51黑料

One of the greatest baseball players of his generation, one of the greatest hitters of all time and one of the modern trailblazers for a global game, Ichiro Suzuki earned induction to the National Baseball Hall of Fame with a chorus of acclimation from voters.

Just one was out of tune.

Of the 394 ballots submitted by eligible voters, Suzuki鈥檚 name was checked on 393 of them. He, like New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, came one vote shy of unanimous selection. That leaves Yankees closer Mariano Rivera as the only player ever unanimously elected to Cooperstown, and it sets the stage for 2028, when Cardinals great Albert Pujols will be the game鈥檚 next best chance for the first unanimously elected position player.

Pujols is one of four players with 700 career home runs, and only he and Hank Aaron also have 3,000 hits. Pujols became the first player born in Latin America to reach 700 homers when he did so in September 2022 with the Cardinals at Dodger Stadium. Pujols is second behind Aaron and ahead of Babe Ruth in total bases and RBIs. And on and on and on. His plaque at the Hall of Fame will be small font and overstuffed with achievements, and if any position player is going to unify a group of nearly 400 voters it sure seems like ...

Well, it would have been Suzuki first.

Suzuki reaches Cooperstown with 3,089 hits in Major League Baseball and 4,367 hits in his professional career. He was a 10-time All-Star, 10-time winner of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award and two-time batting champ. He won his first Gold Glove in right field as a rookie, and only current Cardinal Nolan Arenado at third base matches the feat of winning a decade of Gold Gloves to start a big league career. Suzuki broke George Sisler鈥檚 single-season hit record of 257 and reset it at 262.

In 2009, during the All-Star Game festivities in 51黑料, Suzuki went with his wife to Des Peres Presbyterian Church Cemetery to pay respects to Sisler at his grave site.

Suzuki placed flowers there.

He wanted to pay respect, he said later, to 鈥渁 grand upperclassman of the baseball world.鈥�

No active player visited Cooperstown, New York, as often as Suzuki did.

He went eight times.

All those numbers and it鈥檚 unfathomable he couldn鈥檛 get that one last vote.

Compared with the old days of resistance toward first-ballot Hall of Famers, the voting body has, in the past decade, inched closer and closer toward the unanimous selection of a position player.

The trend relates both to the modern approach of voters as well as the Hall of Fame鈥檚 reduction of the voting pool. When Ken Griffey Jr. pushed the percentage up toward unanimous in 2016, he appeared on 437 of 440 ballots. There were 545 voters for 2007 when Cal Ripken Jr. reset the percentage expected for position players. This year, there were fewer than 400 voters.

It required 296 votes this season to reach the 75% threshold for induction.

Former Cardinals outfielder Carlos Beltran came 19 votes shy of induction, which puts him on deck to be a part of the 2026 class in Cooperstown.

Members of the Baseball Writers鈥� Association of America who 鈥渕aintain鈥� 10 consecutive years on the baseball beat and remain in good standing with the organization are eligible to vote. , often discussing it on a podcast or in a chat with readers and explaining (defending?) it on social media. Transparency is an important part of the process. Being able to defend my vote, I feel, helps make me a stronger voter year over year.

More than .

More will .

The lack of a unanimous selection for a position player goes back to the beginning of the Hall and the very first class, and it鈥檚 a riddle that persists as the Hall鈥檚 100th anniversary approaches.

Here are the top 10 percentages since the first vote:

• Rivera, 2019: 100%
• Suzuki, 2025: 99.7%
• Jeter, 2020: 99.7%
• Ken Griffey Jr., 2016: 99.3%
• Seaver, 1992: 98.8%
• Nolan Ryan, 1999: 98.8%
• Ripken Jr., 2007: 98.5%
• Ty Cobb, 1936: 98.2%
• George Brett, 1999: 98.2%
• Aaron, 1982: 97.8%

Notable Cardinals Stan Musial and Ozzie Smith received 93.2% and 91.7% in the years they were elected. The late Rickey Henderson received 93.6%. Future baseball author Christy Mathewson received 90.7%.

Ruth does not crack the top 10, hard as that is to believe.

He received 95.1%.

