As baseball writers push for Ichiro Suzuki to not only be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame but to become only the second player voted in unanimously, what chucklehead will oppose that?
It pains me to say: Me. Let me explain.
Suzuki played 19 seasons in the Major Leagues after nine seasons in Japan. He didn’t join the MLB until he was 27 and still recorded 3,089 career hits after getting 1,278 hits in Japan. He was rock-solid reliable, playing in 157 or more games in 11 seasons. He won American League Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year in 2001.
Suzuki played in the MLB from 2001 to 2019 and is in his first year of eligibility for the Hall of Fame, having played more than 10 seasons and been retired for five years.
As a pioneering player from Japan, Suzuki had a great career—a fan favorite, a box-office draw.
But having tracked Suzuki’s entire career with the Box-Toppers metric, he simply doesn’t rise to Hall of Fame status. Since 1995, Box-Toppers has tracked which players most help their teams win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.
Suzuki won Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors comparatively rarely
Suzuki was not the key player very often in his team’s wins. There was almost always some other teammate outperforming Suzuki in team wins. Suzuki never led his team in a season in Box-Toppers points and never even led his team’s batters.
For the length of his career and the number of games he played in, he earned a relatively low career Box-Toppers point total of only 53.7, which ranks 67th among all outfielders since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995. He’s just ahead of 68th-ranked outfielder Nick Markakis (53.1) and just behind 66th-ranked outfielder Jose Guillen (54.1).
Suzuki never led his league’s batters or outfielders in Box-Toppers points. There is only one season in which he ranked among the top 10 American League outfielders—2007, when his 8.0 Box-Toppers points ranked ninth.
As I’ve cast Hall of Fame ballots in unofficial internet baseball writers voting in past years, my minimum criteria have been this: A player must have at least 100 career Box-Toppers points or be among their league leaders at their position in Box-Toppers points in at least one season.
I’ve made exceptions. The biggest was in 2020, interestingly, for another player for whom writers clamored for a unanimous vote—Derek Jeter. He had only 76.4 career Box-Toppers points and never led AL shortstops in any season, though he was among the top five for six seasons. Still, he had the most career Box-Toppers points of any shortstop not tainted by the performance-enhancing drug scandal. (Miguel Tejada leads shortstops since 1995 with 102.3 career points.)
So I voted for Jeter for the Hall in the unofficial internet writers’ vote. And although he was inducted in 2020, Jeter fell one vote short of unanimous in baseball writers’ official vote. That makes Mariano Rivera, inducted in 2019, the only player to be voted unanimously to the Hall since it was established in 1936.
Suzuki earned Box-Toppers points in 16 straight seasons
Suzuki’s most notable Box-Toppers milestone is recording Box-Toppers points in 16 consecutive seasons from 2001-2016, which is tied for the 19th-longest active streak since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995. (Suzuki played from 2001 to 2019 but did not earn Box-Toppers points in his final three seasons.)
While that streak is impressive, showing Suzuki consistently and reliably earning Box-Toppers points, he simply didn’t do it very frequently.
In his best season, 2007 with the Mariners, Suzuki earned 8.0 Box-Toppers points. That produced his highest career ranking of 21st among AL batters and ninth among AL outfielders.
In Suzuki’s best six-season stretch from 2004 to 2009, he earned 31.5 total Box-Toppers points, which ranked 12th among AL outfielders over that span.
Suzuki never led team or team’s batters in Box-Toppers points
Ichiro Suzuki never led his league’s batters or league’s outfielders in Box-Toppers points in any season. In fact, he never led his team or his team’s batters in Box-Toppers points in any season. Here is a season-by-season look at Suzuki’s career compared to his teammates. For example, in 2001, Suzuki earned 4.0 Box-Toppers points (BTP), which ranked 15th among all Mariners players that season (shown in “Rank*” column) and ninth among Mariners batters (shown in “Rank†” column). Team leader in Box-Toppers points in 2001 was Bret Boone (13.7), who also led the team’s batters.The only season Suzuki ranked among the top 10 players at his position in Box-Toppers points was 2007, when his 8.0 points was ninth among American League outfielders.
