I feel like there aren’t too many surprises on this year’s Baseball Hall of Fame announcement, but first let’s remember that the Veterans’ Committee elected Dick Allen and Dave Parker, the Ford C. Frick Award for Broadcasting went to Cleveland broadcaster Tom Hamilton, and the Career Excellence Award for Baseball Writing went to Washington columnist Thomas Boswell.
Joining them in the Class of 2025 will be Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, and Billy Wagner. Most of their exploits are known to those of us of a certain oldness, so I won’t belabor the point, but I believe they are all deserving in their own right and happy for a pretty loaded class to talk to the crowd this summer in Cooperstown. I would be amused if Ichiro did his All-Star speech, but that may be top secret eyes only stuff for the All-Stars who were in his presence.
I think the only surprise was that someone actually didn’t vote for Ichiro (vote totals here), and you can see the vote totals here. We’ll take a look at who will be on the next ballot and who has a chance next year at a later time, but for now let’s celebrate the new inductees.
Comments
Bummer about the catchers, and Curtis Granderson too. Ben Zobrist didn’t even get a token vote
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I think next year is good for AndrUw and Beltran to get in. Not a lot of major newcomers but Jeff Samardzija might be eligible (dying laughing)
https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof_2026.shtml
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I’m assuming the Ichiro non-voter was someone who was voting strategically, giving his spot to boost someone marginal’s chance on hanging on.
berseliusQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
There’s definitely a nonzero number of players who I would have guessed played in the league last year (dying laughing). Gio Gonzalez, Alex Gordon, Edwin Encarnacion to name a few.
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
I think they would’ve retired 5 seasons ago but who even knows anymore
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I really hope whoever didn’t vote for Ichiro was being strategic, because otherwise what an idiot.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Speaking of Hamels, 15 years ago everyone was talking about who would be the last 300 game winner, but now I wonder how many more 200 game winners we’ll see barring some major change that forces or incentivizes longer starts. Hamels only got 163 despite a 59 WAR career.
PerkinsQuote Reply