(Reuters) - Japanese outfielder Ichiro Suzuki of the Miami Marlins on Sunday became the 30th Major League Baseball player to reach the 3,000-hit milestone, an exclusive club that is considered the greatest measure of hitting excellence and physical endurance.
Ichiro, who in 2001 became the first Japanese position player, or nonpitcher, in MLB, joins Roberto Clemente (Puerto Rico), Rod Carew (Panama) and Rafael Palmeiro (Cuba) as the only members of the 3,000-hit club born outside the United States.
In the midst of an improbable resurgence with the Marlins at the age of 42, Ichiro achieved the feat against the Colorado Rockies when he slugged a triple deep to rightfield in the seventh inning in Denver.
Former teammate and five-time World Series champion Derek Jeter, a 13-time All-Star who retired from Major League Baseball after the 2014 season, described Ichiro as one the game"s all-time greats.
"It"s an incredible accomplishment," Jeter wrote in a post on The Players" Tribune. "When you add in his 1,278 hits from Japan, where he played until he was 26, his career will be counted as one of the best of this or any other generation."
Ichiro made his MLB debut with the Seattle Mariners and went on to became only the second player to win Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards in the same season.
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Aug 7, 2016; Denver, CO, USA; Miami Marlins right fielder Ichiro Suzuki (51) reacts following his t
He also opened his MLB career with a record 10 consecutive seasons of more than 200 hits.
A 10-time All-Star, Ichiro won a Gold Glove Award in each of his first 10 years in the majors, and has had an American League record of seven hitting streaks of 20 or more games, with a high of 27.
He helped lead Japan to consecutive titles in the World Baseball Classic in 2006 and 2009.
"Most of all, I"ve admired Ichiro because he"s a model of consistency," said Jeter, who played parts of three seasons with Ichiro as members of the New York Yankees. "In my mind, the most underrated characteristic for anyone is consistency. It"s something that gets overlooked until it"s gone.
"I think baseball was always more than just a game to him. This was what he was born to do. And most impressive of all, the guy"s 42 years old and I can"t remember him ever being on the disabled list. He has taken great care of himself.
"My hat"s off to Ichiro. He"s a guy who comes around once in a lifetime. No one"s ever seen anybody like him. And to be quite honest, we probably won"t see anybody like him again."
(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank Pingue)
Former teammates, managers and MLB contemporaries congratulate Ichiro on reaching 3,000 hits
Updated at 7:11 p.m. ET
When Ichiro arrived in Seattle in 2001, he was 27, already very much in his prime. He had dominated Japan from the time he was 20, never hitting lower than .342 from the time he became an everyday player with the Orix Blue Wave.
Given that Ichiro hit .387 in his last year in Japan, then .350 as he won the American League MVP in his first season on this side of the Pacific, one of baseballs eternal mysteries will be what kind of numbers Ichiro would have had in a career spent entirely in American baseball. To focus on the unknown, though, is to miss out on the known, which is incredible.
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Collecting his 3,000th hit as a major leaguer, Ichiro joins Pete Rose as the only players to tally that many from their age-27 season forward. Rose, who played through his age-45 season, had 3,357 if you take away his first five major league campaigns, which include 170 hits as the 1963 National League Rookie of the year and 209 as the major league leader in the category in 1965.
The argument might be made that had Ichiro been in the majors his entire career, pitchers might have been able to adapt to him and depress some of the numbers in his early 30s. While Ichiro did dip from a .350 average in his first year to .321 and .312, he then hit .372 in 2004 as he set a major league record with 262 hits, and posted a .351 average in 2007 and .352 in 2009 at the age of 35.
MORE: Ichiro has always been a joy to watch
The greats are great no matter when they get their start, and Ichiro happened to get his in the U.S. at the age of 27. While Ichiro may be 1,000 or more hits below where he would have been in an alternative universe, his delayed arrival means that he has some history of his own.
Most notably, Ichiro easily holds the record for hits in a players first 10 major league seasons, with 2,244 208 more than second-place Paul Waner. Ichiro, according to the Baseball Reference Play Index, also owns the marks for hits in a players first season, first two seasons, first four seasons, first five seasons, first six seasons, first seven seasons, first eight seasons, first nine seasons, first 11 seasons, first 12 seasons, first 13 seasons and first 14 seasons.
