The 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame class was announced on Tuesday, with some of the game’s greatest players finally getting inducted into the Hall to recognize their stellar careers. One of those players was longtime Seattle Mariners standout Ichiro Suzuki, who was a near-unanimous vote in his first season of eligibility.
Shortly after Ichiro was inducted, New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter took to Instagram to congratulate one of the best players of his era.
“The model of consistency. Congrats Ichi on election to the MLB HOF!” Jeter captioned the post.
Jeter and Ichiro played together from 2012 to 2014 in New York with the Yankees, so the two go back to the days when they both played.
Ichiro fell just one vote short of becoming the first position player to ever be a unanimous selection, earning 99,7% of the votes in the end. He joins Jeter and Ken Griffey Jr. as the only two players to finish at 99.7%, but the wait for the first unanimous position player continues. As it stands, the only player to earn 100% of the vote is former Yankees closer Mariano Rivera.
Ichiro made a career as one of the best hitters in the league. He was a .300 hitter or better for the first 10 seasons of his career and finished his 19-year run with a .311 batting average as a whole. His first 10 seasons with the Mariners were some of the best in the world: he led the MLB in hits seven times during that span and was named an All-Star in all of them. He also played at least 146 games in all of those seasons and at least 157 games in nine of them, so he was the most reliable weapon in the MLB.
Ichiro won the AL MVP as a rookie in 2001, leading the MLB in hits (242), stolen bases (56) and an AL-leading .350 batting average. He reached a career high in batting average in 2004 when he hit .372 to lead the big leagues.
Ichiro wasn’t just a weapon at the plate, but he was excellent in the field as well. He won a Gold Glove in each of those first 10 seasons in Seattle as one of the best outfielders in baseball. All of these accolades add up to an easy Hall of Fame selection in 2025.
