The 2025 Major League Baseball Hall of Fame class has been announced, with CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner, and Ichiro Suzuki inducted into Cooperstown.
Wagner earned the honor in his 10th and final year on the ballot, while Sabathia and Suzuki were both decorated in their first years. This is the third time in the past four years that at least one player has been inducted into the Hall of Fame in the first year of voting.
But 2025 is especially special. That’s because Ichiro Suzuki received an astounding 99.7% of the votes, making him the first Japanese-born player in history to win this honor, just one vote away from reaching the second unanimous hole in history. be. of Fame Selection (Mariano Rivera, 2019). Only Derek Jeter (2020) received as many votes in his first year of eligibility as a position player.
Suzuki had 3,089 hits in his 19-year MLB career. During this period, he won the MVP, Rookie of the Year, 10 Gold Glove Awards, 3 Silver Slugger Awards, and posted an astonishing batting average of .311/.355/.402. He also holds the all-time record for hits in a single season with 509 bases (262 in 2004).
Between playing in MLB and playing in Japan, Suzuki had over 4,000 hits in his professional baseball career, and many believe he could have achieved that record if he had played his entire life in America. I believe it would have been. He was an outstanding ballplayer, had an incredible personality and was a strong defender in the outfield. Considering all this, the question arises: “Why wasn’t he chosen unanimously?”
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