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Also, Ichiro had the most hits of any major leaguer in the 2000s, with 2,030 90 more than Derek Jeter. The 2000s, of course, include 2000, when Ichiro was still in Japan, racking up 153 hits in 395 at-bats that did not count toward that total. Spotting the rest of the majors a years head start, Ichiro was the leader in hits for the decade by the time the 2006 season was over.
Ichiro won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves, putting him in a tie for the third-most times winning the award as an outfielder all time, behind Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays with 12 apiece. Could Ichiro have shared or maybe owned the record? Perhaps, but its also worth keeping in mind that Clemente and Mays both won their first Gold Gloves at 26 for most of its history, the award has been based as much on reputation as performance, and that takes time to develop. That, though, makes it all the more impressive that Ichiro won 10 straight to begin his career, an achievement unmatched at any position, though Johnny Bench did win the Gold Glove in his first 10 full seasons in the majors after a 26-game cameo as a 19-year-old in 1967.
Ichiros career has been incredible on two continents, which was worth celebrating when his combined hit total passed Roses major league total earlier this year. As Ichiro joins the 3,000-hit club, its worth remembering that, just like Earl Averill, who did not make his major league debut until his age-27 season but wound up in Cooperstown as one of the great left-handed hitters of all time, his achievements here have been Hall of Fame worthy with no other context.
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The official return of pro football will have to wait another four days. The NFL canceled Sunday night"s Hall of Fame game because of poor field conditions. The Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts are headed back home.
"I was notified at about 5:30 that there was a problem at midfield and in the end zones with some of the painting that it was kind of congealing and rubberized, which meant players might slip on it," Pro Football Hall of Fame president David Baker told NFL Media"s Steve Wyche. "The folks with the field tried to remediate that by dropping some other pellets but after talking to the coaches and staff for both the Packers and the Colts, there was a concern they might be able to remediate it but they would have to do something underneath the surface.
"We think we could make it playable, that it might be playable now but if there is any concern, anything in the minds of players we want to err on the side of player safety. This is the Pro Football Hall of Fame. You"ve heard me many, many times talk about our values of commitment, integrity, courage, respect, and excellence. If we don"t have that integrity to respect our players and respect their safety, then we shouldn"t be doing this job. It was a difficult decision to make. ... But in some respects, it was an easy, ethical decision.
"When the field was put down -- this was a brand-new field that had only been used one year at the Superdome in New Orleans -- when it came here, it passed the safety tests. This morning when the cover was taken off, it passed the safety tests then. But I think the concerns were really about the painting and the rubberized surface."
The NFL and NFLPA issued the following statement:
"Due to safety concerns with the condition of the playing surface in Canton, tonight"s game between the Indianapolis Colts and Green Bay Packers has been cancelled. We are very disappointed for our fans, but player safety is our primary concern, and as a result, we could not play an NFL game on this field tonight."
The embarrassing news casts a pall on an otherwise great weekend. Sunday"s game wasn"t going to be much of a regular season preview, although it provides a chance for end-of-the-roster plays to impress coaches and make the team. Undrafted free agent Joe Callahan was expected to start at quarterback for the Packers. Starters usually play a series or two at most in the first preseason game.
"It sucks, but the conditions of the field weren"t safe for any player on either roster," veteran Colts linebacker D"Qwell Jackson told NFL Media columnist Michael Silver.
More than anything, this is a huge letdown for the crowd in Ohio. This weekend in Canton proved to be a pilgrimage for Packers fans and now it has been cut short.
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The 54th NFL Hall of Fame class was inducted Saturday night, pushing the total of enshrined football greats to 303.
The busts of Brett Favre, Kevin Greene, Eddie Debartolo Jr., Ken Stabler, d**k Stanfel, Orlando Pace, Tony Dungy and Marvin Harrison were unveiled. Here are the highlights from all of the speeches:
Brett Favre
"Go Pack Go!" The chant echoed throughout the bowels of Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.
