Ichiro Suzuki got to 3,000 hits Sunday at age 42.
Before turning 27, Ichiro had exactly zero big league hits. To that point, he’d done all his playing in Japan.
When he came to the U.S. as a member of the Seattle Mariners, his first manager was Lou Piniella, who compared him favorable to Brad Pitt in terms of star power.
Ichiro’s second manager was Bob Melvin. The current A’s skipper’s first managerial job was replacing Piniella. Melvin was in Seattle for two seasons, 2003 and 2004. In those two years, he and the right fielder built up a bond while Ichiro was busy hitting – he had 474 hits in those two seasons, part of a 10-year streak in which Ichiro collected at least 200 hits every year.