Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame

This should have been a buddy comedy, or maybe a documentary accompanied by twinkling pianos: two baseball players – a tall guy and a short guy – driving together along winding country roads to Cooperstown, New York.

CC Sabathia would have liked to see this happen. His major league seasons precisely matched those of Ichiro Suzuki, from 2001 to 2019. But while Suzuki, the king of hitters, made seven pilgrimages to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Sabathia, the fearsome ace, stayed away until a post-career trip. with his son.

“The first time I walked into the plaque room, I almost cried – I had no idea,” Sabathia said. “I think it’s something every player should see. This gives you a North Star to aim for. I wish I had taken Ichiro and driven there every offseason to be inspired.

Sabathia and Suzuki – teammates for three seasons with the Yankees – are now forever linked in the hallowed gallery of baseball’s immortals. Both were elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot Tuesday, with Billy Wagner joining them on his 10th and final try.

The trio will be honored in Cooperstown on July 27 along with Dick Allen and Dave Parker, the MVP sluggers elected by committee vote last month. Allen died in 2020.

Candidates need 75 percent of the votes to be elected by the authors, and Suzuki was almost unanimous, receiving 393 votes out of 394. Sabathia received 342 votes (86.8 percent) and Wagner, who was five votes short last year, easily crossed the threshold this time with 82.5 percent. The welcome call moved him to tears.

“It hasn’t been an easy decade sitting here and swallowing a lot of stuff that needs to be swallowed,” Wagner said. “The only thing I thought I did well was I didn’t miss a save for 10 years.”

The weight of the long wait was evident to Billy Wagner when he finally got the call from the Baseball Hall of Fame.
“Dreams come true,” he said.#Hall of Fame pic.twitter.com/ovLCvTANdo

– José de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) January 21, 2025

Wagner converted 422 saves, with a 2.31 ERA, during a career that began in 1995 with a nine-year stint for the Houston Astros. He went on to be an All-Star for the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets, who traded him to Boston for a brief stop in 2009. Wagner pitched one more season, making another All-Star team for the Atlanta Braves in 2010.

He retired to spend more time with his family – a son, Will, made his MLB debut last summer as an infielder for Toronto – and finished with just 903 career innings, the least of all Hall of Famers. But those innings were dominant enough to make Wagner the first Hall of Famer since Addie Joss — who last pitched in 1910 — with a career WHIP below 1.00.

Wagner was the prototype of the modern beast of the bullpen, ahead of his time with a career strikeout rate of nearly 12 per nine innings.

“It’s evolved, (but) I still think the play between the lines is the best thing ever,” Wagner said. “I always think the hardest pitch to hit is a good fastball.”

Wagner is the first left-handed reliever in the Hall of Fame and Suzuki its first Japanese member. He played his first nine professional seasons in Japan and joined the Seattle Mariners at age 27, apparently too late to make it to Cooperstown.

“I don’t think anyone in this world thought I would be a Hall of Famer,” Suzuki said, but the Mariners — who had been bleeding superstars since their peak in the late 1990s — thought he might be the first high-impact hitter. from Japan.

They secured its rights in November 2000 with a $13.125 million billing fee on the Orix Blue Wave – and from the start, Suzuki was one of a kind. He held his bat regally, like a fencer in a guard pose, engaging the pitcher by pulling on his sleeve. His cutting swing propelled him out of the box and he excelled with unrivaled consistency.

In each of his first 10 seasons, all with Seattle, Suzuki collected at least 200 hits and a Gold Glove Award. No one else has ever done that in a five-season span. His debut in 2001 was a sensation: he took the Mariners to 116 wins, tying the major league record, while winning a batting title (.350) and leading the majors in hits (242) and walks stolen (56).

Suzuki was named American League Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year for these efforts, and in 2004 he added another batting title, hitting .372. In doing so, he broke George Sisler’s single-season hits record with 262.

