Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m glad CC Sabathia was elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot. A decade ago, he might not have gotten in at all.
In today’s SI:AM:
⚾ Three new Hall of Famers
🏈 Way-too-early top 25
📺 LIV’s new TV deal
So close
Ichiro Suzuki’s Hall of Fame case is as airtight as a player’s could be. With more than 3,000 hits in his MLB career and more than 4,000 when you include his time in Japan, there was never any question as to whether he’d be elected to Cooperstown in his first year on the ballot in 2025. The only suspense was waiting to see if he would be the second unanimous selection in the history of the Hall.
Voting results were released Tuesday and, as expected, Ichiro was elected to the Hall, alongside pitchers CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner. Sabathia, like Suzuki, was a first-ballot selection, while Wagner got in on his 10th and final try.
Suzuki was not a unanimous selection, however. He was left off just one measly ballot of the 394 submitted to the Hall. It’s a baffling and unfortunate decision that left plenty of baseball fans, reporters and players in shock. Jon Heyman of the New York Post called the one anonymous voter a “numbskull.” Former Orioles outfielder Adam Jones joked that one of the three votes he got must have come from the non-Ichiro voter. “Out yourself,” Fox Sports’ Ben Verlander urged the unknown voter.
Longtime Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan wrote that the lone holdout “should have his or her voting rights revoked and should be placed under House Arrest because clearly that person is unhinged and a clear danger to Society.”
It makes perfect sense that people would be upset to see Ichiro denied the honor of joining the exclusive club of unanimous selections. So far, it isn’t even a club at all. Its only member is Mariano Rivera, who appeared on all 425 ballots in 2019. His teammate Derek Jeter came within a whisper of joining him the next year but also fell victim to a lone holdout and got 396 of 397 votes.
It’s silly to think that Ichiro, professional baseball’s all-time hit king, isn’t deserving of the Hall of Fame. But it’s also silly to divide the Hall of Fame into subcategories. Whether a player is a first-ballot selection like Sabathia or a 10th-ballot selection like Wagner, they’re still a Hall of Famer. The Hall does not note anywhere in the museum whether a player was a first-ballot or unanimous selection. Once a player is inducted, they’re all treated equally.
The fact that the one voter who did not include Ichiro on their ballot was anonymous is frustrating. The voting process would be better if all voters were compelled to make their selections public and be held accountable for their choices. More and more voters have decided to publicize their ballots in recent years, and Ryan Thibodaux’s diligent tracking of those public ballots has added transparency to the voting process. In fact, the Baseball Writers Association of America, which manages the balloting, voted in 2016 to make all ballots public. The Hall of Fame, however, rejected that decision and has continued to allow voters to keep their ballots private if they wish. The one writer who did not vote for Jeter has remained anonymous, and it seems likely that the anti-Ichiro voter will as well.
It would be nice to hear either holdout explain themselves. Their rationale may be something stupid like “Ichiro didn’t hit enough homers,” but there could be a reasonable explanation as well. Voters are limited to voting for 10 players on each year’s ballot. A voter who was certain that Ichiro would earn the required 75% of the vote necessary for induction may have chosen instead to use their 10th vote on a player who was at risk of receiving less than 5% of the vote and thus being eliminated from future ballots. This year, Torii Hunter cleared the threshold for inclusion on next year’s ballot by just a single vote. David Wright was just 13 votes clear. Maybe the anonymous voter left Ichiro off their ballot in favor of giving those guys another chance. We may never know.
In the end, though, it doesn’t matter why one person chose to leave Ichiro off. It doesn’t even matter that someone left him off at all. The fact that there has only been one unanimous selection in the history of BBWAA voting renders the distinction almost meaningless. Babe Ruth wasn’t even selected unanimously. Neither was Henry Aaron, Nolan Ryan or Willie Mays. Ted Williams was left off 20 ballots in 1966. Ted Williams! Does anyone know that before looking it up? Once they put your face in bronze, the vote total becomes an obscure bit of trivia.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Tom Verducci wrote about how this year’s Hall of Fame class shows that success comes in all shapes and sizes.
- Bryan Fischer, Mike McDaniel, Pat Forde and Zach Koons teamed up to put together our first college football top 25 of 2025.
- Daniel Flick’s latest NFL mock draft has the Browns passing on a quarterback to upgrade their pass rush instead.
- Gilberto Manzano explains why the Rams need to bring back Matthew Stafford on a reworked contract to compete next season.
- John Schwarb, Bob Harig and Jeff Ritter debated whether LIV Golf’s television deal with Fox will lead the Saudi tour to beat the PGA Tour in ratings at any point this season.
- The Mariners will retire Ichiro Suzuki’s No. 51.
- Jimmy Butler has turned to using his shoes to send messages to the Heat.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. LeBron James’s thunderous dunk right on top of Jonas Valančiūnas. LeBron had 21 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds for his first triple double as a 40-year-old.
4. Scottie Barnes blowing a kiss to Paolo Banchero before throwing down a dunk.
3. Juraj Slafkovsky’s goal from an impossible angle.
2. The guy playing hockey on a frozen street in New Orleans after a historic winter storm.
1. The bizarre scene in Edmonton where Corey Perry had to avoid a tray of nachos on the ice to score a goal.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | One Vote Doesn’t Spoil Ichiro Suzuki’s Hall of Fame Election.
