The Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2025

My thoughts on the newly elected members of Baseball's Hall of Fame.

Ichiro Suzuki.  Slam-dunk, no questions about it Hall of Famer.  Eight of the top ten "Similarity Scores" for Ichiro listed in Baseball-Reference are Hall of Famers themselves.  I once saw Ichiro play when I went with my brother Jim to a game at Yankee Stadium when the Mariners played the Yanks.  Can't remember what he did at bat or in the field that day, but, yep, I saw him play.

One voter left Ichiro off of his/her ballot.  More on that a bit later.

CC Sabathia.  I had no strong feeling on this one, so I have no issue with it, either.  One of the guys on his Similarity Scores list was Bob Gibson, so if he's comparable to Gibson in some way, shape, or form, Okay, give him a plaque in Cooperstown.

A memory:  I remember watching a game on TV where Sabathia was pitching and calling a friend and asking "When did Casey Hampton leave the Steelers to become a baseball pitcher?"  The guy was HUGE.

Billy Wagner.  Strictly a relief pitcher, I say that Wagner belongs in the Hall of Very Good, and not necessarily at the HOF in Cooperstown, and Wagner's Similarity Scores includes guys like Jonathan Papelbon, Joe Nathan, and Tom Henke.  However, the Hall has long become a place of Very-Good-but-not-necessarliy-Great players, so no use fighting it.

These three will join Dave Parker and Dick Allen (see HERE) as the Class of 2025.

Pretty good group.

Oh, and that one voter who denied Ichiro a unanimous entry?  My guess is that it is either a New York-centric writer who doesn't want Mariano Rivera to share the honor of being the only player ever to get a 100% vote, or some hide-bound old bastard of a curmudgeonly sportswriter who thinks "If Ty Cobb or Christy Mathewson weren't unanimous entries, then I'm going to make sure that NOBODY else will be either."