Ichiro!

Most sincere congratulations are due Ichiro on the occasion of his 4000 hit, current uniform notwithstanding.  The Lefarkins Founders were present for his first major league hit, which… really seems like a very long time ago. Here’s Joe Posnanski comparing Ichiro to Warren Moon:

But if you are trying to tell a story? Ichiro’s 4,000 hits … Moon’s 70,000 yards … Satchel Paige’s 1,000-plus worldwide victories … Sadaharu Oh’s 868 home runs … Lynette Woodard’s 3,649 points … Bill Tilden’s six year stretch when he did not lose a single meaningful tennis match … these tell incomparable stories. And so they’re wonderful on their own.

Would Ichiro have 4,000 hits had he started in the Major Leagues instead of Japan? I’ll go one-step further: I think he’d have MORE than 4,000 hits. But that’s not how history played out. Would Warren Moon have 70,000 passing yards had he started in the NFL instead of Canada? Probably not, but I’ll go one step further. I think he would have been the first black quarterback to star in the NFL and might have helped create opportunities for black quarterbacks a lot earlier.Unfortunately, that’s not how history worked out either.