Last Wednesday, Ichiro Suzuki carved his name into the record books of basebal by hitting his 4,000th career hit. He joins Pete Rose and Ty Cobb as the only other players to do so, albeit Ichiro did it in both in the Japanese and American baseball leagues.
As he hit a single off Toronto Blue Jays pitcher R.A. Dickey in the first inning, his Yankees teammates came out of the dug out to meet the Japanese star at first base. The game was stopped as the Yankees outfielder received a standing ovation from the crowd in attendance.
Ichiro said, through a translator, "It was supposed to be a night that was special to me. But you know what happened tonight, I wasn't expecting my teammates to come out to first base, that was very special. To see the fans, I wasn't expecting so much joy and happiness from them. That's what made it very special tonight. Not just the number, but all the things that happened with it. That came with it. It was very special."
This is one of the bright spots in an otherwise bad year for baseball. The year has been tainted with suspensions and the Biogenesis scandal. According to baseball-reference.com, 18 of the 30 teams have reported a decrease in attendance between 2012 and 2013. The largest loss of attendance are the Philadephia Phillies (372,417) followed by the Texas Rangers (252, 748) and the NY Yankees (236,680). The full financial impact is still to be computed.
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