Throngs of Green Bay Packers fans had waited all night to greet their football legend, Brett Favre.
The ol" gunslinger didn"t disappoint.
Favre spent the first 22-plus minutes speaking emotionally about his family. He dove deep on the motivation he received from his father, who passed away in 2003.
He spent the rest reliving his time on the football field.
The three-time MVP credited former Packers GM Ron Wolf for remaking the Packers into its modern dynasty.
"Ron Wolf is the single most important person to the Packers" rebirth than any other person out there -- player, coach, GM," Favre said, noting he wouldn"t have been in Green Bay without Wolf"s bold move to trade for him. "...The single biggest free-agent acquisition in NFL history is Reggie White. Ron Wolf made it cool to come to Green Bay."
Favre acknowledged his time with the Falcons, Jets and Vikings (the last of which brought on boos from the Green Bay faithful). But added: "Make no mistake about it: I will be remembered as a Packer."
He also marveled at his own feats.
"Who ever thought a kid from Kiln, Miss., whose father ran the wishbone, would hold every NFL passing record at one time," he said.
He ended noting that the thing he was proudest of was not the records, it"s that he left everything he had on the football field.
"Did we win every game? No. Did I make mistakes? More than I can count. But there was never one time I didn"t give it all I had," he said.
Kevin Greene
Kevin Greene spoke with the intensity he brought to the football field.
After compiling the third-most sacks in NFL history, the former Rams, Steelers, Panthers and 49ers linebacker relished that his bust would sit next to Brett Favre"s in the Hall of Fame.
"I"m next to Brett Favre for eternity, right where a linebacker needs to be," he quipped.
The son of Col. T.R Greene discussed his life as the son of a military man, the importance that discipline brought to his life and the character it formed within.
Greene spoke charismatically about the players he faced.
A walk-on at Auburn, Greene talked about facing Bo Jackson in practice.
"He ran my a*s over," Greene said of Jackson. "I"ve got a peace about it because he ran a lot of a***s over."
And about going up against offensive tackle Jackie Slater with the Rams: "That man would carry a bible in one hand and a switchblade in the other."
Of Greene"s 160 career sacks, 97.5 came after age 30. He joyed in remembering the slobber-knocker Steelers defenses he played in during his tenure in Pittsburgh, calling it the "pinnacle of my football life."
Greene"s speech echoed the fierceness with which he played that football life.
"If you think about it, that"s the best a football player can do, is to exhaust his passion and go out on his own terms, and along the way, have fun, kicking people"s a***s with your brothers -- that"s always fun -- entertain some folks, develop some life-long relationships and enough health to play some football with your son and daughter in the front yard. So that was good."
Edward DeBartolo Jr.
"When Eddie DeBartolo took over the 49ers, they were horrible," Chris Berman began his introduction of the former San Francisco owner.
They weren"t bad for long.
During his ownership, the 49ers had the best winning percentage in the NFL in the 1980s and 1990s, won five Super Bowls, had 16 playoff appearances, went to 10 NFC Championship Games and averaged 13 wins per season from 1981-1998 (including playoffs; but not including the strike-shortened 1982 season).
DeBartolo"s speech signified his ownership: Family and football.
"For me, one of the biggest honors today is joining my guys Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott, Charles Haley, Freddy Dean, Steve Young and of course the great Bill Walsh. It"s no secret what a big part they played in me being here today," he said.
It was obvious why DeBartolo was one of the most well-loved owners in NFL history. He gave credit to all his players, coaches, training staff, grounds keepers, accountants and everyone who worked for his team.
"We did not see players as simply players, we saw them as men," he said. "We saw them as sons, husbands, fathers, brothers with families and responsibilities."
He even got in playful jabs at his former players, like telling the world teammates once called Jerry Rice "Fifi" and the greatest receiver in NFL history would change jerseys during the game if he was wet.
DeBartolo said he wished the NFL today would have more of that family feel.
"I think we could use more of that sense of family in the NFL today," he said. "...When the uniform comes off too."
Ken Stabler
"The Snake" led Oakland to a winning record in each of his nine seasons as a starter, including five straight division titles.
