Ichiro Suzuki inductee to baseball’s newest Hall of Famer, 2 more elected to Cooperstown

The National Baseball Hall of Fame he will have three more records this summer.

Ichiro SuzukiCC Sabathia and Billy Wagner all received sports’ highest honors on Tuesday and are headed to Cooperstown.

Ichiro is the first player born in Japan to receive Hall of Fame honors. He received 99.7% of the vote, one vote shy of becoming the second player voted unanimously. Players need at least 75% of the vote to be elected.

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Ichiro joined the Majors in 2001 as a highly touted Japanese player, hitting .353 over nine seasons in his home country, where he won three MVPs and was a seven-time All-Star. Joining the Seattle Mariners at age 28, he immediately lived up to the hype, winning the AL MVP and helping the Mariners to a record 116 wins that year.

From 2001 to 2010, Ichiro was named an All-Star player every season, and won the Gold Glove each time. In that span, he earned three Silver Slugger Awards and two batting titles while posting a .331 average and .806 OPS. In 2004, he set the all-time hit single season record with 262 hits and is the only player in MLB history to record 10 consecutive seasons with more than 200 hits. He also stole over 500 bases and is one of only seven to record 3,000 hits and 500 stolen bases.

After just his 11th MLB game, his career batting average never dipped below .300 again. He retired with a .311 average, 3,089 hits and 60.0 WAR. In the live-ball era (since 1920), he is one of only 21 players to hit .300 (among qualified hitters) in at least 10 seasons, and only one of seven to do so in 10 consecutive years. Ichiro spent most of his career with the Mariners, making pit stops with the Yankees and Marlins.

Sabathia, like Ichiro, got the nod in his first year on the ballot. He is one of only 19 pitchers to record 3,000 strikeouts and dominate the 2,000s. From 2007 to 2011, he finished in the top five of the Cy Young Award voting every year, winning the award in 2007. However, one of those seasons was the 2008 campaign when he finished fifth in NL voting despite being traded from Cleveland in the American League to the Brewers of the National League in July. But during his short stint in Milwaukee (17 starts), he pitched seven complete games and posted a 1.65 ERA, with much of his work on three days’ rest as the Brewers advanced to the postseason.

The left-hander won a World Series with the Yankees in 2009, in his first season with what was then the largest contract ever given to a pitcher. He struggled from 2013 to 2015, pitching to a 4.81 ERA as his alcoholism became a blight on his career and life. After rehabbing, however, he reinvented himself as a fine pitcher and recorded three more seasons under a 4.00 ERA. All told, he retired after the 2019 season with a career ERA of 3.74, 3,093 strikeouts, 251 wins and six All-Star appearances. He dislocated his shoulder on the last pitch of his MLB career and joked that he pitched until he couldn’t anymore.

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Wagner was cleared for his final year of eligibility after falling just five votes short last year. And while he even admitted the wait was a “nightmare,” his numbers certainly scream that he deserves the honor.

Among players with more than 500 innings pitched since 1920, his 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings is the fourth most in MLB history. His 422 saves are seventh most, while his 2.31 ERA is second behind only Mariano Rivera. Wagner was elite from start to finish – in fact, his lowest ERA in a season came in his last, when he posted a 1.43 ERA in 2010. He also has the highest strikeout rate and lowest batting average among pitchers with 900 or more innings.

Spending time with the Astros, Phillies, Mets, Red Sox and Braves, Wagner was a seven-time All-Star and received two Cy Young Award votes. Sabathia received 86.6 percent of the vote, while Wagner received 82.5 percent of the vote.

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Dave Parker and Dick Allen were selected last month by the Classic Era Committee, and the five of them together will be announced this summer.

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