Today In Baseball

Ichiro Suzuki donated a number of items to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Monday – his jersey and cleats among them – to mark his 3,000th hit in Major League Baseball. That followed the odd contrast presented Sunday.

Alex Rodriguez began that morning in a news conference with the New York Yankees in which they announced he’d play his last game for the team on Friday before unconditionally released. After all the past fighting about bonuses when and if he hit his 700th career home run, he most likely will never hit it, no matter how much the Yankees let him play this final week.

Later in the day, Ichiro of the Miami Marlins collected his 3,000th hit. It’s been a long few weeks for him to achieve that benchmark, but a standup triple against the Colorado Rockies got it done.

Handing over iconic items speaks of class. Ichiro never embarrassed the sport. Rodriguez dove right into the banned substance pool years ago, denying and eventually admitting his involvement and serving a one-year suspension (162 games, reduced from 211). Those who vote for the Hall of Fame have repeatedly shown they will not elect players from the steroid era (Roger Clemens, who won the Cy Young Award seven times, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa), so don’t expect a bust of A-Rod in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Just a comparison, just a look at two players of the same era, both facing the ends of their careers and leaving very different memories.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman