Who left Ichiro off Hall of Fame ballot? You should know (but not for reason you think)

To watch Ichiro Suzuki hit ’em where they weren’t for all those years was to have a front-row seat at the intersection of athleticism and artistry. Ichiro was Greg Louganis on the springboard in Seoul. He was Randy Moss extending his arms and collecting the deep ball. He was Bobby Orr going coast-to-coast and netting a short-handed, backhanded goal.

Beautiful. Just beautiful.

And so when Ichiro’s name was called Tuesday night as the leadoff hitter in the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025, an opportunity presented itself for us to close our eyes and relive some of those magical days. Or, we could just look into Ichiro’s eyes during the live interview on MLB Network. It was all right there, in the eyes.

Beautiful. Just beautiful.

But as you may have heard, Ichiro was not a unanimous selection in the voting conducted by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Of the 394 writers who submitted ballots, 393 checked the box next to Ichiro’s name. This means one writer did not vote for Ichiro.

There’s been plenty of outrage about that, of course. Especially on social media and talk radio, as well as one of my personal text threads. “We need a name,” a huffy friend wrote.

Do we really need a name? Well, yes, we do — but not for the reasons you think. In other words, put away your torches and pitchforks. Ditch your call for an international public shaming. Instead, take another look at those glistening Ichiro eyes. There’s nothing there that suggests the honor is somehow less than it could have been due to his name being unchecked on one writer’s ballot. Talk about keeping your eye on the ball!

Ichiro Suzuki was just elected to the @baseballhall 👏

The @Mariners icon joined us to discuss the tremendous honor and what gave him joy on the field. pic.twitter.com/WE26MsEEQ6

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) January 21, 2025

As much as anybody, Ichiro knows how Hall of Fame voting works. A big part of his story is that Ichiro has long had a fascination with baseball’s story. We’ve been hearing for years about his devotion to baseball history, and about the many times he has trekked to Cooperstown, N.Y., to visit the Hall of Fame. He played baseball for a long, long time; he has celebrated baseball for a lot longer. Surely he must know, then, that only one player in history has been elected unanimously to the Hall of Fame. And that wasn’t until 2019, when 425 out of 425 voters selected Mariano Rivera. Even Derek Jeter, the greatest Yankee since Mickey Mantle, missed being unanimous by one vote when he was on the ballot a year later.

That doesn’t make it right. I look at it this way: Fans don’t have Hall of Fame votes. Neither do players, managers, umpires, broadcasters and owners, etc., unless they’ve been selected to take part in various veterans committees. So it’s the BBWAA, and it does a bang-up job. Hiccups? Of course. As I’ve written often, we whiffed on Fred McGriff. (In 2023, just one year after falling off the BBWAA ballot, McGriff was unanimously elected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee.) And I guess you could say we’ve whiffed on any occasion a sure-fire, first-ballot Hall of Famer appears on the ballot and isn’t unanimous. The roll call begins with Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, continues along with Ted Williams, Henry Aaron, Willie Mays and Tom Seaver (among so many others), and, well, here we are: Ichiro at 99.7 percent.

Ichiro Suzuki, The Warrior.

🎙️ Tom Verducci pic.twitter.com/2ycGPGAi2Y

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) January 21, 2025

With their Hall of Fame votes, the baseball writers have a daunting task. But the Hall of Fame should begin making all the ballots public — not just so we know who didn’t vote for Ichiro in 2025, but who did cast the two votes Aaron Boone received in 2015. At present, voters can check a box on their ballot giving the BBWAA permission to make their choices public two weeks after the announcement. This year’s BBWAA reveal is Feb. 4. Additionally, many voters take it upon themselves to make their ballots public, either through an article they’ve written or something they’ve posted on social media. It’s these self-publicized ballots that fuel the popular Hall of Fame Tracker managed by Ryan Thibodaux.

On the other hand, some writers choose anonymity. They don’t check the box. They don’t publish an article explaining their choices. They don’t drop anything on social media.

As to who voted for Boone in 2015, one of them was Hal McCoy, the longtime baseball writer from the Dayton Daily News. We know this because McCoy wrote about it. Turns out that years ago, when McCoy’s eyesight was failing him and he was on the cusp of stepping away from covering the Cincinnati Reds, it was Boone, playing for the Reds at the time, who stepped in and practically ordered McCoy to find someone who could drive him to and from the park each night. Which is what happened. When Boone retired and then landed on the Hall of Fame ballot, a grateful McCoy showed his gratitude. It was a no-harm, no-foul selection by McCoy, whose ballot had the necessary bandwidth for what amounted to a symbolic gesture. Go ahead, express your outrage over that.

Just as there are reasons to vote for this or that player, there are reasons not to vote for this or that player. Take, for instance, this little ballot quandary: You want to make the maximum 10 choices, but there’s a player you believe might fall below the necessary 5 percent required to remain on the ballot who in your view deserves a longer look. So you omit voting for a player you believe is a Hall of Fame lock to keep a borderline player on the ballot. Scott Rolen, elected to the Hall of Fame in 2023 by being named on 76.3 percent of ballots cast, was at just 10.2 percent when he debuted on the ballot in 2018.

“Voters certainly have considered that sort of strategy in the past,” said Chad Jennings, a baseball writer for The Athletic and a former president of the BBWAA.

These are great stories. We should be hearing more of them.

The flip side is that voters face the prospect of being harassed by angry people who disagree with their choices. And the venom isn’t limited to rogue voters who leave a Jeter or Ichiro off their ballot. I happen to be a Big Hall voter — I made the maximum 10 selections on this year’s ballot — and yet I was harangued by a friend because I didn’t vote for Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez.

But there are barely 400 of us who vote for the Hall of Fame. That’s a small group with a very big responsibility. We should be willing to talk about it. Or write about it. It’s what we do.

(Photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)