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Bradford Doolittle
Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese-born player to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and he will be joined in the Class of 2025 by starting pitcher CC Sabathia and closer Billy Wagner.
Suzuki fell one vote shy of becoming the second player ever to win unanimous support from the Baseball Writers Association of America in the balloting process. He would have joined Yankees great Mariano Rivera (2019) as the BBWAA’s only unanimous selections.
Suzuki collected 2,542 of his 3,089 career hits as a member of the Seattle Mariners. Before that, he collected 1,278 hits in the Nippon Professional Baseball league in Japan, giving him more overall hits (4,367) than Pete Rose, MLB’s all-time leader.
Suzuki did not debut in MLB until he was 27 years old, but he exploded on the scene in 2001 by winning Rookie of the Year and MVP honors in his first season, leading Seattle to a record-tying 116 regular-season wins.
Suzuki and Sabathia first first and second in the 2001 voting for AL Rookie of the year and later were teammates for two seasons with the Yankees.
Sabathia, who won 251 career games, was also on the ballot for the first time. He was the 2007 AL Cy Young winner while with Cleveland and a six-time All-Star. His 3,093 career strikeouts make him one of 19 members of the 3,000-strikeout club. He was named on 86.8 percent of the ballots
Wagner’s 422 career saves are the eight-most in big league history. His selection comes in his 10th and final appearance on the BBWAA ballot, earning 82.5 percent in his last go-around.
Just falling short in the balloting was outfielder Carlos Beltran, who was named on 70.3 percent of ballots, shy of the 75-percent threshold necessary for election.
Beltran won 1999 AL Rookie of the Year honors while with Kansas City. He went on to make nine All-Star teams and become one of five players in history with at least 400 homers and 300 stolen bases.
A key member and clubhouse leader of the controversial 2017 World Series champion Houston Astros, whose legacy was tainted by a sign-stealing scandal, his selection Beltran’s would bode well for other members of that squad who will be under consideration in the years to come.
Also coming up short was 10-time Gold Glove outfielder Andruw Jones, who was named on 76.2 percent of the ballots. Jones saw an uptick from his level of 61.6% support last year and still has two more years of ballot eligibility remaining.
PED-associated players on the ballot didn’t make much headway in the balloting, Alex Rodriguez landing at 37.1 percent and Manny Ramirez at 34.3 percent.
The three BBWAA electees will join Dick Allen and Dave Parker, selected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee in December, in being honored at the induction ceremony on July 27, 2015 at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, N.Y.