Tonight, everyone should be an M’s fan. That is, if you’re a fan of the game and have no hatred for the Mariners. And if would feel that way, it would be a Yankees fan like me, after they knocked New York out of the playoffs in 1995.

In fact, Edgar’s last game is tomorrow – hopefully the M’s will retire number 11, the first for the team – but I’m so-so on that. After all, Martinez was the guy responsible for sending Donnie Baseball home without a Ring almost a decade ago, but I do respect any player that sticks with one team throughout their career, especially these days. And I think it’s high time that the M’s have a retired number – other than Robinson’s 42 – to hang on the wall… they’re old enough now to get some history built around them. (Remember that my team is running out of numbers to give players – from 1-10 only 2 (Jeter) and 6 (Torre) are left and those will go soon – lotta history in Momument Park!)

But this record is special. The home run record was great and all, but because of the endless controversy with the 162 game season in 1961, and the *, and then of course having it broken twice in one decade… it didn’t home very much mystique for me. Not to mention the endless argument of smaller ball parks, steroids, a juiced ball, and faster specialized pitching. There are endless ways to twist the home run record so that it seems less than it is (which I don’t agree with, but some baseball purists still make a case for it).

There are two records in baseball that simply astonish me. One is the total number of hits in a season; the other is DiMaggio’s 5456 [typo on my part!] game hitting streak.

Both have little to do with the ball or the ball parks or steroids. The hits in a season might be open for some conjecture, since the season was shorter in 1920, but I don’t believe that should matter – after all the game isn’t over tonight [yet] and tomorrow there’s another four to five at bats for Ichiro. But anyway, hits are… special. They’re magical. I’ve see batters smack the ball toward the hole, only to have a hit stolen from them by a diving infielder. Or the leap over the wall trick by an outfielder, to steal a home run. Or a well hit ball get booted by a player, resulting in an error, rather than a hit. If there are 20 ways to get a hit, there’s about 1020 ways for it not to be a hit. Quirky little things, hits are – ask any pitcher that has thrown a one hitter.

And so, I witnessed history tonight, and I’m a happier baseball fan for it. Ichiro reached first on his first at bit, tieing the record, and he looked like he hit his first hit of the season. For his second hit (for his second AB) and the game stopped, he looked satisfied, humble, and like he wanted to get back to work. For a game that doesn’t impact either team, with regards to the post season… Then he went to talk to Sisler’s family, who was at the game tonight, which we saw McGuire do with the Maris family during the home run record chase – just a classy gesture from both players, in my opinion… Ichiro is just an all around good ball player, and for tonight, I’m an M’s fan.

Of course, if it was a Red Sox player that was going for this record, well, then… erm, but it wasn’t, so it doesn’t matter, now does it?