Sadly, Stabler died last year, having waited 27 years without getting the Hall of Fame call.
In his memory, a video tribute displayed Stabler"s lasting football impression. He led the NFL in TD passes in 1974 and 1976 and won Super Bowl XI with the Raiders
John Madden, after Stabler"s death, said: "I"ve always said, if I had one quarterback to make a drive the length of the field, at the end of the game, to win that game, that guy would be Ken Stabler, No. 12."
d**k Stanfel
The former Detroit Lions and Washington Redskins guard was one of the greatest blockers of his era. He made first-team All-Pro five times in seven seasons.
Stanfel was one of the best offensive linemen to ever play in the NFL.
He died in June 2015. He was posthumously inducted after waiting 54 years.
Stanfel was also known as one of the best offensive line coaches in football.
Marv Levy, who introduced Stanfel on Saturday, hired the blocker as a college assistant in 1963.
"Once I hired him as the coach at the University of California, sometimes he would demonstrate to our players without a helmet, without shoulder pads, how to trap an outside linebacker. And he not only blew them away, he blew me away watching. It was fantastic," Levy said in a video tribute.
Stanfel went on to coach as an assistant in the NFL for more than 30 years.
"I think he was the guard of the century," Levy said. "He was a credit to the game. His bust belongs here in Canton."
Orlando Pace
Orlando Pace became just the 15th No. 1 overall selection to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
The theme of Pace"s speech was simple. He had one goal: Make the Hall of Fame.
"When you set your goal to be the very best, there is no other path," he said.
Pace, a Sandusky, Ohio, native, said he never spoke of his goal, but "unleashed the fire" on the field.
Boy did he ever.
As one of the greatest left tackles ever, Pace was the anchor for the Greatest Show on Turf. He blocked for three straight NFL MVPs (QB Kurt Warner -- 1999, 2001; RB Marshall Faulk -- 2000) and seven 1,000-yard rushers. The Rams" offense also threw for more than 3,000 yards in each of his 12 seasons with the team.
Pace thanked his high school, college and Rams coaches for challenging him "to be great every day."
He also thanked St. Louis fans, saying: "We brought a championship to that city. Nobody can take that away."
Tony Dungy
Tony Dungy spoke as he coached: A family-first man who won.
He began with a theme of disappointment, which he always overcame.
Dungy wasn"t drafted as a quarterback out of college, despite there being 12 rounds in the draft at the time. But he made the Pittsburgh Steelers as a cornerback. After two seasons, he was traded to San Francisco. His pro career ended a year later.
His career as a coach was just beginning.
Dungy credited all the coaches he worked under as an assistant, but gave special praise for the leadership the late Dennis Green taught him.
"(He) taught me about things on and off the field," Dungy said, noting that Green always made sure his staff spent time with their families.
Dungy took over a Buccaneers team in 1996 that had suffered 12 double-digit loss seasons in the previous 13 years. He finished at or above .500 in five of six seasons with Buccaneers.
After being fired, he then led the Indianapolis Colts to 12-plus wins in six of his seven seasons, including a Super Bowl championship.
"The reason I"m here, is the people I"m able to work with," Dungy said, acknowledging his former players in attendance.
As the first African American head coach ever to win a Super Bowl, Dungy ended by acknowledging all the minority coaches who came before.
"And finally I"d like to say thank you to 10 men (who were assistants when he entered the NFL in 1977)," he said. "It was a small group of men, just 10 of them if you can believe that. Ten African American assistant coaches in the entire NFL. Many of them never got the chance to move up the coaching ladder like I did. But they were so important to the progress of this league.
"Those men were like my dad. They didn"t complain about the lack of opportunities. They found ways to make the situation better. They"re role models and mentors to me and my generation to young African American players like Ray Rhodes, Terry Robiskie and Herm Edwards, (who) in the "80s were trying to decide whether we could make coaching a career or not. Without those 10 coaches laying the ground work, the league would not have the 200-plus minority assistant coaches it does today. And we would not have had Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy coaching against each other in Super Bowl 41.
