Ichiro Suzuki—just his name brings a smile to baseball fans. The post A Star Like No Other: Why Ichiro Suzuki Seems Destined to Join Mariano Rivera in Hall of Fame Immortality appeared first on EssentiallySports.

Other bits of intrigue ahead of Tuesday's 6 p.m. announcement: Will CC Sabathia be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and is this the year Billy Wagner gets in?

Mariners' Ichiro Suzuki fell one vote short from becoming a unanimous inductee into the Hall of Fame and just wants to grab a drink with the writer.

If that remains the case when the final results are released by the Baseball Writers Association of America on Tuesday, Ichiro will be the first Japanese-born player in the Hall of Fame and just the second player ever to be unanimously elected to Cooperstown.

There was no surprise when it was announced that Ichiro Suzuki would enter the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. What was a surprise, though, was that one baseball writer didn’t think Ichiro deserved first-ballot consideration.

Ichiro Suzuki said he wants to meet with the one person who voted against his induction into the Hall of Fame after he fell one vote shy of being unanimous.

Ichiro Suzuki was among the few Japanese players who transitioned well from Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball to Major League Baseball.

Fellow Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, named on all but one ballot back in 2020, knows a little about what Ichiro experienced this week.

Ichiro began his MLB odyssey in 2001 with the Mariners, already a seasoned professional at the age of 27, and quickly became one of the game’s biggest stars with the Mariners.

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?

Players are elected to the Hall of Fame provided they are named on at least 75% of ballots cast by eligible voting members of the BBWAA. With 394 ballots submitted in the 2025 election, candidates needed to receive 296 votes to be elected.

It won't be official until the voting is released, but Ichiro Suzuki is heading to the Hall of Fame.  The Japanese outfielder is expected to be one of the names inducted into Cooperstown in the 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame class.