The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum officially welcomed five new members Sunday. This year’s induction ceremony in Cooperstown, New York, honored the 2025 Hall of Fame class, led by the peerless Ichiro Suzuki. The five-person Hall of Fame class is the largest since seven people were inducted in 2022.
To summarize this year’s Hall of Fame class:
- Lefty starter CC Sabathia, outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, and lefty reliever Billy Wagner were voted into the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
- First baseman Dick Allen and outfielder Dave Parker were voted into Cooperstown by the Hall of Fame’s Classic Baseball Era Committee.
As always, the Hall of Fame induction ceremony took place on the lawn outside the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown. Thousands of baseball fans were in attendance, with Mariners fans and Yankees fans particularly well represented. Here is what you need to know about Sunday’s induction ceremony.
Ichiro Suzuki
Despite not making the jump to MLB until age 27, Suzuki played parts of 19 seasons in the show and retired with 3,089 hits. He led the league in hits seven times, including a single-season record 262 hits in 2004. He’s a 10-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner. Suzuki retired as a career .311/.355/.402 hitter and received MVP votes in nine seasons. Ichiro fell one vote short of unanimous Hall of Fame selection and was of course a first-ballot inductee.
“Baseball taught me to make value decisions about what’s important,” Ichiro said during his speech. “Taught me what it means to be professional, and that’s the main reason I’m here today.”
In 2001, Suzuki joined Fred Lynn as the only players to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season. He played most of his career with the Mariners (2001-12 and 2018-19), but also had stints with the Yankees (2012-14) and Marlins (2015-17). Ichiro played nine seasons with the Orix Blue Wave in Japan before coming to MLB. He has 4,367 hits between Japan and MLB.
“People often measure me by my records: 3,000 hits, 10 Gold Gloves, 10 seasons of 200 hits. Not bad, eh?” Ichiro joked. “… For the third time, I am a rookie. I’m 51 years old. Easy on the hazing.”
Suzuki also joked that he hadn’t heard of the Marlins when he signed with Miami in 2015 and took a shot at the lone BBWAA member who didn’t vote for him last winter.
CC Sabathia
Sabathia played 19 big-league seasons from 2001-19 with Cleveland (2001-08), the Brewers (2008), and the Yankees (2009-19). He retired with a 251-161 record and a 3.74 ERA, and his 3,093 strikeouts are third most all-time among left-handers. Sabathia won a Cy Young award with Cleveland (2007) and a World Series championship with the Yankees (2009). He was the ALCS MVP in 2009. Sabathia was a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee and received 86.8% of the BBWAA’s vote.
“(My wife) Amber and I have always been ‘we,'” Sabathia said during his speech. “We picked the Yankees. We bought a house in New Jersey. 17 years later, that’s where we still live. It’s where we raised our family. When I wrote my book, I dedicated it to our children because that’s still our biggest accomplishment together to this day. The best part of being retired is watching what our kids do.”
Billy Wagner
A natural right-hander who learned to throw left-handed after breaking his arm as a child, Wagner is one of the most dominant relievers in baseball history. He is eighth all-time with 422 saves and his 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings is the best in baseball history among pitchers with 900 innings. Wagner played with the Astros (1995-2003), Phillies (2004-05), Mets (2006-09), Red Sox (2009), and Braves (2010). He’s a seven-time All-Star who received Cy Young votes in two seasons.
“Obstacles aren’t a roadblock. They’re a stepping stone,” Wagner said during his speech. “I wasn’t the biggest. I wasn’t left-handed. I wasn’t supposed to be here.”
Wagner used part of his speech to honor Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, his longtime teammates in Houston.
“Who could have imagined, when I debuted in 1995, that I would take the field with two future Hall of Famers. Now I’m joining them,” Wagner said. “It was Craig Biggio. Bige, even though you whined and complained about pitchers, I still loved you. You brought consistency every day, and your competitive drive helped me to be my very best. Thank you.
“Baggy, where do I start. It wasn’t your words — you are a man of few words — it was your look. Your glare. That’s what let everyone know things were OK if we needed to get our act together. I loved your grit. You taught me one of baseball’s greatest lessons: how to show up and play after a bad day. No excuses. Showed me what a big leaguer looks like. Your friendship means the world to me.”
Wagner was voted into the Hall of Fame in his tenth and final year on the BBWAA’s ballot. His support gradually increased from 10.5% in 2016, his first year of eligibility, to 82.5% this year.
Dick Allen and Dave Parker
Allen and Parker were inducted into the Hall of Fame posthumously Sunday. Allen died at age 78 in December 2020. He played 15 years in MLB with the Phillies (1963-69 and 1975-76), Cardinals (1970), Dodgers (1971), White Sox (1972-74), and Athletics (1977). The 1964 NL Rookie of the Year and 1972 AL MVP retired with a .292/.378/.534 batting line and 351 home runs. Allen spent 14 years on the BBWAA’s ballot and seven cycles on Hall of Fame’s various committees before getting into Cooperstown.
“Today his name is enshrined among the greatest to ever play the game,” Willa Allen, Dick’s widow, said during her speech. “And I know beyond all the applause, Dick would want this moment to inspire others to play with passion, to live with heart, and to always be true to yourself. Thank you for honoring Dick. Thank you for believing in him, and thank you for finally bringing him home.”
Parker died on June 28 at age 74. Cobra was a 19-year big leaguer with the Pirates (1973-82), Reds (1984-87), Athletics (1988-89), Brewers (1990), Angels (1991), and Blue Jays (1991). The 1978 NL MVP won World Series titles with the Pirates (1979) and Athletics (1989) and slugged 339 home runs in his career. Parker spent the maximum 15 years on the BBWAA’s Hall of Fame ballot and went through four cycles on the Hall of Fame’s committees before being voted into Cooperstown this past winter.
“Pops wanted to say, ‘To my six darling children, 13 grandchildren, four beautiful great-grandchildren, you are the true achievement of my life,'” Parker’s son, Dave Parker II, said as he read his father’s Hall of Fame speech. “The warmth, love, and affection each of you bring when we’re together keep me going daily. I love you so much.”
Parker also wrote a poem for his Hall of Fame induction:
The Hall of Fame’s committees have changed over time. Allen and Parker were voted in by the Classic Baseball Era Committee, which considered those whose primary contribution to the game came prior to 1980. Allen received 13 votes from the 16-person committee. Parker received 14. Twelve votes were needed for induction.