"So tonight, as I join Fritz Pollard as the second African American coach in the Hall of Fame, I feel like I"m representing those 10 men and all the African American coaches who came before me and paved the way. I thank them very, very much."
Marvin Harrison
The soft-spoken Marvin Harrison marveled at the highlight reel shown during his introduction.
The former Indianapolis Colts receiver ranks third in the NFL history in receptions (1,102), seventh in receiving yards (14,580), and fifth in receiving touchdowns (128). He earned 1,000-plus yards and 10-plus touchdowns in eight straight seasons from 1999-2006 and set an NFL record with 143 receptions in 2002.
"I"ve broken a lot of records, I"ve held a lot of records, but records were made to be broken," he said, quipping that he wouldn"t have the shortest speech in Hall of Fame history.
Many of those catches were of the spectacular variety.
"They may look tough to me, but they were routine," he said.
Harrison credited former Colts offensive coordinator Tom Moore with helping him set the all-time receiving record.
"Any time you come off a record-breaking season, you have 143 catches and the first day of training camp your coach comes over to you, he"s upset, he"s sad," Harrison said. "... He said "I"m a little upset with you." (I said) "Why would you be upset, I just had 143 catches?" "Because you should have had 150. I"m a little upset at that." ... Tom played an extremely big role in me being here today. He would always tell me, "I"m going to throw you the ball whether it"s double coverage. I don"t care who is guarding you so you better get over it because I"m going to keep throwing you the ball.""
And Harrison caught most of those b***s.
Chris Mortensen
Chris Mortensen is battling throat cancer, but that wouldn"t keep him away from the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The long-time ESPN NFL Insider was on hand Saturday night to accept the d**k McCann Award, given by the Professional Football Writers of America for long and distinguished reporting on pro football.
NFL Media"s Steve Wyche noted that during the HOF induction ceremony, Hall of Famers Anthony Munoz, Bill Polian, Marcus Allen, Jim Kelly and others lined up backstage to speak and take pictures with Mortensen.
Everyone in the football world is praying for you, Mort.
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I have tickets to see Jaden Smith in concert this summer, but I was wondering if he also has a movie coming out.
Shelly S., Aspinwall, Pennsylvania
Not a movie, but Smith returns to acting in a new Netflix series from director Baz Luhrmann. The Get Down, premiering August 12, is about six kids whose lives revolve around hip-hop, punk and disco music as they steer a course through a crime-ridden and destitute New York City in the 1970s. In his role, Smith, 18, the son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, is forsaking the gender-breaking skirt he made famous in Louis Vuitton ads for some supercool bell-bottom pants of the era.
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Figure skater Tara Lipinski was only 15 years old when she won a gold medal at the winter Olympics in 1998. Now, the Olympian reflects on her career achievements while looking ahead.
Lipinski shared with NBC4 her life after the Olympics and her favorite moment that people didn"t see on television.
"That"s the thing about the Olympics, people see that small sort of window of time of skating for four minutes and winning an Olympic gold medal, which was outrageous and amazing, but there were so many amazing moments," Lipinski said.
"I remember -- and I have a picure that I took on probably one of those disposable cameras -- when we got off the bus in Nagano, and I remember thinking this is the first time I"m setting foot on Olympic soil. So, I have a picture of my foot hitting Olympic soil," she added.
In anticipation of Rio, Lipinski and Weir go to Carnival. She tells NBC4S Lolita Lopez why shell remember when she is 60. (Published Thursday, July 21, 2016)
Lipinski said what surprised her about the Olympics was that she was so focused on skating that she wasn"t prepared "for this kind of event." She said the event was special from the moment she arrived.
Lipinski said when she was younger, she had a singular goal: to win at the Olympics and be a figure skater. She said she accomplished her goal so young and pondered what to do next.
Tara Lipinski was just 15 years old in 1998 when she won her gold medal. She tells NBC4s Lolita Lopez about her experience and offers advice to first-time Olympian, 16-year-old gymnast, Laurie Hernandez. (Published Thursday, July 21, 2016)
"When I thought about commentating in 2009, it just hit me and I just thought I could never do it. You look at Scott Hamilton and d**k Button, and they"re your idols, and there was that moment I went to bed one night and was like that"s it. This is what I"m meant to do," she said.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) In the midst of arguably their finest team performance in a quadrennium, a familiar nemesis provided the U.S. men"s gymnastics team with a reminder that nothing comes easily.
