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(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Illustrations Hall of Fame Class & Voting Results by Major League Baseball)
 Ichiro Suzuki, C.C. Sabathia, Billy Wagner elected into Baseball Hall of Fame
Nederlands
 SECAUCUS, New Jersey (USA) -
Outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, starting lefthanded pitcher C.C. Sabathia and lefthanded closer Billy Wagner were elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday (Januari 21).
They will officially be inducted on July 27.
On that day, Dave Parker and Dick Allen (posthumously) also will be inducted in the Class off 2025.
They were elected on December 8 by the Classic Baseball Era Committee.
On Tuesday-evening, Josh Rawitch, President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, announced the results of this years regular election voting in the studio of MLB Network in Secaucus, New Jersey.
Five days ago (January 16), Suzuki also was one of three players, as well as an umpire, who were elected into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.
Ichiro Suzuki and C.C. Sabathia both were on the ballot for the first time, Billy Wagner was eligible for the tenth and final time.
Suzuki ended one vote shy of being elected unanimously.
With that, closer Mariano Rivera remains the lone player who was elected unanimously.
Rivera, who played his entire 19-year career for New York Yankees (1995-2013) and is the all-time leader in saves (652), was elected in 2019.
The following year (2020), Derek Jeter also missed only one vote of being elected unanimously.
Like Rivera, Jeter played his entire career for New York Yankees.
The short stop played in 20 seasons (1995-2014) and thus was a longtime teammate of Rivera in almost his entire career.
Suzuki was a teammate of Rivera and Jeter in New York in 2012 and 2013.
C.C. Sabathia received 86.8% of the votes to finish in second place.
He also was a teammate of Suzuki, Rivera and Jeter in 2012 and 2013 at New York Yankees for whom he played in 2009-2019.
Billy Wagner finished third with 82.5% of the votes.
As always, players needed 75 percent to be elected.
Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese player, and remarkable enough also the ffirst Asian-born player, to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Since 1964, there have been 81 Japanese-born players in the American Major League.
Only three of them have been listed on a Hall of Fame-ballot.
In 2014, pitcher Hideo Nomo was eligible for the first time.
Nomo played in twelve Major League-seasons (1995-2005; 2008), including seven with Los Angeles Dodgers (1995-1998; 2002-2004).
Nomo received 1.1 percent of the votes, meaning he dropped from the ballot.
Outfielder Hideki Matsui, who played in 10 Major League-seasons (2003-2012), was on the Hall of Fame-ballot for the first time in 2018.
He received only 0.9%, meaning he also could not be considered anymore for future (regular) elections.
Matsui played seven seasons for New York Yankees (2003-2009), where he was a teammate of Rivera, Jeter (2003-2009) and Sabathia (2009).
Since 2014, six Japanese players, who have played in the Major League, were elected into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, being Hideo Nomo (2014), Kazuhiro Sasaki (2014), Hideki Matsui (2018), Shingo Takatsu (2022), Hiroki Kuroda (2024) and Ichiro Suzuki (2025).
Carlos Beltrán, who was eligible for the third time, finished fourth with 70.3% (a raise of 13.2%).
Curaçao-born Andruw Jones also got a raise in votes (4.6%) and finished fifth with 66.2% in his eighth year of eligibility.
Players can be on the ballot for a maximum of ten years.
This year, there were 28 players on the ballot.
Fourteen of them leftovers from last year and fourteen, who were eligible for the first time.
Ten players, all first-timers, received less than five percent and will be dropped from the ballot.
After ten years (through 2014, this was 15 years) on the ballot, players will no longer be eligible for the regular election.
However, they can be considered for future elections by the Era Committees.
There are three committees (two of them consider players), who rotate every three year to come together to vote on selected candidates.
(January 21)
Related Articles:
Ichiro Suzuki one of three players elected into Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. (January 16)
Dave Parker and Dick Allen elected into Baseball Hall of Fame. (December 8)
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Ichiro Suzuki played in 19 Major League-seasons (2001-2019), including 14 with Seattle Mariners.
He played for Seattle (2001-2012), New York Yankees (2012-2014), Miami Marlins (2015-2017) and again for Seattle (2018-2019).
In his 19 seasons, Suzuki played in 2,653 games and collected 3,009 basehits, including 362 doubles, 96 triples and 117 homeruns.
He scored 1,428 runs, batted in 780, stole 509 bases and finished with a career .311 batting average.
After completion of his first Major League-season (2001), Suzuki was named both Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player of the American League.
In his first ten seasons (2001-2010), he was selected for the All-Star Game annually.
Suzuki won ten Gold Glove Awards, was the Batting Champion in the American League twice (2001, 2004) and set a record for Most Basehits in one season with 262 in 2016 at age 42.
Also in 2016, Suzuki became the 30th player in history to record his 3,000th career basehit in the Major League.
He also had ten consecutive seasons with at least 200 hits.
