George Sisler’s single-season record of 257 hits, set in 1920 with the St. Louis Browns, stood for 83 seasons. It withstood Lefty O’Doul’s National League record of 254 hits in 1929 and held up a year later when Bill Terry matched that mark.
Those were two of the 11 seasons of at least 240 hits from 1921–2003— including Ichiro Suzuki’s 242-hit rookie season in 2001 — but no one surpassed even the 254-hit mark of O’Doul and Terry, let alone approached Sisler’s record.
No one, that is, until Ichiro’s 2004 campaign. That year, he totaled 262 hits and set the Major League record for most hits in a single season.