As you all know by now, Ichiro Suzuki was one vote short of a unanimous, first-ballot selection to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame class of 2025.
There couldn’t be hanging chad, the ballots were old fashioned paper and pen/pencil. Were all of the mail ballots thoroughly checked; double and triple checked? There must have been a mistake!
Baseball journalists, commentators, and millions of fans are aghast and clamoring for the lone writer to step forward and explain how he/she committed the horrific error in judgment. We baseball fans are owed an explanation!
What then? Kick ’em out of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA)? Send ’em hate mail, messages and emails?
Even Ichiro wants a face-to-face explanation:
“This is a very special moment. I was able to receive many votes from the writers, and grateful for them, but there’s one writer that I wasn’t able to get a vote from. I would like to invite him over to my house, and we’ll have a drink together, and we’ll have a good chat.”
(Otto Greule)
Good grief people (and Ichiro), get a grip. The HOF ballot is a subjective vote by a bunch of baseball writers who may have never seen the players compete in the prime of their careers. These are not voters of one’s peers, they are writers who may have never played the game. Do Ichiro, the journalists, writers, and fans really think that he is more deserving of a unanimous vote than Willie Mays (94.7% of the vote – 23 did not vote for him), Ted Williams (93.4%), Ken Griffey Jr. (99.3%), Nolan Ryan (98.8%), Tony Gwynn (97.6%), or Sandy Koufax (only 86.9%)?
(Ron Cervenka)
Perhaps it would be more appropriate to demand an explanation from the writers who thought Carlos González (2 votes shy), Curtis Granderson (3 votes shy), and Troy Tulowitzki (4 votes shy) aren’t HOF worthy!
Give me a break – and stop whining! Ichiro is in the Hall of Fame – deservedly so, whether unanimously or not. Whining about it is sophomoric, and for Ichiro to invite the writer “to his house for a drink and good chat” is disrespectful of the great players before him who were not unanimous selections.
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