| Player | majors | minors | total |
| Pete Rose | 4,256 | 427 | 4,683 |
| Ty Cobb | 4,189 | 166 | 4,355 |
| Hank Aaron | 3,771 | 324 | 4,095 |
| Jigger Statz | 737 | 3,356 | 4,093 |
| Stan Musial | 3,630 | 371 | 4,001 |
| Ichiro Suzuki | 2,722 | 1,278 | 4,000 |
Supposedly there is some research which suggests that Julio Franco also had over 4,000 hits, including 2,586 in the majors. However, the data in baseball-reference.com does not include all of Franco's stats from his Mexican League play.
Ichiro Suzuki joined the 4,000 professional baseball hit club today. He is to be congratulated. However, many in the media, including the sycophantic Yankee announcer Michael Kay, continue to insist that hits in the inferior Japanese leagues should be counted but not hits in U.S. leagues, which are inferior to the major leagues.
Without getting into a bunch of junk on this, it should be obvious that since about 1903 the old American and National Leagues and the current Major Baseball League, a merger of the two, are what most baseball people consider the top baseball leagues in the world. Any inclusion of stats from leagues, which are inferior to them, should logically classify those leagues as minor. Using the usual baseball parlance: major leagues v. minor leagues. Differentiating among the many minor leagues is left to others.
3 comments:
I agree.. The Japanese League is not Major League Caliber
While the Japanese leagues are not Major League Quality they are well above AAA status.2 previous leagues were major league caliber.Obviously the Negro Leagues were one.The Other would be the Pacific Coast League of the Early 20th century.Today the PCL is a farm league and has been since 1958.But during the period between 1903&1957 they were unaffilated & functioned as a competitor until around the late 1940's when the Majors began to integrate.In the PCL the warm weather combined with longer seasons and often higher pay to give MLB a run for it's money.From 1903-1952 there were only 11 cities in the majors and St Louis was the only one west of the Mississipi and that by only a mile.As such the PCL thrived during that time period by putting teams where the Majors had not put them.Los Angeles,San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Sacramento,Phoenix,Fresno,Vancouver& other cities in the west played 200 game seasons and filled their stadiums.Pay was comparable and some guys did not see a reason to leave the PCL for the Majors when the chance came.and some guys who did found it easier to produce in the Majors than in the PCL.Guys like Ted Williams,The 3 DiMaggio brothers,Tony Lazzeri, Bobby Doerr began their careers in the PCL.But some guys like Jigger Statz started in MLB before doing 16 years play in the PCL.Point is anyone who gets 4,000 hit's playing in pro baseball has done something amazing.Suzuki is A Man.Like Ty Cobb,Pete Rose, Stan Musial, Julio Franco,& Jigger Statz were too.
The two previous leagues which were major league caliber were the American Association and the Players League. The PCL was a part of the Baseball Trust, not a competitor. Players in the PCL didn't have a choice between playing there and the majors. If their contract was obtained by a Major League team, they could either report or look for work with a company outside the trust. Yes, lots of good players were in the PCL before they were in the majors; the latter took the wheat and left the chaff behind.
Suzuki is a Man. Willie Mays had fewer than 3400 hits in pro ball; I guess he was a Woman.
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