For whatever reason, perfection or expertise in one particular field impresses people. A man can be a horrible person, feared by his peers and hated by acquaintances, but if his skill at one particular thing is prodigious, he will often be exalted, regardless of his many faults. The overlooking of his faults by society are not my point - I'm just trying to say that people get wowed by one aspect of a person and just zone in on that, forevermore.
Take Ichiro*. I'm not using him as somebody who has faults.** I'm using him as an example of somebody with a huge amount of single-facetedness. The single is his art, his distinct niche in the game of baseball. (It's certainly not his only skill, as he's an excellent outfielder and base stealer, but the single, an act which he performed 175 times this year***, is certainly what he's most distinctively great at.****)
*Yes. Everything leads to Ichiro.
**Though, naturally, I assume he does. I just don't know them.
***And an average of 182.5 times over his ten-year career.
****Quite simply, we've seen base-stealers like Ichiro in Jose Reyes, strong-armed outfielders like him in Jeff Francoeur (and that's just on the 2010 Mets), but no bat-slapping singles-hitting phenoms akin to Ichiro.
I noted last year (here) that Ichiro had never been lower than (tied for) second place in hits in the major leagues since he joined them in 2001. With 2010 in the books, I (not surprisingly) noticed that he had once again led the major leagues in hits. Here's the more surprising thing: He's now led the American League in hits for five consecutive years. Take a guess at how many people have led the league in hits for that many consecutive years. I'll wait.*
*I guessed one: Ty Cobb.
Nobody, that's how many.*
Wrong.
Just one of the many reasons to be a Mariners fan!*
*Yes, that was a joke.
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