Ichiro, Sabathia, Wagner, Parker, Allen to be inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — One of them got more than 4,300 total hits on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. Another was built like a tight end, but earned fame as the ultimate ace in Cleveland, Milwaukee and New York. A third was a diminutive reliever who was born right-handed but miraculously grew up to throw a baseball 100 mph left-handed.

For Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner, this was their coolest moment in baseball time — the day their roads converged on a wondrous Sunday afternoon in Cooperstown. This was the day they were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, along with two sadly absent giants from another era, the late Dave Parker and Dick Allen.

On this day, fans from Tokyo to Texas felt a magnetic pull that drew them to upstate New York, for a baseball celebration unlike any other. What about these five players made all of this possible? Here’s a look at their paths to the Hall. 

Ichiro’s Hall of Fame credentials

Ichiro Suzuki rattled off 10 straight seasons with 200 hits — and a Gold Glove Award. (Otto Greule Jr. / Getty Images)

He’s the man who got more hits than anyone who ever played baseball in the two greatest leagues on Earth. So Ichiro Suzuki is a one-of-a-kind Hall of Famer, a global baseball icon who transformed his sport and performed magic tricks no one in history ever performed. Such as …

4,367 hits — It’s a mind-blowing number. It’s more than Joe DiMaggio (2,214) and Yogi Berra (2,150) combined! Of course, the 1,278 hits Ichiro got in Japan theoretically didn’t “count” when voters assessed his Hall of Fame case. But it’s staggering enough that he had 3,089 of them on this side of the Pacific, considering he didn’t get any of those hits until he arrived in Seattle at age 27.

10 seasons in a row with 200 hits and a Gold Glove — How historic were Ichiro’s first 10 seasons in the major leagues? He was so special, on both sides of the ball, that he got at least 200 hits and won a Gold Glove Award in all 10 of them. How many other players in history ever did that? None, of course. In fact, no one else even had five seasons in a row like that.

262 hits in one season — How is it possible for a man to get 262 hits in a season? It seems incomprehensible, but that’s how many hits Ichiro got in 2004 — breaking a record by George Sisler (257 hits) that had stood since 1920, when baseball looked very different than it does today.

Maybe this will put that 262-hit season in perspective: That’s so many hits that back in 2017 and ’18, Aaron Judge got 269 hits for the Yankees over two seasons (and almost won an MVP award in one of them).

Ichiro’s path to election

Babe Ruth didn’t get elected to the Hall of Fame unanimously. Neither did Willie Mays, Henry Aaron or Ted Williams. So it shouldn’t shock us that Ichiro was the latest all-time great who just missed becoming the first position player to run the table in one of these elections. Still …

If Planet Earth’s all-time Hit King couldn’t collect every vote, will any hitter ever crack that unanimity barrier?

There were 394 ballots cast in the 2025 Hall election. Ichiro’s name was checked on 393 of them. So after nine decades of voting, only legendary Yankees closer Mariano Rivera has been unanimous (in 2019). Meanwhile, Ichiro jumps nearly to the top of this list of position players who missed by fewer than 10 votes. 

Sabathia’s Hall of Fame credentials

CC Sabathia is one of three lefties with 250 wins and 3,000 strikeouts. (Elsa / Getty Images)

On one hand, Sabathia’s 3.74 ERA is the highest of any left-handed starter in the Hall of Fame. On the other hand, the voters looked at that ERA and said: Who cares?

Turns out that when those voters judged Sabathia, they didn’t see a guy whose final numbers slipped while he was reinventing himself, on balky knees, in his final few seasons. They saw one of three left-handers in history to join the 250-Win, 3,000-Strikeout Club. (Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton were the others.) And they saw a man whose ace cred was on vivid display for more than a decade, for three different teams:

Five straight top-five Cy Young Award finishes — In 2007, Sabathia won a Cy Young Award in Cleveland. In 2008, he got Cy Young votes in Milwaukee, even though he didn’t get traded there until July. Then he ripped off three more top-five Cy Young finishes in a row with the Yankees, in 2009-10-11. So how impressive was that? It should tell you something that only three active pitchers have had a top-five streak that long: Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer and Chris Sale.

He led both leagues in shutouts in the same year — This man may have won his only Cy Young Award in 2007 for Cleveland. But in truth, the legend of CC Sabathia was chiseled in 2008.

His three months in Milwaukee, in the second half of that season, were unforgettable for many reasons: His four consecutive starts on short rest. His 1.65 ERA. His willingness to risk his own health (and free-agent payday) to lift that team into the playoffs. But also, try to imagine a pitcher who didn’t join his team until July then going on to tie for the National League lead in shutouts (with three).

That would have been astonishing enough, except that he also tied for the American League lead in shutouts that year (with two). How many other pitchers have ever led both leagues in the same year? Right. That would be nobody.

