NEW YORK Ichiro Suzuki, who was used to taking the lead, became restless when he had to wait.
He waited by the phone for the anticipated call on Tuesday, as he was thought to be a surefire choice for baseball’s Hall of Fame and perhaps the second unanimous selection. It was fifteen minutes before there was a ring.
He stated, “I actually started getting kind of nervous,” via a translator. “I was actually relieved when I first got the call.”
Along with former Houston Astros closer Billy Wagner and CC Sabathia, Suzuki was elected, one vote short of unanimous, becoming him the first Japanese player to be selected for the Hall.
For a 27-year-old who signed with Seattle as the first Japanese position player in Major League Baseball after leaving the Pacific League’s Orix BlueWave in November 2000, it was quite the voyage.
“I don’t think anybody in this whole world thought that I would be a Hall of Famer,” he stated. “As a baseball player, this is definitely the top of the top.”
Suzuki was chosen by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America with 393 out of 394 votes (99.7%). Wagner and Sabathia received 325 (82.5%) and 342 (86.8%) votes, respectively, 29 more than the 296 required for the necessary 75%.
Last year, Wagner was five votes short. In his first appearance in 2016, he received a mere 10.5% of the vote, and the following year, he received 10.2%.
“It’s not been an easy 10 years to sit here and swallow a lot of things that you have to swallow,” Wagner stated. “I believed that my ten-year streak of not blowing a save may have contributed to my admission.
After playing football as a 7-year-old and injuring his right arm twice, Wagner, who was born with a right hand, began throwing with his left hand. Last August, his 26-year-old son Will, an infielder, made his major league debut with Toronto.
After Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckersley, Bruce Sutter, Goose Gossage, Trevor Hoffman, Lee Smith, and Rivera, Wagner was the ninth pitcher in the Hall of Fame to be predominantly a reliever. The only one of them who is left-handed is Wagner.
“It means a lot,” was his statement.
Wagner, a seven-time All-Star, pitched 47-40 with a 2.31 ERA with 422 saves for the New York Mets (2006-09), Boston (2009), Atlanta (2010), Houston (1995-2003), and Philadelphia (2004-05). His 903 career innings are the fewest among Hall of Famers, but he has the most strikeouts (11.9 per nine innings) of any pitcher with at least 900 innings.
Wagner made it on his tenth and last attempt, while Sabathia and Suzuki were elected on their first ballot appearance. Together with Dave Parker and Dick Allen, who were elected last month by the committee for the classic era, the three will be inducted into the Hall at Cooperstown on July 27.
Mariano Rivera, who was listed on all 425 ballots in 2019, was the only player to receive a perfect score from the BBWAA. In 2020, Derek Jeter was selected on 395 out of 396.
Suzuki, who joined Fred Lynn in 1975 as the only players to win both MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season, was honored by having Seattle’s Space Needle lighted blue. On August 9, the Mariners declared their intention to retire Suzuki’s number 51.
Suzuki was an All-Star and Gold Glove outfielder ten times and a two-time AL batting champion.311 with Miami (2015–17), the New York Yankees (2012–14), and Seattle (2001–12, 2018–19) with 117 home runs, 780 RBIs, and 509 stolen bases.
With 1,278 hits in Nippon Professional Baseball and 3,089 in Major League Baseball, including a season-high 262 in 2004, he is arguably the greatest contact hitter of all time. Pete Rose’s MLB record of 4,256 is surpassed by his total of 4,367.
As a model for today’s athletes, he continues to dress in baseball attire for his at-home exercises as a special assistant for the Mariners.
“I want to be able to demonstrate my method to the players,” he stated. “Also in the offseason I go to a few high schools in Japan and I want to be able to show them what a professional baseball player looks like.”
Sabathia, a six-time All-Star who won the 2007 AL Cy Young Award and a World Series title in 2009, finished second to Suzuki in the 2001 AL Rookie of the Year voting. He spent 19 seasons with Cleveland (2001–08), Milwaukee (2008), and the New York Yankees (2009–19), going 251–161 with a 3.74 ERA and 3,093 strikeouts, ranking third among left-handers behind Steve Carlton and Randy Johnson.
The Hall decides if Sabathia wants his Cooperstown plaque to feature a Yankees cap.
“The Yankees is the place that wanted me,” he stated. “I found a home in the Bronx and I don t think I ll ever leave this city.”
After losing to Houston in Game 7 of the 2017 AL Championship Series, Sabathia was on the verge of retiring, but Harold Reynolds of MLB Network convinced him to continue after pointing out that his numbers were nearly Hall-level.
In his final four seasons, Sabathia won 37 games after switching to a cutter to make up for his decreased velocity.
He remarked, “I transformed myself into my own Jamie Moyer: backdoor sliders, changeups, cutters on your hands, two-seamers off the plate.” “I struggled with it for a while. It’s difficult to buy in when you’re a guy that throws 94 and 95 mph throughout your life.
After gaining 57.1% the previous year and 46.5% in 2023 during his first ballot appearance, Carlos Beltrán was 19 votes short at 70.3%. Andruw Jones behind him with 261 for 66.2%, up from 7.3% when he first debuted in 2018 and 61.6% the previous year.
On the BBWAA ballot, Jones has two additional opportunities.
With 157 votes, Chase Utley finished sixth with 39.8%, up from 28.8% in his debut.
Due to their suspensions for using performance-enhancing drugs, Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramrez have fallen behind in the voting. Ram rez received 34.3% in his tenth appearance, up from 32.5%, while Rodriguez received 37.1% in his fourth appearance, up from 34.8%.
Andy Pettitte, who was born and raised in the Houston area and played for the Astros for a portion of his career, received 110 votes and 27.9% in his seventh appearance, which is double the 13.5% he received the year before. In his first ballot, Flix Hernndez received 81 votes, or 20.6% of the total.
62 of the 351 chosen Hall of Famers, including 142 on the BBWAA ballot, were elected in their first year of eligibility, and 278 of them are players.
After earning fewer than 5% of the vote, Carlos González, Curtis Granderson, Adam Jones, Ian Kinsler, Russell Martin, Brian McCann, Hanley Ram rez, Fernando Rodney, Troy Tulowitzki, and Ben Zobrist would no longer be included on subsequent ballots.
Next year, Cole Hamels, Ryan Braun, and Matt Kemp will be on the ballot.