Especially on pommel horse. Especially at the Olympics.
While having Chris Brooks and Sam Mikulak go spinning off pommels removed some of the sparkle of an occasionally spectacular Saturday during Olympic preliminaries, it also offered a reality check. As solid as the score of 270.405 points was second only to two-time defending champion China the Americans know it can be better during Monday"s team finals.
"We just want to keep building momentum," Mikulak said. "I think that"s what today was, getting comfortable on the equipment and making a little bit of a statement. Hopefully that statement will carry over and we can carry that momentum to Monday."
Four years ago in London, the Americans dominated qualifying only to slide to fifth with a medal on the line, a fall kickstarted by a forgettable set on pommels. China, which slogged to sixth in prelims, rebounded all the way to the top of the podium.
It"s a painful memory that remains fresh for the five men on Team USA, all of whom were involved on the 2012 team in some capacity. This group, they insist, is not that group. They"re older. Wiser. And not so caught up in their own hype.
"We were just so pumped up about everything we might have just believed in ourselves that we might have already proven ourselves," Mikulak said. "This time we all know that"s not what we"re going to do. ... What happened today doesn"t matter on Monday."
Russia, Japan, Britain, Brazil, Ukraine and Germany all advanced to the eight-team final, though the sometimes giddy atmosphere punctuated by host Brazil"s euphoric breakthrough in front of a raucous home crowd during the opening session was tempered by sobering reminders of the sport"s ever present danger.
French gymnast Samir Ait Said broke his left leg while trying to land a vault, the crack of the bone shattering upon impact with the mat echoing throughout the arena and the shocking images of Said holding it in his hands instantly going viral.
"It is catastrophic," French teammate Cyril Tommasone said.
Andreas Toba"s right knee buckled during his floor routine. While the German managed to compete on pommels, he watched the rest of qualifying in sweat pants with his right leg ramrod straight in a brace, his Olympics over.
"I cried like a little kid," Toba said. "The injury on my knee is big, but the emotional injury is way bigger."
Japan"s missteps were far less painful but nearly as startling. Nine months ago after ending China"s long run at the top by surging to gold at the world championships, the Japanese looked a bit overcome by the stage at Rio Olympic Arena.
Even typically poised and ever elegant defending Olympic champion Kohei Uchimura wasn"t immune to the pressure.
Looking for a gold medal to bookend the one he captured in London, he went sailing off the high bar an event where he is the reigning world champion and smacked onto the ground in shock. The miscue means he"ll miss the event final. It also cost him the top qualifying score in the all-around. Uchimura"s score of 90.498 was second to Ukraine"s Oleg Verniaiev, one of the rare times Uchimura hasn"t found himself looking down at the rest of the field.
The scores will be reset in the individual all-around next Wednesday, though Uchimura is more concerned about getting his team mentally prepared for Monday night.
"We try to perform like the world championships," Uchimura said. "But we know this is the Olympic Games and this makes us stressed out."
The stress didn"t get to China, which downplayed Japan"s rise at worlds and promised to be ready by Rio. The Chinese posted the top scores on parallel bars and still rings, their three near flawless sets on rings in the final rotation giving them just enough to edge the Americans.
China delivering in the clutch is hardly new. It is new in Brazil, which made the team final for the first time, fueled by an arena that roared with every stuck landing.
The highlight came during three-time Olympic veteran Diego Hypolito"s floor exercise. After falling in the 2008 floor final and failing to make the event final in 2012 after a similar mistake, tears streamed down the 30-year-old Brazilian"s face after posting a 15.5, good enough for a spot in the floor final later in the games. Yet the tears were not for his score as much for his country.
"This was important for Brazil, it was about the team," Hypolito said. "I"ve been to three Olympics. This is something we"ve thought about for a long time. To perform like this, it"s a dream."
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