He had a Bronx October for the ages — So how did Sabathia follow up that act? With yet another extraordinary chapter, for another new team. Before the 2009 season, he signed with the Yankees and became an official New York folk hero. Those 2009 Yankees won the World Series … as their new ace was spinning off a 1.98 postseason ERA over five memorable starts. Guess who started Game 1 in every series they played that fall? CC Sabathia would be a sensational guess.

Sabathia’s path to election  

If you just stared at his ERA, Sabathia may not have looked like a classic first-ballot Hall of Famer. But when the votes were counted, he cleared the 75 percent election bar by nearly 50 votes — winding up with essentially the same percentage (86.8) as Sandy Koufax (86.9). So now the First-Ballot Left-handed Starters Club has these five members:

• Sandy Koufax (1972)
• Steve Carlton (1994)
• Tom Glavine (2014)
• Randy Johnson (2015)
• CC Sabathia (2025)

Wagner’s Hall of Fame credentials

Billy Wagner, one of the most dominant relievers of all time, made it into the Hall of Fame on his 10th and final time on the ballot. (Ronald Martinez / Allsport)

It’s now clear that Hall of Fame voters divide relief pitchers into two categories: 1) Mariano Rivera and 2) everybody else. So there is no better explanation for why it took Billy Wagner 10 elections to make it to that stage Sunday, even though he collected more saves (422) than all but one left-handed pitcher in history.

He wasn’t Mariano. He never threw the last pitch of a World Series. His 10.03 postseason ERA (in only 11 2/3 October innings) was a never-ending topic of conversation. But that was a small sample. The larger sample, of Wagner’s unparalleled dominance over 16 seasons, ultimately led him to Cooperstown:

The most unhittable closer ever — Does that sound like hyperbole? Think again. Look at where Wagner ranks among all left-handed pitchers (not just relievers) in modern history.

(*minimum 900 innings pitched)

Pretty astonishing, for a guy who only learned to throw a baseball left-handed because he broke his right arm as a kid.

Wagner was actually more unhittable than Mariano — No, that isn’t clickbait. It’s just the facts.

Opponent avg. versus Wagner: .187
Opponent avg. versus Rivera: .211

To put that in perspective, here’s a little nugget from longtime Wagner proponent Austin Eich: “Billy Wagner could return to the majors, surrender 100 consecutive hits, and have the same career opponent batting average as Mariano Rivera.”

Wagner’s path to election

It’s a good thing Wagner was a closer — because nobody knows better than a closer that the last out is always the hardest to get. So in some ways, it’s almost fitting that he didn’t earn this honor until his 10th and final shot at election.

In his second year on the ballot, in 2017, Wagner got just 45 votes — or 10.2 percent. That tied him with Scott Rolen for the lowest percentage by a player who later was elected by the writers.

But many of his fellow Hall of Fame closers can relate. Hoyt Wilhelm was elected in his eighth year on the ballot. Goose Gossage was elected in his ninth. Bruce Sutter was elected in his 13th, back in the days when players’ ballot life lasted 15 years.

So by the time Wagner finally was elected in January, it had been 5,224 days since his final save in the big leagues. But when those votes were counted, all of those days of waiting melted away.

Parker’s Hall of Fame credentials

Dave Parker’s first five seasons (1975-79) turned him into one of the biggest stars in the sport. (Focus on Sport / Getty Images)

Before Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton, there was a giant of a baseball man named Dave Parker. At 6-foot-5, 235 pounds, he towered over everyone around him. He towered over that patch in right field he patrolled like no one else in the sport. He towered over his franchise in Pittsburgh. And he seemed bound for Cooperstown almost from the day he arrived.

Then it took him 34 years, after his final game in 1991, to get there. Sadly, he died of complications from Parkinson’s disease on June 29, a mere 29 days before Induction Day. Parker is only the third Hall of Famer to die between his election and his induction, joining Leon Day (in 1995) and Eppa Rixey (in 1963).

But it isn’t hard to see why the Hall’s Classic Baseball Era Committee finally elected him last December.

Parker, Aaron, Kaline and Ott — Parker retired after the 1991 season with 2,712 career hits, 339 home runs and a .290 career batting average. Only three other right fielders in the live-ball era (1920-present) are members of that 2,700-Hit, 300-Homer, .290 or Better Club: Henry Aaron, Al Kaline, Mel Ott and Parker. Now they’re all sharing plaques in Cooperstown.

His first five seasons were epic — Parker played almost two decades in the big leagues. But it was his first five full seasons (1975-79) that turned him into one of the biggest stars in his sport:

His slash line: .321/.377/.532/.909
His Adjusted OPS+: 147*
His average season: 23 HR/98 RBIs/17 SB
Gold Gloves: 3
Batting titles: 2
MVP awards: 1
World Series rings: 1
WAR/season: 6.2

(*47 percent above league average)

Before that run by the Cobra, there was only one comparable five-year span from any right fielder in history — by Aaron, from 1955-59. And if you’re in any club with Henry Aaron, it’s official. You could play.

