- The Baseball Hall of Fame will welcome Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner
- Suzuki becomes first Japanese-born player elected to the Hall of Fame
- Suzuki’s 99.746% of the vote is tied for second of all time with Derek Jeter
Ichiro Suzuki has made history by becoming the first Japanese-born player to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The former Seattle Mariners outfielder will be joined by World Series winning New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia and seven-time All Star Billy Wagner.
Suzuki, who spent over a dozen years of his Major League career playing for the Seattle Mariners, received 393 of 394 votes in the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballots. One more vote would have seen the 10-time MLB All Star (and seven-time NPB All Star in Japan) join Yankees legend Mariano Rivera (of the 2019 class) as the only unanimous selection in Hall of Fame history. As it is, Suzuki will have to settle for being tied for second with five-time World Series champion Derek Jeter (TECHNICALLY Jeter actually received 99.748% of his vote to Suzuki’s 99.746%, but who’s counting?).
Speaking to ESPN, Suzuki said, “I don’t think anybody in this whole world thought that I’d be a Hall of Famer. As a baseball player, this is the highest honor you can achieve.” The Mariners on Tuesday said they would retire Suzuki’s number 51 jersey on August 9. He will become only the third Mariner, after Ken Griffey Jr and Edgar Martinez, to have his number retired.
Sabathia, meanwhile, standing at 6’6 and weighing in at 300 pounds, is the biggest member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, knocking 250 pound Jim Thome off top spot. The former Yankees pitcher retired in 2019 after spending the last 10 years of his career in New York, winning the World Series in his first season at Yankee Stadium. Sabathia would finish second in the AL Rookie of the Year running in 2001, finishing behind a certain Ichiro Suzuki (who also scooped MVP honours in his inaugural season in MLB).
With 3,093 career strikeouts, Sabathia is one of only 19 players who can lay claim to over 3,000 career strikeouts, sitting behind only Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton as left-handers in the 3,000 club.
Speaking of applause worthy records, Billy Wagner’s 422 career saves are the eighth most in Major League history. Two hundred and twenty five of those saves would come with the Houston Astros, where Wagner would spend the first eight years of his career (his first full season in the Major Leagues would not arrive until four years after signing with the Astros, however).
Wagner’s performances for the New York Mets in 2006 led the Mets to their first division championship in 18 years and, perhaps most impressively, the Virginia native accomplished a career worthy of the Baseball Hall of Fame after becoming a southpaw only after he broke his right arm playing football as a child.
Suzuki, Sabathia and Wagner will join Dick Allen and Dave Parker – the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee’s selections from December – in Cooperstown for the July 27 induction ceremony at the Clark Sports Center.
