7:55 (Ichiro II)

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Posted By: Julie

Ichiro breaks Sisler's record.

This is his Japanese rookie card--unfortunately "BBM" cards had as its advisor--Topps cards....also, they're a little schizophrenic about language: "Did You Know?" followed by a Japanese paragraph, with an "Orix Blue Waves" overprint.

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Posted By: runscott

Scott gives Julie's email address to another chess card collector, hopes they don't kill each other...or me.

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Posted By: Dave

Ichiro scores his 100th run of the year, >= 100 for four straight years.

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Posted By: Julie

WHY can't I upload my Ichiro rookie? Right size, right number of letters, there's NOTHING in my "temporary files" from Network 54.

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Posted By: David Vargha

Over any 4 consecutive MLB seasons as well.

DavidVargha@hotmail.com

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Posted By: Dave

Julie,

Check that the file name has no spaces; only letters, numbers, or underscore and that the file size is less than 128 kB.

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Posted By: Julie

Maybe I should just re-scan it...

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Posted By: Rob L

As far as I am concerned, Ichiro did not break Sisler's record, he has just established a new one. Sisler's record still stands for 154 games and Ichiro's will stand as the record for 162 games. It is still pretty damn amazing either way!

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Posted By: Jon Canfield

Rob - I agree completely... brak out the *

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Posted By: Julie

"Photography" realms, and it worked.

Maris gets one, too?

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Posted By: tbob

or anyone else for that matter. I want to be able to say that I saw the last player to hit .400 play and have 90% of this board be too young to say they did also

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Posted By: John/z28jd

Maris doesnt hold the record anymore Julie so why would he get an asterisks

I dont think they need any little star,just say 154 game record and 162 game record,doesnt seem like a big deal to me.Theres no reason to forget what Sisler did and likewise no reason to knock Ichiro.I think an extra line in the baseball record book wont matter much

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Posted By: Julie

I think the elimination of astrisks was because the new policy is to "judge the player by the standards of his time"--except where this is really stretching it, like walks when it takes 9 pitches, and stolen bases where every extra-base hit is a stolen base, and giving a pitcher an error every time--I don't remember, but about 5 different things. All these were very short-lived rules.

My Baseball Enclyclopedia is from 1989, so Maris still has his heavy type, AND his astrisk.

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Posted By: Rob L

In regards to Maris, no an * never seemed necessary. Ruth still had the record for HRs after 154 games until McGwire surpassed it. Maris' record was based on a 162 games. Both records needed to be recognized, it was just the damn commissioners office that couldn't figure this out (the * was BS).

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Posted By: 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...

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Posted By: Peter Thomas

Like TBob for much the same reasons, I don't really want to see another 400 hitter in my lifetime. I realize that this is somewhat selfish, but as a kid I was a hugh Williams fan. Saw my first game in 46 and saw him play in about 200 games including last game. In 54 about 10 of my 7th grade classmates saw him in first game back from Korea at end of season, when the shool called my mother she told them that she was sure we had taken the train to see the game - did catch a little hell when I got home. BTW he hit 400 that year in his limmited season as he had done in 53 in the few games that he played in the beginning of season before going to Korea. In 57 if he had not played through a month of illness in june he would have also hit 400. Williams was an entirelly different hitter than Ichiro and I also love to watch Ichiro hit. Would love to watch him play another half dozen years and wind up with a liffetime batting average over 350 and an average of over 200 hits per season and end up in the HOF. I think he is almost a lock for HOF. He would have been a truly great dead ball era player also. Would love to see him batting first in Boston lineup with Damon second, he would score 150 runs.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

Pointed out that this record, unlike many others, is much less affected by external factors (stadium dimensions, etc.) than the others because Ichiro is essentially trying to drive the ball through the same 90' diamond past the same number of defenders.

I do not want to see an asterisk. Yes, Ichiro had 8 more games. He also had night games, better field grooming (no bad hop hits), bigger and more powerful infielders with better gloves (more range, esp. at short and 3rd), and middle relief and closers. His total is amazing and it is especially telling that the next closest total (other than his 242) from the modern era is likely to be 20-25 hits lower. I also find it interesting that at the time Sisler set his records, most if not all of the other single seasons over 240 hits were posted (e.g., Lefty O'Doul at 254, Babe Herman at 241, etc.). Obviously, there was a "perfect storm" of factors in that era that led to so many big hit seasons: great players, juiced ball, weakened pitching, etc. I am willing to bet the same debate was had when these records were set by the proponents of the dead ball era players.

