Ichiro Suzuki is heading to Cooperstown. On Tuesday night, the former Seattle Mariners outfielder became the first Asian player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, the man who’s usually referred to mononymously fell just shy of unanimous selection, earning 393 of 394 votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Former shortstop of the New York Yankees, Derek Jeter, also missed out on consensus by one vote in 2020. Yankees closer Mariano Rivera remains the only player to be named on every ballot. To earn induction to the Hall of Fame, a player requires 75% of the total vote.
This time around, there were 28 candidates on the ballot, with three earning enough votes to be inducted. Joining Ichiro in Cooperstown are CC Sabathia, a pitcher who enjoyed a 19-year career with the Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers and the Yankees, and Billy Wagner, who pitched for 16 seasons for the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves. Dick Allen and Dave Parker also earned election in December via the Classic Baseball Era Committee process. The induction ceremony for the five players will take place on July 27, 2025.
Ichiro Falls Just Shy of Unanimous Hall of Fame Vote
Ichiro’s induction into the Hall of Fame was never in doubt. The only question was whether it would be unanimous. Several fans posted on X how frustrated they were that it wasn’t. “How the hell was Ichiro Suzuki not a unanimous Hall of Fame selection? The guy joined MLB at 27 and still got 3,000 hits. That’s insane,” wrote one user. Another tweeted, “Ichiro misses a unanimous election into the Hall of Fame by one vote. The one person needs to step forward and explain themselves. That is not cool.”
Before Shohei Ohtani, Ichiro was widely seen as Japan’s greatest ever sporting export. Signing for the Seattle Mariners in November 2000, he was handed the famous 51 jersey previously worn by Randy Johnson. The Japanese man sent the legendary pitcher a letter promising not to bring shame to the number. A batter of his caliber? There was never any possibility of that. In his debut season, the mononymous phenomenon became the first player since Jackie Robinson in 1949 to top both the batting average (.350) and stolen bases (56) categories. That, though, was just the beginning.
In 2004, he received death threats on the way to breaking George Sisler’s 84-year record for hits in a season. He went on to achieve 10 consecutive 200-hit seasons, the longest streak by any player in the MLB. Combining his totals from Japan and America, he had more hits than any player in the history of top-tier baseball, finishing with a total of 4,367. Over 3,000 of those hits came in the Majors. The debate rages on as to how close he would have gotten to Pete Rose’s MLB record had he started out in the States.
