When I was growing up, my favorite baseball player was Pete Rose. I loved the way he played -- running to first on walks, barreling into opponents when sliding to break up the double play or separate the catcher from the ball and seemingly always getting the key hit.

My favorite current major leaguer is Seattle Mariners' outfielder Ichiro Suzuki. Known simply as Ichiro, he's far and away the best hitter in the game today. He is the only major leaguer to get 200 or more hits in his first six seasons, including a record 262 hits in 2004.

It's not only that he gets hits, but the way he gets them that makes him my favorite player to watch. Ichiro has a lot of power, as he frequenly demonstrates in batting practice, but he hits relatively few homers in games, focusing instead on hitting line drives to take advantage of his great speed to get on base for his teammates. No one is quicker from home to first base, and the number of infield hits he gets is amazing.

Ichiro is also a great fielder -- as evidenced by his six gold gloves in as many seasons -- and base stealer, as he's annually near the league lead in that category. He also is not someone who seeks the spotlight, which is rare in today's me-focused world.

Despite his statistics, Ichiro flies under the radar because of his low profile, which is just fine with him. To me, he's the most exciting player in the game, and his inside-the-park home run at this year's All-Star Game is an example of why.

In short, Ichiro plays the game the right way, gets the most out of his ability and humbly goes about his work every day without drawing attention to himself. How many other players in today's game can you say that about? Wen it comes to baseball role models, they don't come much better than Ichiro.