Other bits of intrigue ahead of Tuesday's 6 p.m. announcement: Will CC Sabathia be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and is this the year Billy Wagner gets in?

Global baseball’s hit king Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese-born player elected to Major League baseball’s Hall of Fame on Tuesday, just one vote shy of unanimous selection. The Seattle Mariners star headlines the 2025 Hall of Fame class to be enshrined at Cooperstown,

Ichiro Suzuki, the dominant contact hitter whose 19 years in the major leagues, most of them with the Seattle Mariners, were lined with records and accolades, on Tuesday became the first Asian player elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.

The hometown of Japanese baseball legend Ichiro Suzuki led celebrations Wednesday after he became the first Asian player to be inducted into the U.S. National Baseball Hall of Fame. A banner congratulating the former Seattle Mariners outfielder for being elected to the baseball halls of fame in both Japan and the United States will be displayed at

Ichiro was the first Japanese position player to appear in an MLB game, and he will be the first Japanese player enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame during the induction ceremony on July 27 in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Ichiro Suzuki could become the first Japanese player in baseball’s Hall of Fame, and CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner and Carlos Beltrán also could be elected Tuesday when results of the writers’ voting are announced.

Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball, but he's much more than that in Japan. Back home, he's a wellspring of national pride.

The first time Ichiro Suzuki set foot into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. was nearly a quarter-century ago, back on Nov. 12, 2001.

Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball, but he’s much more than that in Japan. Back home, he’s a wellspring of national pride, much like Shohei Ohtani now. His triumphs across the Pacific buoyed the nation as Japan’s economy sputtered through the so-called lost decades of the 1990s and into the 2000s.

Ichiro will go into the Hall of Fame as professional baseball’s all-time leader in hits with 4,367 (3,089 in MLB and 1,278 in Japan) — more even than Pete Rose's 4,256. He broke George Sisler’s single-season hits mark of 257 in 2004. The new mark is 262.

Ichiro was the first Japanese position player to appear in an MLB game, and he will be the first Japanese player enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame during the induction ceremony on July 27 in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Ichiro will be the first Japanese player enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame during the induction ceremony on July 27 in Cooperstown, N.Y.