AMERICAN LEAGUE Ichiro's swing spurs memories for Guillen

The White Sox manager would swat at just about any pitch.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
CHICAGO -- For those who remember Ozzie Guillen as a White Sox player, they know he never saw a pitch he wouldn't swing at, from eyelashes to shoelaces, from outer space to his inner reach.
Therefore, Guillen should feel like he's watching an old tape when Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki stands in the box at U.S. Cellular Field this weekend.
"Hah," Guillen says. "Ichiro has a better swing than me and he's fast. He gets 200-some hits every year, I got 200 every three years."
Guillen may exaggerate, but he is right, of course. The comparison between the two definitely ends at style.
As for substance, the most hits Guillen ever had in a season was 156, the highest average .288.
Suzuki hit .350 as a rookie and is well on his way to the all-time hit record for a season, which the St. Louis Browns' George Sisler set in 1920 with 257.
But what kept Guillen in the big leagues for 15 seasons is the same thing that makes Suzuki so good -- they will nibble at any bait a pitcher casts; heck, they'll bite on a bare hook if they think it will get them on base.
"It's a joke," Oakland's Cy Young Award candidate Mark Mulder says. "I've thrown some great pitches on him and he still gets hits.
Line drives
"When I throw a sinker in to any other lefty, they pull it foul or hit it off their foot. When I throw it to him, he hits a line drive down the third-base line. You just go, 'What is that? How did he do that?'
"I throw the guy well and he probably has six or seven infield hits. It's just that he gets hits in so many ways others don't. He gets more hits of a different variety than anybody else."
Actually, he just gets more hits, period, than anybody else.
He ended August with three hits, which meant he needed only 46 in September to pass Sisler. He has five already.
He comes to U.S. Cellular following a month in which he collected 56 hits and batted .463, becoming the first player with back-to-back 50-hit months since 1936.
"Ichi gets three hits," teammate Bret Boone says, "like the rest of us get one."
Overlooked record
Suzuki, who came to the United States after winning seven consecutive batting titles in Japan, is on the verge of breaking one of baseball's longest-held and least-known records, one that has been overlooked in these days of the Big Boom. Singles just aren't sexy anymore.
But make no mistake, Sisler's mark is overlooked only because it has been covered by dust for so long.
Of the top 10 hit producers for one season, only one did it after 1930.
1930!
And that one is Ichiro Suzuki in 2001 with 242. Not Pete Rose or George Brett, not Barry Bonds or Ted Williams, not Wade Boggs or Rickey Henderson.
In comparison, the White Sox's record is lefty Eddie Collins' 224 in 1920. Frank Thomas never has had 200.
The Cubs' record is Rogers Hornsby's 229 in 1929. Their left-handed leader is Billy Williams with 205 in 1970.
How good a season is Suzuki having? Well, he leads the league in batting average against right-handers and left-handers, in day games and night games, on the road and with runners in scoring position.
He is averaging more than 11/2 hits a game.
It's sort of a ballet with a bat.
"He does things you don't think are possible," says former Seattle teammate Ben Davis, now a catcher with the White Sox. "He's unbelievable.
"But you watch him take batting practice and he hits balls farther than anybody. I would put my money on him in a home run contest."