MLB.com expects attention to be focused on whether Ichiro Suzuki will be the second unanimous inductee to America's National Baseball Hall of Fame when the former Seattle Mariners outfielder is listed on the ballot in 2025.
File photo shows Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki at Tokyo Dome on March 21, 2019, the day he announced his retirement. (Kyodo)
"Ichiro will be on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time in 2025, and the only question isn't whether he's a Hall of Famer," the official website of Major League Baseball reported Wednesday. "It's not even whether he's a first-ballot Hall of Famer... It's whether he'll be the next unanimous Hall of Famer."
Former New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera is the one and only unanimous Hall of Famer.
"But if anyone has a chance to join him, it's Ichiro," MLB.com said. "The Mariners icon is one of the greatest pure hitters the game has ever seen -- a 3,000-hit club member despite not arriving in MLB until he was 27 years old, a .311 lifetime hitter and MLB's single-season hits record holder."
The website also touched on Suzuki's total of 4,367 hits in a career split between MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball, where he collected 1,278 hits before crossing the Pacific.
Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners picks up his record-breaking 258th hit of the season during the third inning of a game against the Texas Rangers on Oct. 1, 2004, at Safeco Field in Seattle. (Kyodo)
Adrian Beltre, who was a teammate of Suzuki at Seattle between 2005 and 2009, this week became one of the newest Hall of Fame members.
The third baseman from the Dominican Republic received 95.1 percent of the vote in his first year on the ballot.
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