That helps illustrate the modern trend closer and closer to unanimity. Third baseman Adrian Beltre received 95.1% of the vote a year ago for his induction with the 2024 class, and longtime Braves third baseman Chipper Jones received 97.2% of the vote for his induction. Until Ripken in 2007, no position player had received more than Cobb鈥檚 98% in 70 years, but in the past 10 years, there have been three.

A look at the upcoming classes suggests Pujols has the best chance to be fourth.

The class of players eligible for the first time in 2026 is led by former MVP Ryan Braun, who served a suspension for performance-enhancing drugs in 2013, and lefty starter Cole Hamels, along with Cy Young Award winner Rick Porcello and outfielders Nick Markakis, Hunter Pence, Shin-Soo Choo and Alex Gordon. In 2027, San Francisco Giants executive and former MVP Buster Posey reaches the ballot with a championship pedigree. He likely will be joined on the ballot for the first time by several players with Cardinals ties including Dexter Fowler, 200-game winner Jon Lester and Andrew Miller. Players are eligible for the ballot five years after their final game.

That puts Pujols and Yadier Molina on the ballot in December 2027 for election into the 2028 class. That group will be inducted on Aug. 6, 2028, to accommodate for the summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Plan accordingly.

The vote for Posey will be a glimpse into what Molina can expect on his first ballot, just as the support Lester receives will shape the conversation for 200-game winner Adam Wainwright and 225-game winner Zack Greinke when they hit the ballot for 2029 along with Triple Crown winner and MVP Miguel Cabrera.

Pujols is best positioned to push toward a unanimous vote, though history 鈥� recent with Suzuki and past with ... everybody 鈥� shows how significant that would be.

An exclusive member like Pujols of both the 600-homer and 3,000-hit clubs, Willie Mays received 94.7% of the vote. Barry Bonds, due to his ties with PED use, topped out at 66.0% before his 10 years on the ballot were exhausted and he moved into the veterans committee process.

Pujols is one of 12 players with at least three MVPs.

Two, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, are still active.

Seven of the other nine have been elected, though some were not on their first ballot:

• Mike Schmidt:96.5%
• Mickey Mantle: 88.2%
• Yogi Berra: 85.6% (2nd ballot!)
• Roy Campanella: 79.4% (7th ballot!?)
• Musial: 93.2%
• Joe DiMaggio: 88.8% (4th ballot!?)
• Jimmie Foxx: 79.2%

Alex Rodriguez remains on the ballot, but due in part to the suspension he served for PED use, the support for him has peaked at 35.7% last year and sat at 34.8% this year, his third year on the ballot. Bonds won seven MVPs and has yet to be elected.

In July, Cooperstown expects one of its largest crowds ever as Suzuki joins CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner, Dick Allen and Dave Parker for the Class of 2025. Sabathia, one of the game鈥檚 top left-handed starters, earned induction with 86.8% on his first ballot, and Wagner, one of the game鈥檚 top left-handed relievers, received 82.5%. This was his 10th and final year on the ballot. The two lefties 鈥� who pitched at opposite ends of the game and reached Cooperstown at opposites ends of their time on the ballot 鈥� offer a welcome reminder of what the percentage of vote really means.

A higher percentage doesn鈥檛 mean Suzuki gets longer to speak or more tickets to give to friends and family. He doesn鈥檛 get a nicer room at the Otesaga or a better tee time for the annual golf outing. His autograph will add 鈥淗OF鈥� and maybe the year, not percentage of vote.

The pursuit of a unanimous position players continues, but it is also largely academic, only coming up in ruminating articles like this, 鈥済otcha鈥� tweets, hot takes, and bar stool debates. Yes, a player should be unanimous by now. But there is no reference to the percentage of the vote on the plaque that hangs in Cooperstown, not even on Rivera鈥檚. When Suzuki鈥檚 goes up alongside Ruth, Mantle, Musial, Aaron, Mays, Jackie Robinson, Eddie Murray, Larry Walker, Scott Rolen, Griffey, Fred McGriff, Ted Simmons and the Wizard and eventually is joined on the wall by Pujols鈥� plaque, they all say the same.

This player is 100% Hall of Famer.