This man could throw a baseball — Google Dave Parker, and there’s a good chance the first video that pops up will be his two breathtaking, what-just-happened outfield assists in the 1979 All-Star Game. It’s only fitting because Parker possessed a throwing arm that could have launched the first rocket to the moon.

In 1977, he had a season with 26 outfield assists. Only one outfielder in the expansion era (1961-present) has had more in any season. And that was a Pirates right fielder from a previous era, Roberto Clemente — who beat Parker by one, with 27 assists in 1961.

Parker’s path to election

In 15 spins through the writers’ ballot, Parker never came close to election — peaking in his second year at 24.5 percent and never coming within 250 votes of election again. He then needed four more tries, with various versions of the Veterans Committee, before he was named on 14 of 16 ballots in the Classic Baseball Era Committee election in December.

So why did a player with his credentials take so long? It’s a long story. But suffice it to say that Parker’s last 12 seasons bore almost no resemblance to his first five.

There was a brief resurgence in Cincinnati in the mid-1980s. But for most of those 12 years, his bat got slow, his defense slipped and there was too much off-the-field drama and controversy. So Hall of Fame voters had a hard time ignoring that — until now.

Allen’s Hall of Fame credentials

Dick Allen’s .940 OPS from 1964-74 was only bested by Hank Aaron during that span. (Bettmann / Contributor via Getty Images)

Dick Allen once hit a home run that traveled 540 feet. Let’s start there.

He was a massively talented player with a complicated story. But what do people most remember about the greatest player ever to come out of Wampum, Pa.? No right-handed hitter who ever lived hit baseballs farther than Allen did.

 The 500-Foot Homer Club — In his definitive 2010 book on the longest home runs ever hit, long-distance home-run historian Bill Jenkinson documented 10 Allen homers that traveled 500 feet or farther. The highlight was a 540-foot rocket, on June 5, 1967, that roared over the most distant sign atop the roof of Philadelphia’s old Connie Mack Stadium in the deepest part of left-center field. Jenkinson has documented only three homers in major-league history that traveled farther than that. They were all hit by Babe Ruth.

He mashed with the legends — There was no such stat as “OPS” (On Base plus Slugging) when Allen played, back in the 1960s and ’70s. But now that we understand what OPS truly is — a metric that gives us a window into the most dangerous sluggers in baseball — we have a new appreciation for where Allen fit during his monstrous 11-year peak, from 1964-74.

You merely have to size up how Allen compared with the Best of the Best during his 11-year peak, from 1964-74 — and there’s no longer much to debate:

OPS, 1964-74

1. Henry Aaron — .941
2. Dick Allen — .940
3. Willie McCovey — .937
4. Frank Robinson — .914
5. Willie Stargell — .905

Even more revealing is OPS+, a variation which adjusts a player’s stats to account for the ballpark he played in and the hitting environment in his league. That metric didn’t exist in Allen’s day, either. But all these years later, it did wonders for his Hall of Fame case.

OPS+, 1964-74

1. Dick Allen — 165
2. Willie McCovey — 161
3. Henry Aaron — 159
4. Frank Robinson — 159

(Source: Baseball Reference / Stathead)

Allen’s path to election 

Like Parker, Allen traveled an interminable road from the diamond to the plaque gallery. He played his last game nearly half a century ago, in 1977. So it was an unfathomable 17,372 days between his 351st and last home run and his election to the Hall last December.

He never even made it to 20 percent in his years on the writers’ ballot. Then he appeared on various Veterans Committee ballots seven times before the Classic Baseball Era Committee finally elected him, along with Parker. He’d fallen short by only one vote in each of his two previous elections, in 2015 and 2022.

He died in between those two votes, on Dec. 7, 2020. So like Parker, he missed out on his chance to stand on that stage in Cooperstown with his fellow Hall of Famers.

What were the voters missing in all those previous elections? As with Parker, it’s not a simple answer. How do we factor in the racism and ugliness that Allen encountered early in his career? Does that help explain the controversies and sometimes unexplained absences that cost him time, dinged his numbers and left their mark on voters?

But beyond all that, Allen was also lacking in the traditional counting numbers that drove Hall of Fame voting for decades. Was it even possible back then for a Hall of Fame “slugger” to be a guy who finished his career with “only” 351 homers and 1,848 hits? Apparently not!

Then, however, along came a whole different set of metrics to provide a whole different perspective on players like this. And it was those metrics, plus a newfound understanding of the man himself, that finally opened the doors of Cooperstown to Allen.

(Top photo of Ichiro Suzuki, Billy Wagner and CC Sabathia: Houston Astros / Getty Images)