We’re as competitive, hardworking, virtuous, nasty and corrupt as anything anywhere. Sometimes the good guys win, sometimes the bad guys do. You can see it all in the Hall.

CC Sabathia’s anticipated election to the Baseball Hall of Fame will hopefully encourage people to think differently regarding the achievements of starting pitchers.

The career .311 MLB hitter was the 2001 AL MVP and Rookie of the Year and won 10 consecutive AL Gold Glove Awards, all with the Mariners.

To gain entry to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Billy Wagner completed a climb few candidates have managed. Wagner, the former Houston Astros closer, attained the 75% support from voters required for election in his final year of eligibility on the writers’ ballot.

Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner were elected to the Hall on Tuesday, and all three overcame notable physical obstacles en route to Cooperstown.

Ichiro Suzuki, the dominant contact hitter whose 19 years in the major leagues, mostly with the Seattle Mariners, became the first Asian player elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Ramírez is on track to one day occupy a spot in the first-floor Plaque Gallery. He has some work to do, but he looks up to the challenge.

Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, and Billy Wagner were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on January 22, 2025. Derek Jeter and Daryl Strawber

Wagner and the rest of this year’s newly-selected Hall of Famers will be officially inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, on Sunday, July 27.

To this point, only famed Yankee closer Mariano Rivera has been elected to the Hall of Fame unanimously — not Babe Ruth, not Hank Aaron, not Ken Griffey Jr. nor Derek Jeter, just Rivera. Could Suzuki be the second?

Ken Griffey Jr. played on the same Seattle team as Ichiro in 2009 and 2010, near the end of Junior's playing career.