort. Though he is one of Baseball's all-time best, much credit should be given to those ball players who not just came close to Pete in hits and doubles but also matched or surpassed him in batting average and home runs and two big stand-outs are Hank Aaron and Stan Musial, with others like George Brett up there as well. There are some others where a less-direct comparison can be made like that of Albert Pujols where his total hits are far less yet still up there in doubles, massive home runs and terrific average. Albert Pujols getting roughly 20 less hits yet producing roughly 20 more home runs per year shows his dominance over Pete Rose though this is not the main focus here. Discounting batting average and you have still more players you can argue as being just as good if not better. Still, these extra talking points do not take away Pete's contribution, it's just that I do not feel he should be so sore about Ichiro's contribution. Relax dude and make the case you both deserve to be in the Hall of Fame!
One note and consistent with promoting economic prosperity is that salaries for CEOs, ball players, musicians, and actors are so perverse now in relation to all the rest of the hard-working people these days. I see no good reason why anyone is worth more than 5 times over the average hard-working person. In my book I suggest even the factor of 25 to be a start in the right direction to make appropriate policy changes. The masses can influence some to all of this, but more effort would be required for the CEO salaries and for this my proposal is in using the square root of shares owned in corporations to be the proportional factor for proxy voting. See the book, "Thoughtful Living" on Amazon.com. I am giving this country and world so much and for so little. I use to be a fan of baseball long ago. I had to boycott the sport with the strike in the late 1970's. I know the contention is with the owners making a bundle but just as I make mention of how health care costs so much in part from so many playing into the inflation or catch-up game since nurses were going on strike in 1980 to get more pay, we would have been far better off if nurses petitioned to get doctor salaries lower and similarly, ball players could have been petitioned to get the owner salaries lower. Imagine lower health care costs and lower ticket prices to ball games. I still do not go to movie theaters, will not pay for cable television, and proud to have never been to a rock concert. THIS WORLD IS A MESS WITH THE WIDENING WEALTH DIVIDE. Let's work together to improve the quality of life for the greater majority of us, not keep making so much effort to improving the quality of life for a select few!