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| Year | Team | Pos | BTP | Rank* | Rank† | Team leader | BTP | Team batting leader | BTP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Mariners | rf dh | 4.0 | 15 | 9 | Bret Boone | 13.7 | Bret Boone | 13.7 |
| 2002 | Mariners | rf | 2.5 | 18 | 9 | Jamie Moyer | 15.8 | John Olerud | 9.2 |
| 2003 | Mariners | rf | 4.2 | 10 | 5 | Joel Pineiro | 11.4 | Bret Boone | 9.2 |
| 2004 | Mariners | rf | 5.0 | 7 | 4 | Bret Boone | 7.7 | Bret Boone | 7.7 |
| 2005 | Mariners | rf | 6.0 | 3 | 2 | Richie Sexson | 13.2 | Richie Sexson | 13.2 |
| 2006 | Mariners | rf | 3.5 | 11 | 6 | J.J. Putz | 12.0 | Adrian Beltre | 6.5 |
| 2007 | Mariners | cf | 8.0 | 5 | 3 | Felix Hernandez | 13.0 | Raul Ibanez | 11.0 |
| 2008 | Mariners | cf rf | 3.5 | 8 | 4 | Raul Ibanez | 9.0 | Raul Ibanez | 9.0 |
| 2009 | Mariners | rf | 5.5 | 4 | 3 | Felix Hernandez | 19.1 | Jose Lopez | 8.0 |
| 2010 | Mariners | rf | 1.0 | 15 | 8 | Felix Hernandez | 20.4 | Justin Smoak | 4.5 |
| 2011 | Mariners | rf | 2.0 | 9 | 4 | Felix Hernandez | 11.7 | Mike Carp | 5.5 |
| 2012 | Yankees** | rf cf | 2.5 | 17 | 10 | Hiroki Kuroda | 15.4 | Curtis Granderson | 8.7 |
| 2013 | Yankees | rf cf | 2.0 | 17 | 9 | Alfonso Soriano | 12.9 | Alfonso Soriano | 12.9 |
| 2014 | Yankees | rf | 1.0 | 24 | 9 | Masahiro Tanaka | 12.7 | Brian McCann | 6.5 |
| 2015 | Marlins | rf | 1.0 | 19 | 10 | Justin Bour | 8.5 | Justin Bour | 8.5 |
| 2016 | Marlins | rf ph | 2.0 | 15 | 7 | David Phelps | 6.7 | Giancarlo Stanton | 6.5 |
| 2017 | Marlins | rf ph | 0.0 | 27 | 14 | Giancarlo Stanton | 14.2 | Giancarlo Stanton | 14.2 |
| 2018 | Mariners†† | rf ph | 0.0 | - | - | James Paxton | 17.0 | Ryon Healy | 7.0 |
| 2019 | Mariners†† | rf | 0.0 | - | - | Marco Gonzales | 9.4 | Daniel Vogelbach | 7.0 |
†Rank among team batters
**Traded from Mariners to Yankees July 23, 2012
††Released by Mariners May 3, 2018. Signed as free agent prior to 2019, playing two-game season-opening series in Japan before retiring March 21, 2019. Since he finished both 2018 and 2019 unaffiliated with a team, he did not rank among Mariners players in Box-Toppers points either season.
Chart is sortable. Click a column header to re-sort the chart by the values in that column. Refresh page to restore chart to default view.
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Suzuki not only never led his league’s batters or outfielders in a season in Box-Toppers points, he never led his overall team or team’s batters in points in any season.
His 8.0 Box-Toppers points in 2007 ranked fifth among all Mariners (pitcher Felix Hernandez led with 13.0 points) and third among the team’s batters (Raul Ibanez led with 11.0).
In 2005, Suzuki ranked as high as third among all Mariners and second among team batters with 6.0 Box-Toppers points. First baseman Richie Sexson led the team and the team’s batters with 13.2 points, fourth among AL batters.
Was Suzuki’s 2001 season worthy of MVP and top rookie honors?
Suzuki won both the AL Most Valuable Player Award and Rookie of the Year in 2001, one of only two players to win both honors in the same year. (The other was Fred Lynn of the Red Sox in 1975).
But was Suzuki’s season worthy of the honors?
In his first season, Suzuki led the AL in hits (242), stolen bases (56) and batting average (.350).
But that season, he only earned 4.0 Box-Toppers points, earning Player of the Game honors in just four of the Mariners’ 116 wins. (The Mariners tied the Major League record for most wins by a team in a season, but lost in that season’s AL Championship Series to the New York Yankees.)
In 2001, Suzuki ranked 15th among all Mariners players in Box-Toppers points and ninth among all batters. Second baseman Bret Boone had the most Box-Toppers points among all Mariners players in 2001 with 13.7, which was first among AL batters and 18th among all players. Boone, in fact, would have been Box-Toppers’ choice that season for AL Most Valuable Player. Boone led the AL in 2001 with 141 runs batted in and finished third in AL MVP voting.
