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?

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.

In the meantime, the Clown of the Year award goes to the writer who decided Suzuki wasn’t worthy of the Hall of Fame. My friends are all asking who could be that dumb. I think it’s more about spite than idiocy.

The most important thing that happened on Tuesday insofar as the Baseball Hall of Fame is concerned is that three players – Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, and Billy Wagner – were announced as having been elected to Cooperstown by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA).

Ichiro Suzuki's career was full of hitting streaks, All-Star Games and Gold Glove awards. But all that paled compared to moments with fans like his farewell at the Tokyo Dome in 2019, he said.

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 became the first Japanese player chosen for baseball’s Hall of Fame, falling one vote shy of unanimous when he was elected Tuesday along with CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner.

Ichiro Suzuki, C.C. Sabathia and Billy Wagner were elected as the newest members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the museum announced.

Ichiro Suzuki is heading to the Hall of Fame - but he fell one vote short of history. The Japanese outfielder is one of three players announced Tuesday as part of the 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame class.

In Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner, the Baseball Writers Association delivered quite an eclectic trifecta to Cooperstown on Tuesday. The first Japanese player ever elected to the Hall of Fame,

Ichiro Suzuki missed unanimous election to the Baseball Hall of Fame by one vote Tuesday night when he headlined a three-player class selected by the 394 voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America.