SAN DIEGO — With two hits Wednesday, Ichiro raised his career total in the Japanese and North American major leagues to 4,257, passing Pete Rose’s record Major League Baseball total.
“This wasn’t like a goal of mine to get to this point,” Ichiro said through a translator after the Miami Marlins’ 6-3 loss to the San Diego Padres.
He had 1,278 hits for Orix in Japan’s Pacific League (1992-00) and has 2,979 with Seattle, the New York Yankees and Marlins. Rose was quoted recently by USA Today as saying: “I’m not trying to take anything away from Ichiro, he’s had a Hall of Fame career, but the next thing you know, they’ll be counting his high-school hits.