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Previous Article No Next Article  May 18, 2001  Doctoring Ichiro
More on the Mariners' Sensation  by Rany Jazayerli  Yesterday,
Joe Sheehan wrote about the talents of Ichiro Suzuki. Today, I
want to talk about how those talents have translated into some
truly historic performances.  Let's start with one of Jayson
Stark's favorite facts, that Ichiro has already had a 15-game
hitting streak and now has an active 21-game hitting streak,
both in the season's first 39 games. Forget, for a moment, that
Suzuki is the first player to have a pair of 15-game hitting
streaks in his rookie season since...OK, since Juan Pierre did
it last year. He's the first AL player to do it since Kent Hrbek
in 1982. But that misses the bigger point here: in his first 39
games, Ichiro has had a pair of hitting streaks that, by
themselves, add up to 36 games!  Ichiro has actually hit safely
in 37 of 39 games this year; the only two games he didn't get a
hit were on April 3-