Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, and Billy Wagner have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The players and then the public learned the results of the 2025 vote by the Baseball Writers Association of America on Tuesday. Ichiro was named on all but one ballot and thus breezed to election. Sabathia in his first year of eligibility made it easily with 86.8% of the vote. Wagner, meantime, made the cut in his 10th and final year of eligibility with 82.5% of the vote.
These three players, along with Dave Parker and Dick Allen, who were chosen by the most recent Era Committee, will be inducted in Cooperstown this coming summer. The necessary first step, though, is clearing that 75% threshold for election and then getting the official call from the Hall.
Footage of newly elected Hall of Famers getting that call – a call that for many marks the culmination of lifelong aspirations – has become a Hall of Fame tradition unto itself. This year was no exception.
First, here’s Wagner, one of the most dominant relievers of all-time, learning that he’d at last earned his plaque:
To say the least, Wagner plainly cares very deeply about receiving the highest honor of the sport, especially after for much of the last decade thinking he might not ever make it.
Also very much invested in Tuesday’s vote was Sabathia, the 251-game winner who received the call while surrounded by family and friends:
Succinct but no less appreciative, as Sabathia’s Tuesday social media posts suggest:
And:
Finally, that call comes in:
And:
And:
And at last:
As for Ichiro, there’s no video of his receiving the news in the time-honored manner – he remains unique and a reliable vanquisher of assumptions – but here he is receiving hosannas from a former teammate who’ll soon be Ichiro’s fellow Hall of Famer:
Ken Griffey Jr.! Or George, if you prefer.
Gentlemen, ready your speeches. The next stop is Cooperstown.
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