In 2001, Suzuki’s 4.0 Box-Toppers points was tied for 73rd among AL batters and 28th among AL outfielders.
There were seven AL rookies who had the same or more Box-Toppers points (4.0) as Suzuki had in 2001, including Cleveland pitcher CC Sabathia (10.8), Mariners pitcher Joel Pineiro (10.7), Yankees second baseman Alfonso Soriano (6.2) and Twins catcher A.J. Pierzynski (4.0).
Though Suzuki won top AL player and top rookie honors in 2001, by Box-Toppers’ measure, he was neither his own team’s top player (trailing Boone) nor top rookie (trailing Pineiro).
A Box-Toppers look at 3,000-hit club members
Here are the 33 players who have hit 3,000 or more hits in Major League Baseball, listed by their career hit total. A look at the other columns:XBH—Combined total of extra base hits (doubles, triples and home runs).
%XBH—Percentage of extra base hits to total hits.
RBI—Career runs batted in total.
RBI/H—Percentage of RBIs compared to their total hits.
Seasons—Years played.
HOF—Hall of Fame status. If they were voted in, the year of their induction is shown.
Ballot—Number of years players were on the Hall of Fame ballot before election. For example, players with “1” were voted in first year on the ballot. % of vote—If inducted to the Hall of Fame, the percentage of baseball writers’ votes received (75 percent of votes are required for induction).
BTP—Career Box‑Toppers point totals. B‑T tracking began in 1995, so only those who have played since then have B‑T point totals. Only six have earned their entire career total since 1995; their rows are shaded in gray.
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| Player | Hits | XBH | %XBH | RBI | RBI/H | Seasons | HOF | Ballot | Vote Pct. | BTP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pete Rose | 4,256 | 1,041 | 24.5 | 1,314 | 30.9 | 1963‑1986 | No | ‑ | ‑ | - |
| Ty Cobb | 4,191 | 1,136 | 27.1 | 1,944 | 46.4 | 1905‑1928 | 1936 | 1 | 98.2 | - |
| Hank Aaron | 3,771 | 1,477 | 39.2 | 2,297 | 60.9 | 1954‑1976 | 1982 | 1 | 97.8 | - |
| Stan Musial | 3,630 | 1,377 | 37.9 | 1,951 | 53.7 | 1941‑1963 | 1969 | 1 | 93.2 | - |
| Tris Speaker | 3,514 | 1,131 | 32.2 | 1,531 | 43.6 | 1907‑1928 | 1937 | 2 | 82.1 | - |
| Derek Jeter | 3,465 | 870 | 25.1 | 1,311 | 37.8 | 1995‑2014 | 2020 | 1 | 99.7 | 076.4 |
| Carl Yastrzemski | 3,419 | 1,157 | 33.8 | 1,844 | 53.9 | 1961‑1983 | 1989 | 1 | 94.6 | - |
| Cap Anson | 3,418 | 821 | 24.0 | 2,075 | 60.7 | 1871‑1897 | 1939 | § | § | - |
| Honus Wagner | 3,415 | 996 | 29.2 | 1,732 | 50.7 | 1897‑1917 | 1936 | 1 | 95.1 | - |
| Albert Pujols | 3,384 | 1,405 | 41.5 | 2,218 | 65.5 | 2001‑2022 | 2028† | ‑ | ‑ | 207.8 |
| Paul Molitor* | 3,319 | 850 | 25.6 | 1,307 | 39.4 | 1978‑1998 | 2004 | 1 | 85.2 | 017.6 |
| Eddie Collins | 3,315 | 672 | 20.3 | 1,299 | 39.2 | 1906‑1930 | 1939 | 4 | 77.7 | - |
| Willie Mays | 3,283 | 1,326 | 40.4 | 1,909 | 58.1 | 1951‑1973 | 1979 | 1 | 94.7 | - |
| Eddie Murray* | 3,255 | 1,099 | 33.8 | 1,917 | 58.9 | 1977‑1997 | 2003 | 1 | 85.3 | 011.2 |
| Nap Lajoie | 3,242 | 902 | 27.8 | 1,599 | 49.3 | 1896‑1916 | 1937 | 2 | 83.6 | - |
| Cal Ripken, Jr.* | 3,184 | 1,078 | 33.9 | 1,695 | 53.2 | 1981‑2001 | 2007 | 1 | 98.5 | 026.9 |
