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Gary B.congratulations to Ichiro on a remarkable achievement regardless. They've been playing 162 games since 1961, and no one has done what he's done.
I really don't like the idea of creating a whole separate set of records for the 154 and 162 game era - it just seems kind of ridiculous to me, although I certainly understand fully the thinking behind it.
Still, in my mind, unless Ichiro is ahead of the PACE of Sisler, it will never QUITE be the same thing, and that is near impossible at this point. With 2 games left, Ichiro would have to get 12 more hits to beat Sisler's pace. If you want to be kind and consider the fact that Ichiro missed a game, he would only need 10 more to beat Sisler's pace. So, obviously this isn't going to happen.
HOWEVER, that being said, I really did consider Maris to be the single season home run holder before it was beat, even if it took him more games to do it than Ruth. While I was cognizant of the fact that Ruth did it faster, it barely diminished the accomplishment of Maris in my mind. Still, the fact that McGwire, Sosa and Bonds were ahead of the pace of both Ruth and Maris makes their marks even that much more impressive.
If anywhere there belongs a separation of records for me, it would be in pitching. Switching to a 5-man rotation and the use of relief pitching is such a dramatic shift, that a single season win or career win mark has to have this factored in dramatically in determining how impressive an accomplishment it is to reach a certain level. If Clemens was pitching back in the olden days, who knows how many wins the man would have? Of course, it's hard to compare eras, but Clemens for me is up with the best pitchers of old, even though his stats can't quite reflect that because of the dramatic change in how the game is played - far more dramatic than moving from 154 to 162 games...