Sabathia and Ichiro lead intriguing Hall of Fame class into Cooperstown

Japan Times

2 days ago

Every Baseball Hall of Fame class is comprised of inductees whose path to baseball immortality was fascinating and challenging.
But the 2025 quintet of Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner, Dick Allen and Dave Parker may be among the most unique classes in the 89-year history of the Hall of Fame.
The five men will join one of the most exclusive clubs in sports Sunday afternoon when they are officially inducted into the Hall of Fame during ceremonies at the Clark Sports Center in bucolic Cooperstown, New York.
Ichiro and Sabathia were each elected in their first year of eligibility in voting conducted last December by the Baseball Writers Association of America, while Wagner made it on his 10th and final year on the ballot.
While the presence of Ichiro, the first Japan-born inductee, will lend an international flavor to the festivities, the posthumous enshrinement of Classic Baseball Era candidates Allen and Parker will add layers of poignancy to a day that's already an emotional one for those on the stage and in the crowd.
Allen, who hit.292 with 351 homers and won the 1972 American League Most Valuable Player award with the Chicago White Sox, received 13 of 16 votes cast by the Classic Baseball Era committee on Dec. 8, 2024 — four years and one day after he died at age 78. Allen's plaque will picture him wearing a Philadelphia Phillies hat.
Parker, who hit.290 with 339 homers and won two batting titles as well as the 1978 NL MVP with the Pittsburgh Pirates, garnered 14 votes on the same ballot. He died of Parkinson's disease at age 74 on June 28.
Parker, whose plaque will picture him wearing a Pirates hat, is the third Hall of Famer to die after being elected but before his induction.
"Spent a lot of time with 'Sarge' (former outfielder Gary Matthews) over the All-Star break and he was talking about Dick Allen," Sabathia said. "Dave Parker was one of my favorite players.
"Humbled and really sad that he's not going to be there."
Ichiro came within one vote of unanimous election after collecting 3,089 hits, 509 stolen bases, 10 Gold Gloves and two batting titles in MLB despite not debuting with the Seattle Mariners until he was 27 years old in 2001 after a dominant run in NPB with the Orix BlueWave.
In his first MLB season, Ichiro won both the American League Rookie of the Year and MVP awards. He also played for the New York Yankees and Miami Marlins but will enter the Hall in a Mariners hat.
Ichiro, who works out with the Mariners prior to home games and has a locker at T-Mobile Park, regularly visited the Hall of Fame as a player and plans to donate his personal collection of baseball artifacts to the museum.
"What an honor it is for me to be here as a Hall of Famer," Ichiro said during his news conference in Cooperstown in January. "This is just a very special, special moment."
Sabathia, who finished second behind Ichiro in the 2001 Rookie of the Year voting before winning the Cy Young Award in 2007, received 86.8% of the vote. He went 251-161 with 3,093 strikeouts over 3577⅓ innings and 560 starts with Cleveland, Milwaukee and the Yankees. He will wear a Yankees hat on his plaque.
Only one active pitcher, Justin Verlander, has at least 250 wins, 3,000 strikeouts and 3,500 innings. But Sabathia said he still wasn't sure about his first-ballot status even as his numbers grew more impressive with the continued diminishment of the longevity of starting pitchers during his five-year waiting period.
"Anybody that's up for the Hall of Fame that tells you that they don't check the tracker is lying," Sabathia said, referring to the real-time accounting of public ballots overseen by Ryan Thibodaux. "I was checking it, you know, every three minutes when it came down to the last week. You just don't know.
"We knew (Ichiro) was going to be in and should have been unanimous. I was excited to be able to get in first ballot."
Wagner recorded 422 saves with a 2.31 ERA and averaged 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings before becoming the eighth Hall of Famer to be elected in his final year of eligibility. He received 82.5% of the vote.
The hard-throwing left-hander will go in wearing the hat of the Houston Astros, with whom he spent the first nine seasons of his career before pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves.
"When you look back at who's in there — I mean, when I walked through the Hall (the) first time, it was mind-boggling to just sit there and think (of) my name, being there with the greats of the great," said Wagner, who is also the eighth pure closer in the Hall.