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 baseball’s 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.