Marlins' Ichiro Suzuki: Heating up on approach to 3,000 hits

Suzuki went 3-for-5 with an RBI and a run in Wednesday's loss to the Twins.

Last season, Ichiro managed just a .229 average -- his fourth straight season under .300 -- and looked like he'd have to crawl on his hands and knees to reach 3,000 hits. This year, he's stunned the world (well, at least the baseball world) with a .330 batting average at the tender age of 42, and he's now only 29 hits away from that prestigious milestone. Considering that the slap-hitting outfielder didn't come to the majors until he was 27 years old, that's one heck of an accomplishment, and when you add his Japan Pacific League hits to his MLB total, he now owns a stunning 4,249 professional hits -- only seven short of the amount accumulated by all-time MLB hits leader Pete Rose.