| Miguel Cabrera | 3,174 | 1,155 | 36.4 | 1,881 | 59.3 | 2003‑2023 | 2029† | ‑ | ‑ | 159.4 |
| Adrian Beltre | 3,166 | 1,151 | 36.4 | 1,707 | 53.9 | 1998‑2018 | 2024 | 1 | 95.1 | 116.8 |
| George Brett | 3,154 | 1,119 | 35.5 | 1,596 | 50.6 | 1973‑1993 | 1999 | 1 | 98.2 | - |
| Paul Waner | 3,152 | 909 | 28.8 | 1,309 | 41.5 | 1926‑1945 | 1952 | 6 | 83.3 | - |
| Robin Yount | 3,142 | 960 | 30.6 | 1,406 | 44.7 | 1974‑1993 | 1999 | 1 | 77.5 | - |
| Tony Gwynn* | 3,141 | 763 | 24.3 | 1,138 | 36.2 | 1982‑2001 | 2007 | 1 | 97.6 | 030.0 |
| Alex Rodriguez | 3,115 | 1,275 | 40.9 | 2,086 | 67.0 | 1994‑2016 | No | ‑ | ‑ | 187.0 |
| Dave Winfield* | 3,110 | 1,093 | 35.1 | 1,833 | 58.9 | 1973‑1995 | 2001 | 1 | 84.5 | 000.0 |
| Ichiro Suzuki | 3,089 | 575 | 18.6 | 780 | 25.3 | 2001‑2019 | 2025† | ‑ | ‑ | 053.7 |
| Craig Biggio* | 3,060 | 1,014 | 33.1 | 1,175 | 38.4 | 1988‑2007 | 2015 | 3 | 82.7 | 054.2 |
| Rickey Henderson* | 3,055 | 873 | 28.6 | 1,115 | 36.5 | 1979‑2003 | 2009 | 1 | 94.8 | 026.0 |
| Rod Carew | 3,053 | 649 | 21.3 | 1,015 | 33.2 | 1967‑1985 | 1991 | 1 | 90.5 | - |
| Lou Brock | 3,023 | 776 | 25.7 | 900 | 29.8 | 1961‑1979 | 1985 | 1 | 79.7 | - |
| Rafael Palmeiro* | 3,020 | 1,192 | 39.5 | 1,835 | 60.8 | 1986‑2005 | No | ‑ | ‑ | 077.9 |
| Wade Boggs* | 3,010 | 757 | 25.1 | 1,014 | 33.7 | 1982‑1999 | 2005 | 1 | 91.9 | 011.0 |
| Al Kaline | 3,007 | 972 | 32.3 | 1,582 | 52.6 | 1953‑1974 | 1980 | 1 | 88.3 | - |
| Roberto Clemente | 3,000 | 846 | 28.2 | 1,305 | 43.5 | 1955‑1972 | 1973 | 1` | 92.7 | - |
† Player not yet inducted into Hall of Fame. The year shown is the first year they appear on a Hall of Fame ballot. Players must have 10 years of service and be retired for five years to be eligible for the ballot. For example, Albert Pujols becomes eligible in 2028.
§ Cap Anson was voted into the Hall of Fame by a special committee in 1939.
(Sorry for the leading zeros in the BTP column. The numbers in that column didn’t sort correctly without them.)
Chart is sortable. Click a column header to re‑sort the chart by the values in that column. Refresh page to restore chart to the default view. Note that by sorting the chart by extra base hits (XBH), percentage of extra base hits (%XBH), runs batted in (RBI) and runs batted in per hits (RBI/H), Ichiro Suzuki ranks last among all 3,000‑hit club members.
Information included in chart comes from BaseballReference.com.
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Players with 3,000 hits, with rare exception, get into the Hall of Fame and most are inducted in their first year of eligibility.
However, no player with 3,000 hits has ever been inducted by unanimous vote. Jeter (3,465 hits) came the closest with 99.7 percent of the vote with just one holdout.
Of the 33 players in Major League Baseball history with 3,000 hits, 27 have been inducted into the Hall, three (including Suzuki) have yet to be subjected to a vote and three others have been excluded largely for reasons of impropriety.
Impropiety
All-time hit king Pete Rose (4,256 hits) was banned for life (and now beyond life—he died Sept. 30) from baseball for betting on the game.
