Adjust Font Size: A A       Guest settings   Register

Rose and Ichiro

Discussion in the Open Talk forum
Rose and Ichiro
A lot of you probably read this piece in the Japan Times today:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/sp20101002jg.html
Curious of some reactions and especially about this statement by the writer:
"Nobody seems to have the guts to say what needs to be said — that Ichiro plays for stats, while Rose played to win."
What do posters here think? Any truth to that?
Comments
Re: Rose and Ichiro
[ Author: Kiyoshi | Posted: Oct 3, 2010 8:48 AM | HAN Fan ]

They both played to do their best and in the process win! Teammates would say that Pete Rose would have his batting average figured out by the time he reached 1st base.
Re: Rose and Ichiro
[ Author: gotigersredsox | Posted: Oct 3, 2010 11:52 AM ]

Ichiro might not have the vocal presence Rose did, but he gets on base, steals bases, plays stellar defense. Isn't that playing to win? Meanwhile, with the Reds Rose was part of the Big Red Machine, one of the strongest teams in MLB history. Right now Ichiro is surrounded by, well, not much.
Re: Rose and Ichiro
[ Author: Kiyoshi | Posted: Oct 3, 2010 11:58 AM | HAN Fan ]

I agree with "gotigersredsox"!!! I don't know what some people want? Ichiro not to get on base? How does that help the team if he strikes out or gets put out?
Re: Rose and Ichiro
[ Author: DaClyde1 | Posted: Oct 4, 2010 2:11 AM | OBs Fan ]

I guess they're just expecting that he should hit more home runs instead of singles. Granted, there's nothing bad about someone racking up over 150 singles in a season, but hey, if he would just hit a homerun every time he leads off, at least the M's would have a run on the board to work with since no one else in the lineup seems capable of making that happen.

Still, idiots said the same thing about Tony Gwynn. Oh, he's so selfish, always getting hits and being on base, what's the deal with that? So, he should've be driving in non-existant base-runners?
Re: Rose and Ichiro
[ Author: gotigersredsox | Posted: Oct 4, 2010 8:16 AM ]

I think Pete Rose was out of line last week when he called a lot of Ichiro's hits "lucky." Although I think he later recanted, it was still a dumb remark by a bitter old man.
If anyone else in the Mariners line-up could actually hit, then we would hear more about how valuable Ichiro is for getting on base and scoring runs.
Re: Rose and Ichiro
[ Author: SteveNovosel | Posted: Oct 4, 2010 11:05 AM | LOT Fan ]

What does "play for stats" mean, anyway? Stats are just a record of what went on in the game. If you get a lot of hits, your stats are good AND you are contributing to your teams success.

You don't do one without the other.

The truly dumb thing is that Rose probably hurt his team more than most players I can think of as he played very late into his career to try to build up his career statistics, even though when he was older he was a very poor offensive player. Ichiro is still playing at a top level, with great defense, good speed on the base paths, and of course the hits.
Re: Rose and Ichiro
[ Author: Sara B | Posted: Oct 9, 2010 12:40 AM | HT Fan ]

Ichiro Suzuki is going into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, and Pete Rose is never getting there. I think that's all that needs to be said.
Re: Rose and Ichiro
[ Author: gotigersredsox | Posted: Oct 9, 2010 10:55 AM ]

Ichiro Suzuki is going into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, and Pete Rose is never getting there. I think that's all that needs to be said.
That's kind of besides the point. Based on on-field performance, Rose was obviously a first ballot Hall of Famer. I think he should be in anyway, but the original article is focused more on their respective skills as players.
About

This is a site about Pro Yakyu (Japanese Baseball), not about who the next player to go over to MLB is. It's a community of Pro Yakyu fans who have come together to share their knowledge and opinions with the world. It's a place to follow teams and individuals playing baseball in Japan (and Asia), and to learn about Japanese (and Asian) culture through baseball.

It is my sincere hope that once you learn a bit about what we're about here that you will join the community of contributors.

Michael Westbay
(aka westbaystars)
Founder

Search for Pro Yakyu news and information
Copyright (c) 1995-2024 JapaneseBaseball.com.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Some rights reserved.