Sisler had set the record, with 257, for the St. Louis Browns in 1920. When Suzuki visited St. Louis for the 2009 All-Star Game, he visited Sisler’s grave. This gesture illustrates Suzuki’s respect for the sport, as evidenced by his visits to Cooperstown.

“Every time I go there, I feel so good,” he said. “It’s like a feeling of being at home.”

Suzuki settles in with a .311 MLB average and 3,089 hits, a total that could likely increase if given the chance. Suzuki, now a special assistant to the Mariners president, still dresses for every Seattle home game, preparing as if he were on the roster — partly so he can give advice to players, but also as a personal challenge.

“I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to do this at a high level, so it’s also something I’m working hard for, because I want to see how far I can do it,” Suzuki said , who is 51, matching his Mariners uniform number. “It’ll be something that I can, in the future, say, ‘Hey, I was able to do it up to this age.'”

Sabathia, meanwhile, can point to the exact moment his throwing arm expired: In the final game of his career, for the Yankees in the 2019 ALCS, his shoulder came out of socket. He gave everything he had, despite years of pain in his right knee, which absorbed the blows of his 6-foot-6, 300-pound frame for 3,577 1/3 innings, the most for any born pitcher after 1966.

He reached his peak during a three-year stretch with three teams, from 2007 to 2009, winning a Cy Young Award for Cleveland, then getting Milwaukee to the playoffs by pitching in short stretches of rest in 2008. He signed with the Yankees, guided them. to a championship in 2009 and said he would wear a Yankees cap on his plaque.

“This is our home,” said Sabathia, 44, who works as a special assistant to Commissioner Rob Manfred. “I found a house in the Bronx and I don’t think I’ll ever leave this city. I think it’s entirely appropriate.

Sabathia finished 251-161 with 3,093 strikeouts. And while his career ERA, 3.74, is now the highest of any Cooperstown southpaw, only two other lefties, Steve Carlton and Randy Johnson, can match him in wins and strikeouts.

Another three-man club gave Sabathia a sense of pride Tuesday: He’s one of three “Black Aces” to reach the Hall of Fame, along with Fergie Jenkins and Bob Gibson. The club, named after the title of a book by former pitcher Jim “Mudcat” Grant, refers to black pitchers who won 20 games in a season.

“I got a call from Fergie earlier today,” Sabathia said. “He and I struck up a good relationship; we became close. Receiving this call from him was very special.

Sabathia is one of 15 pitchers with 250 wins and 3,000 strikeouts. All are inductees into the Hall of Fame except Roger Clemens, who peaked at 65.2% in the writers’ ballot and was not elected by an era committee in 2023.

Clemens, of course, was kept out of Cooperstown – like Barry Bonds – because of his ties to performance-enhancing drugs. Two other tainted stars, Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez, remain in Cooperstown purgatory, well above the 5 percent threshold to stay on the ballot but well below 75 percent. Rodriguez, who has six years of eligibility remaining, received 37.1 percent of the vote, while Ramírez, who has just one year left, received 34.3 percent.

Carlos Beltrán (70.3 percent) and Andruw Jones (66.2 percent) will be next year’s top contenders, headlining a poll with Ryan Braun and Cole Hamels as the highest-profile newcomers . Others still under consideration will be Chase Utley, Rodriguez, Ramirez, Andy Pettitte, Félix Hernández, Bobby Abreu, Jimmy Rollins, Omar Vizquel, Dustin Pedroia, Mark Buehrle, Francisco Rodriguez, David Wright and Torii Hunter.

All received at least 5 percent of the vote, including Hernández (20.6 percent) and Pedroia (11.9 percent) in their electoral debut. If their support seems weak, Wagner’s example offers hope. He started with 10.5 percent in 2016, and at Thursday’s orientation he will finally visit his dream village.

“My dad has been there several times and he loves it,” Wagner said. “I know I’m looking forward to it.”

His new teammates can show him around.

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(Photo of Ichiro Suzuki in 2022: Steph Chambers/Getty Images)