Sisler had a better season, by far, than Ichiro, because of his overall offensiveness . He simply dominated the league and ended up hitting over 30 points better than Ichiro is likely to hit, amazing as that is. In this era of cheap shot homers and jeromy burnitz/adam dunn K or KO baseball, however, I am thrilled to see a blazing fast slap hitter stand with the best. MVP? No way--his team stinks. But amazing nonetheless. I can't wait for his contract to expire so the Yankees can sign him :p

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Posted By: Josh A.

Why is it that people only bring up the 162 v. 154 game schedule when a high profile record is broken? i.e., Ruth's HR, Sisler's hits, but when Bonds breaks the record for OBP, or slugging, nobody bats an eye? (no pun intended! haha!)

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Posted By: jay behrens

I'm sorry, but a season is a season. Do we break down the entire record book for 138, 154 and 162 game seasons? The record book is already a monstrosity. Now you want to increase its size by 3 fold or more? People need to get over this hangup. No two seasons are the same, even if they are one year apart. You have differing weather conditions, etc. Someone had pointed out all the differences in the game between Sisler's day and today and left out a huge factor, travel. Sisler never had to travel cross country to play agame the next day. he also didn't have to worry about relievers stepping in in late in teh game throwing 100mph.

Sisler had a nice run, now it's Ichiro's turn at helm, regardless of home games are in the schedule.

Jay

I saw weird stuff in that place last night. Weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, evil stuff. And I want in.

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Posted By: john/z28jd

I think more people here will bring up the 162 vs 154 schedule because we collect vintage cards and have more of a connection to the players who played back then.Im willing to bet alot of money that 99 percent of the people at the Seattle game couldnt name a 19th century player not named Connie Mack or Cy Young so they dont care if Sislers name stays in the record books or not.

Since we all have an appreciation for the old game we have a different thinking.I dont think players now have it any harder because of specialists,and night games or whatever.Players back then had different 'hardships' to prevent them from hitting .400 or whatever.I think Ichiro is a throwback player of which you dont see many today.Singles hitters dont get paid as much and defense isnt as appreciated as it was back then.

I just think Sisler shouldnt be forgotten because he obviously had a much better season than Ichiro,not only in average but he finished 2nd in the AL in rbi's,homers,doubles and triples that year,while Ichiro just piled up singles.The only way to include Sisler's name in the record book still would be to have him listed as 154 game record,unless you can think of another.I would still leave his name there,even if you just put his name below Ichiro's and dont make any mention why,it doesnt hurt anyone to know about baseballs past now does it.

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Posted By: Mike

Let's put an * next to all records that were made before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier as well.

As for Ichiro, I'm suprised nobody mentions that when Karl Rhodes was about to break Oh's single season HR record in Japan, the Japenese pitchers refused to give him anything to hit because they didn't want an American to have the record. Thought this might come up when Ichiro was about to break an "Americans" record.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Sisler is now listed below Ichiro, so no problem You people act as if Sisler is going to be erased from record books. Yes, no longer holds the record, but he is still second. Nothing wrong with. And just how boring would the record book and the game itself be if records were never broken? I'd probably lose interest. Hell, when I was a kid I never thought I'd see anyone break the HR record, let alone hit 70+, or see the hits record fall for that matter. I figured if Carew couldn't break it, no one could.

Jay

I saw weird stuff in that place last night. Weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, evil stuff. And I want in.

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Posted By: Elliot

uh Josh, nobody brings up the 154 vs. 162 game schedule when Bonds breaks the OBP or Slugging records because they are based on % and the number of games is irreleveant. Nothing less, nothing more.

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Posted By: jay behrens

And to expand upon Elliot's point, any % based stat should be more impressive today since they had to maintain that % for more games. Personally, I don't look at it that way, but do recognize that post expansion players have to maintain their excellence for a longer period of time than previous players did.

Jay

I saw weird stuff in that place last night. Weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, evil stuff. And I want in.

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Posted By: Mike

Jay---Bustin' out a Homer Simpson quote, nice!

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Posted By: john/z28jd

Ichiro is only 5 at-bats away from tying the single season at-bat record now.He got his 700th tonight,1 behind Jaun Samuels NL record[which he wont break because hes in the AL] and 5 away from Willie Wilsons record of 705 set in 1980

BTW if anyone wants to know the most at-bats in a 154 game season its Woody Jensen of the Pirates in 1936 with 695 but he only played 153 games

Wilson played 161,Samuel 160 and Ichiro sat out one game this year

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Posted By: Pcelli60

Karl Rhodes keep your place!