Seattle Mariners legend Ichiro Suzuki is officially headed to Cooperstown.
Suzuki was announced as part of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s class of 2025 alongside starting pitcher C.C. Sabathia and ace closer Billy Wagner.
Suzuki finished one vote shot of becoming the second player to be inducted unanimously, earning 99.7 per cent of the vote. He is also the first Japanese-born player to be inducted.
Sabathia finished with 86.8 per cent of the vote in his first year on the ballot, and Wagner, in his 10th and final shot at enshrinement, received 82.5 per cent. Players need to surpass the 75 per cent mark to be inducted.
Suzuki arrived in Seattle in 2001 at age 27 after already nearly a decade of success in his native Japan. In his first season, he had 242 hits to win the AL MVP and Rookie of the Year awards. Suzuki won 10 Gold Gloves and three Silver Sluggers over his 19-year MLB career while collecting 3,089 hits. He retired at age 45 with a .311 batting average in more than 2,653 games.
More to come…