In 2007, Suzuki won the All-Star Game MVP Award when he hit the first-ever inside-the-park-homerun in an All-Star Game.
Before coming to the Major League, the outfielder already had played in nine seasons (1992-2000) in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for Orix BlueWave.
In Japan, Suzuki played in 951 games and recorded 1,278 basehits, including 118 homeruns.
In his NPB-career, Suzuki played in seven All-Star Games and was the MVP of the Pacific League three times (1994, 1995, 1996).
He also was the Best Hitter in seven consecutive seasons (1994-2000).
In 1996, he won the Japan Series with Orix BlueWave.
In his 28 seasons combined, Suzuki played in 3,604 games, hitting 4,367 basehits, including 235 homeruns.
His total hits is the most all-time worldwide for players in NPB and the Major League combined.
In 2006 and 2009, Ichiro Suzuki played for the Samurai Japan-team that won the first two editions of the World Baseball Classic.
In 2011, Suzuki was elected into the Meikyukai (The Golden Players Club), which is a Japanese Hall of Fame that honors players born after 1926.
As mentioned above, on January 16, he was elected into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame (NPB).
In 2022, Suzuki was elected into the Seattle Mariners Hall of Fame.
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C.C. Sabathia also played in 19 Major League-seasons (2001-2019).
The lefthanded pitcher first played in almost eight seasons for Cleveland Indians (2001-2008), before being traded to Milwaukee Brewers, where he completed the 2008 season.
While playing for Milwaukee, the team reached the Play-Offs for the first time in 26 years.
Hereafter, Sabathia was one of the pitching aces of New York Yankees in the next eleven seasons (2009-2019).
After the 2008 season, Sabathia had signed a 7-year, 161 million dollar contract, which at that time was the largest ever for a pitcher.
In his long and successful career, Sabathia pitched in 561 games (560 starts) and completed 38 of them.
He finished with a 251-161 record and struckout 3,093 batters in 3,577 1/3 inning, while walking 1,099.
His career ERA is 3.74.
Sabathia won the Cy Young Award in the American League in 2007 and was selected for six All-Star Games.
In 2009, he won the World Series in his first season with New York.
In 2009 and 2010, he led the American League in Wins.
In 2001, Sabathia finished second in the voting for American League Rookie of the Year behind Ichiro Suzuki.
In 2019, he became the 17th pitcher in Major League-history with 3,000 career strikeouts.
Sabathia's 251 career victories are second-most in history by a Black pitcher.
He shares second place with Bob Gibson, behind Ferguson Jenkins, who won 284 games.
In 2024, Sabathia was elected into the Cleveland Indians/Guardians Hall of Fame.
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Lefthanded pitcher Billy Wagner played in sixteen Major League-seasons (1995-2010), including nine for Houston Astros (1995-2003) at the start of his career.
Hereafter, Wagner played for Philadelphia Phillies (2004-2005), New York Mets (2006-2009), Boston Red Sox (2009) and Atlanta Braves (2010).
In his 16-year career, Wagner pitched in 853 games, all of them as a reliever and 703 of then as a closer.
His career-record is 47-40, was credited with 422 saves and finished with a 2.31 ERA.
In 903 innings on the mound, Wagner struckout 1,196 batters and walked only 300.
Wagner is one of only eight relievers with 400 career saves.
Mariano Rivera is the all-time leader with 652.
He is one of only two relievers with 600 or more saves, the other being Trevor Hoffman (601).
Curaçao-born closer Kenley Jansen is the active leader with 447.
Jansen is currently a Free Agent.
Wagner, who was nicknamed 'Billy the Kid', was selected for seven All-Star Games and was voted Best Reliever (Rolaids Relief Man Award) in the National League in 1999.
On June 11, 2003, Wagner was part of a combined No-Hitter, pitching for Houston Astros against New York Yankees in New York.
Roy Oswalt started and only threw the first inning.
Hereafter, five relievers took the mound, including Wagner as closer.
He retired the side, striking out the first two batters and then fielding a comeback-grounder to seal the No-Hitter.
In 2020, Wagner was one of six persons (including Oswalt) to be inducted into the Houston Astros Hall of Fame.
In 2012, Wagner already was elected into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
In 2019, he was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame and in 2022, Wagner also became a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame.
In 2016, Billy Wagner was on the ballot of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and received 10.5 percent of the votes.
His percentage dropped in 2017 (10.2%), but from 2018 on, he steadily climbed in the ranking.
He reached 51% in 2022, then 68.1% in 2023.
Last year, he received 73.8%, ending up just short and finishing behind Adrian Beltré (95.1%), Todd Helton (79.7%) and Joe Mauer (76.1%), who were elected.
But now, in his tenth and final year of eligibility, Wagner received enough votes for election.
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Copyright © 1997-2025 Marco Stoovelaar / Grand Slam * Stats & News.
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