Suzuki had been to the Hall seven times before attending a news conference Thursday with fellow electees CC Sabathia and Billy ... when he called to inform the Seattle star he had been voted ...

CC Sabathia is expected to be part of the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025, with the results of this year’s vote scheduled to be announced Tuesday evening.

SEATTLE — The elite echelon of Seattle Mariners players grew larger on Jan. 21 when it was announced that Ichiro Suzuki would be one of three 2025 National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees ...

Suzuki came in first in terms of voting with 393, making history as the first Japanese-born player elected to the Hall of Fame. He was close to making history again as he was nearly unanimous– and he would have been in some pretty weighty company to share with Yankee legends Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter.

Ichiro Suzuki is the first Japanese-born player voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He'll be joined by CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner in the Class of 2025.

That was one of the best debut seasons ever. Ichiro was an All-Star and won a Silver Slugger and Gold Glove award in right field. He not only coasted to the Rookie of the Year award but narrowly surpassed Jason Giambi to win the MVP. He joined Fred Lynn as the only rookies to be named the Most Valuable Player.

Former Cleveland Guardians ace CC Sabathia has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame after a brilliant career that included stints with the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Yankees. In Cleveland, Sabathia made the leap from being a thrower to becoming a pitcher in every sense of the word.

In my business, that knee-jerk response comes in handy. Fending off blame is a survival skill. A columnist knows he can’t fight a tidal wave of angry emails and social-media posts and, at some point, gives up trying to argue he is not, in fact, a nitwit. From there, it’s a short hop to a renunciation of any personal responsibility.

Ichiro Suzuki falling one vote short of unanimous election raised eyebrows, but it’s far from the biggest flub in Hall of Fame voting history.

Wagner had a 1.98 earned run average and struck out 22 of the 56 batters he faced in his 15 games for the Red sox in 2009.

An online site that tracks Baseball Hall of Fame voting doesn’t expect the lone voter who did not check Ichiro Suzuki on his ballot to ever come forward.