Baseball is the ultimate numbers game. Always has been, always will be.
Start a debate about the sport, and the argument will eventually devolve into a comparison of statistics and formulas.
So sometime in the future, when it's time to look back after Ichiro Suzuki has stood in the batter's box with his arm outstretched — bat firmly in grasp — and directed a steely gaze at the pitcher's mound for the very last time, the numbers won't lie.
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