The 2025 Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) gave passage to baseball immortality to three iconic figures of the game. Soon to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in July, Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner received the most prestigious honor for a baseball player late Tuesday night.
Ichiro Suzuki and C.C. Sabathia, both highly adored fan favorites in their respective fan bases, earned passage to baseball immortality in their first year on the ballot. Billy Wagner, the lefty flamethrower, was elected this year on his tenth and final year on the ballot.
For those not familiar with the election process for the baseball hall of fame, here is a quick summary. Following a player’s retirement from Major League Baseball, a five year waiting process begins. After the conclusion of five MLB seasons of inactivity, a player now has the right to be on the ballot for the baseball hall of fame. The voting process is conducted by the BBWAA where roughly 400 sportswriters fill in their ballots for players they feel deserving of baseball’s highest honor. If a player on the ballot receives 75 percent of the vote or three out of four sportswriters, a player gets granted passage to Cooperstown.
Out of the 394 sportswriters casting their ballots this year, Ichiro received 393 (99.7%), Sabathia 342 (86.8%) and Wagner 325 (82.5%). Ichiro landing one vote shy of 100% draws comparisons to Derek Jeter’s 2020 induction into the hall where he landed one vote shy of perfection as well. Up to date, only one person has received all the votes from the BBWAA was Mariano Rivera in 2019.
The three future hall of famers will make their way to Cooperstown later on in the week for meetings with the hall’s director. They will also return in late July where the official induction festivities will take place in front of tens of thousands of fans.
