Rose compares Ichiro's Japan hits to minor-league ball

The way Pete Rose sees it, if you're going to count Ichiro Suzuki's hits in Japan, MLB should count his hits in the minors.

As Ichiro inches closer to surpassing Rose's hits record of 4,256, the all-time hits leader dismissed the idea that the Japanese superstar should be hailed as the Hit King because Nippon Professional Baseball League isn't as competitive as MLB.

"It seems like all the guys who, especially in Japan ... they wanna count his Japanese hits," Rose told MLB Network Radio. "If you're gonna count his Japanese hits than count my professional hits that I got other than the big leagues. That's another 400 or 500 on to my total."

Rose fell shy of denouncing Ichiro's hits, saying if he had the chance he would shake his hand, pat him on the back, and ask him for his autograph.

But he also said Ichiro shouldn't be lauded more than Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Robin Yount, and all the other players who joined the 3,000-hit club before him, especially considering they all did it in the majors.

"I played baseball in Japan ... and I don't think (it's) at the big-league level," Rose said. "If it was there'd be more Japanese players that come here and play because you make more money over here in the United States than you do in Japan."

As it stands, there are nine Japanese-born players in the majors, bringing the list of current and past players up to 54. Of that group, 41 of them are pitchers.

"I'm not trying to take anything away from Japanese baseball, but there's been some players in the United States that couldn't cut it over here and went over there and became instant heroes," Rose added.

"So it's not the same playing baseball in Japan as it is playing in the National or American League."