Alex Rodriguez (3,115 hits) has yet to be voted into the Hall of Fame, largely for his ties to performance-enhancing drugs, including a yearlong suspension in 2014. He received 34.8 percent voter support in 2024 and is on the ballot for the fourth year in 2025. He would need 75 percent support to be inducted. As long as he receives at least 5 percent of voter support (or gets elected), he will remain on the ballot for 10 total years.
Rafael Palmeiro (3,020 hits) is the only 3,000-hit club member to be outright rejected by Hall voters. He became eligible for the ballot in 2011 but received 11.0 percent of votes, far short of the 75 percent threshold. He remained on the ballot until receiving just 4.4 percent support in 2014, falling below the 5 percent threshold to return to the ballot the following year. Palmeiro was suspended in 2005 after testing positive for steroid use.
Not yet eligible
Three members of the 3,000-hit club have yet to undergo a Hall of Fame vote:
Ichiro Suzuki (3,089) becomes eligible this year after at least 10 years of Major League service and at least five years retired.
Albert Pujols (3,384 hits) becomes eligible in 2028.
Miguel Cabrera (3,174 hits) becomes eligible in 2029.
The 27 inducted
Of the 27 inducted, 21 were inducted in their first year of eligibility. That includes players like Ty Cobb (4,191 hits) and Honus Wagner (3,415) who were inducted when the Hall was established in 1936. Roberto Clemente (3,000 hits) was inducted by special vote in 1973 in the wake of his death in a plane crash on a humanitarian mission. He last played in 1972.
Of those 21 players, 14 were inducted with 90 percent or more of the writers’ vote. The lowest vote total to induct a 3,000-hit club member in their first year of eligibility was Robin Yount (3,142 hits), who received 77.5 percent support in 1999, just passing the 75 percent threshold for election.
Of the remaining six players, one, Cap Anson (3,418 hits) was inducted by a special committee in the early years of the Hall in 1939. The other five were inducted in their second year of eligibility or later. Most recently, Craig Biggio (3,060 hits) was inducted in 2015 in his third year of eligibility with 82.7 percent of the vote.
So while there is a push for Suzuki to be a unanimous first-ballot Hall of Famer, it would not be unprecedented, even in modern times, for a 3,000-hit club member to wait for induction for several years and to be inducted on a less-than-unanimous vote.
Why does Suzuki have so few career Box-Toppers points?
Six players with 3,000 hits earned their entire career Box-Toppers point total since tracking began in 1995. Among those six, Suzuki has the lowest career Box-Toppers point total of 53.7:
Albert Pujols—207.8
Alex Rodriguez—187.0
Miguel Cabrera—159.4
Adrian Beltre—116.8
Derek Jeter—76.4
Ichiro Suzuki—53.7
(Rodriguez played 17 games in 1994, before Box-Toppers tracking began, but analysis of those games show he would not have earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors in any of them.)
Why does Suzuki have so few Box-Toppers points compared to other players with 3,000 or more hits?
Box-Toppers favors power hitters because they drive in more runs, which helps teams win more games. Suzuki has the lowest ratio of extra-base hits to his overall hit total among these six players. Suzuki had a combined total of 575 doubles, triples and home runs, which is 18.6 percent of his 3,089 hit total. By contrast, Albert Pujols’ 1,405 extra base hits made up 41.5 percent of his 3,384 hit total.
Suzuki also has the lowest ratio of runs batted in compared to his hit total. He had 780 RBIs, which is 25.3 percent of his 3,089 hit total. By contrast, Alex Rodriguez’ 2,086 RBIs is 67.0 percent of his 3,115 hits.
Of the 33 players with 3,000 or more hits, Suzuki ranks last in percentage of both extra base hits among total hits and RBIs-to-hits ratio. His 18.6 percent of extra base hits to total hits is just below the 32nd-ranked Eddie Collins (20.3 percent). His 25.3 percent RBIs-to-hits ratio is just below the 32nd-ranked Lou Brock (29.8 percent).
So while Suzuki did reach the 3,000-hit milestone in the Major Leagues and while that is a worthy accomplishment in and of itself, the question has to be: To what end did he earn those hits? How much did they truly help his team win games?
By Box-Toppers measures, Suzuki was a consistent, almost undeviating contributor to his teams’ wins over more than a dozen seasons. But while steady, he simply was not a very frequent contributor to wins. He earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors at a relatively slow but steady pace, but never enough to be a leader among his league’s batters, his league’s outfielders or even among his own team’s batters.
It is hard to argue that a player is among the best of all time when, on a game-by-game basis, they are not even the best player on their team with any regularity.
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