Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese-born player to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and he will be joined in the Class of 2025 by starting pitcher CC Sabathia and closer Billy Wagner.
Suzuki fell one vote shy of becoming the second player ever to win unanimous support from the Baseball Writers Association of America in the balloting process. He would have joined Yankees great Mariano Rivera (2019) as the BBWAA's only unanimous selections.
Suzuki collected 2,542 of his 3,089 career hits as a member of the Seattle Mariners. Before that, he collected 1,278 hits in the Nippon Professional Baseball league in Japan, giving him more overall hits (4,367) than Pete Rose, MLB's all-time leader.