It was this evening (Tuesday) that we announced the players who would accompany Dick Allen and Dave Parker to Cooperstown this summer. And that 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame class will include five players this year.
Indeed, Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner were all named on at least 75% of the ballots of qualified voters, the threshold necessary to be inducted.
First, let’s talk about Ichiro who was elected with 99.7% of the vote, making him the first Japanese player inducted into the Hall of Fame. He was just one vote short of joining Mariano Rivera, who was elected in 2019, the only unanimous inductee.
The next highest percentages previously belonged to Derek Jeter (99.7%), Ken Griffey Jr. (99.3), Tom Seaver (98.8) and Nolan Ryan (98.8).
For his part, like Suzuki, Sabathia was also making his first appearance in the ballot and obtained 86.8% of the votes.
On the other end of the spectrum is Wagner, who was in his tenth and final year on the ballot. He was either going to fall into oblivion (I’m exaggerating a bit) or enter the Hall of Fame, and it was the latter avenue that won with 82.5% of the votes.
-The five aforementioned players will be honored in a ceremony at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York on Sunday, July 27.
Players who receive at least five percent of the votes can remain on the ballot for up to ten years, while those who don’t make the cut are officially excluded.
Carlos Beltran, who missed the election by only 19 votes, Andruw Jones, Chase Utley, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Andy Pettitte, Bobby Abreu and Felix Hernandez to name a few, will therefore remain on the ballot for next year, joining newcomers like Cole Hamels, Ryan Braun and Alex Gordon.
Conversely, around ten players, including Russell Martin, must leave the ship.
