Ichiro Suzuki Sets Record with Ninth-Straight 200-Hit Season

Trails Only Pete Rose for Most 200-Hit Seasons

Ichiro Suzuki, the All-Star right fielder of the Seattle Mariners, established a Major League Baseball record for most 200-hit seasons in a row when he singled in a game against the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas on Sunday, September 13, 2009. It was his ninth straight season with 200 or more hits.

Suzuki got his league-leading 200th hit in the second game of a double-header at Rangers Ballpark, which was won 5-0 by the Mariners. Suzuki went 1 for 4 and finished the night with a .353 batting average, second best in the A.L. He also had a single in the first game, which was won by Texas by a score of 7-2.

His 200 hits are tops in major league baseball.

Hall of Famers

Ichiro Suzki had been tied with Wee Willie Keeler with eight straight 200-hit seasons. Keeler, who played with the old Baltimore Orioles of the National League and the Brooklyn Superbas (later known as the Dodgers), began his streak 1894, the year modern baseball rules were put into place. It came to an end with the 1901 season.

Willie Keeler ended his career with a .341 career batting average and 2,932 hits. He was part of the inaugural class of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.

In baseball history, only Pete Rose with ten 200-hit seasons and Ty Cobb with nine 200-hit seasons tie or surpass Suzuki. Ty Cobb managed only three consecutive seasons of 200 or more hits in his 24 major league seasons, as did Pete Rose, who also played 24 seasons.

Lou "The Iron Horse" Gehrig of the New York Yankees had eight 200-hit seasons. Gehrig's team record for hits recently was broken by Yankees captain Derek Jeter, who has five 200-hit seasons. Surprisingly, Gehrig's contemporary Babe Ruth, who was part of the famed "Murderer's Row" on the Bronx Bombers, had only three 200-hit seasons. Ted Williams, generally considered the Babe's only competitor for the title of greatest hitter in baseball history, never had a 200-hit season.

American League All-Star