Quote:
Originally Posted by packs
I agree on Rose but what I'm saying is these posts seem to be trying to undermine his accomplishments in some way, or take away from what he's done, which I think is wrong. It wasn't Ichiro's fault he was born in Japan. He was obligated to play there for 9 seasons before he could become a free agent. He didn't play in Japan to duck the MLB, and he didn't play in Japan because he wasn't good enough for the MLB. He played there because he was obligated. So factor in that lack of freedom when discussing his career in two leagues instead of saying Ichiro faced weak competition, his hits aren't worth as much.
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That certainly wasn't the intention of any of my posts. I maintain that Japanese baseball is of a much lesser quality than MLB, but that point wasn't to undermine Ichiro and all that he's done. Honestly I don't know why every accomplishment someone achieves has to be compared to someone else's accomplishment. Why can't Rose and Ichiro both be great? Why does it have to devolve into a quien es mas macho competition? My whole point is the qualifier "professional" tacked in front of "hit leader" makes it a false statement when trying to attribute that title to Ichiro. Nothing more. If you want to say "Hits at the highest professional level available to him at the time leader", while it doesn't roll off the tongue quite as fluidly, it is more correct to say.