I’m not going to lie to you…I don’t remember Alex Ramirez and his Major League career.
But, after a quick trip to Baseball-Reference, I’m reminded that he played 135 games in the bigs between 1998-2000 for both the Cleveland Indians and Pittsburgh Pirates.
Well, the outfielder seems to have made a name for himself over in Japan.
According to The Japan Times, the Yokohama BayStars slugger recently became the 13th player to reach 2000 hits combined between the Nippon Professional Baseball and Major League Baseball. And of those 13, only Ramirez (1915 NPB hits and 86 MLB hits), Kazuo Matsui (1613 and 615) and Hideki Matsui (1390 and 1253) accumulated the majority of their hits in Japan.
Some quick facts about Ramirez and his career overseas, in 2007, he set the Central League record with 204 base hits. In 2010, it would be surpassed by another fellow Major League transplant Matt Murton.
In 2008, Ramírez became the third Venezuelan-born player to win an MVP award over in Japan.
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