This year's Major League Baseball Hall of Fame class has New York ties all over it.
The three inductees all played for either the Yankees or the Mets and one of them have decided to wear a New York hat into the hall.
Long time Yankee CC Sabathia will don the interlocking NY on his cap as he makes the Hall of Fame on his first try. Sabathia garnered 86.8% of the vote to be inducted. New York fans will remember Sabathia as the ultimate workhorse starting pitcher. Even with his prior stops CC was always the throwback type of starter who would give you as many innings as you needed and you could almost throw out the pitch count when he took the hill.
Sabathia was a six-time All-Star, Cy Young Award winner and World Series champion. His career spanned 19 years as he started with the Cleveland Indians (2001-08), then went to the Milwaukee Brewers for one season before joining the Yankees from 2009 to 2019. Sabathia finishes with 251 wins and 3,093 strikeouts. His workhorse legacy can be seen in his numbers, which for a modern day pitcher seem almost unreal. He threw 3,577 1/3 and went over the 200-inning threshold eight times.
For most Yankees fans they remember Sabathia's on the field highlights well, but his character also was a pinstripe staple. In his last game he had an incentive to finish so many innings to earn a half a million dollar bonus. Sabathia decided to throw that away and plunk the opposing batter in retaliation for one of his teammates being hit earlier. Sabathia's legacy is one of durability, success and a clubhouse leader.
Billy Wagner had a nail biting finish to see if he would get the call to the Hall, somewhat fitting for the flame throwing closer, but in the end Wagner is a Hall of Famer. Wagner was in his 10th and final year on the ballot and would have been removed if he failed to reach the threshold of votes this time around. Wagner finished five votes short last year.
Wagner was a seven-time All-Star, finishing his career with 422 saves in 16 seasons. He pitched for the Astros, Phillies, Red Sox, Braves and New York Mets. He ended his career with the eighth most saves all time and second most by a left-hander behind another New York Met, John Franco with 424.
Ichiro Suzuki was the highlight of this Hall of Fame class and barely missed getting 100% of the vote. That left Mariano Rivera still as the only player in history to get 100% of the Hall of Fame votes.
Ichiro needs only one name and that speaks to not only his popularity, but also his immense success. Suzuki is considered to be one of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball, and he did much of his damage overseas before tearing up MLB.
He became the first Japanese-born player elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. A career .311 hitter that jumped onto the scene and immediately made an impact on the sport by winning Rookie of the Year and MVP honors in his first season. Ichiro wasn't just a quick bat though as he also stole 509 bases in just 2,653 MLB games. He will wear a Mariners hat into the Hall after spending parts of 14 seasons with the M's, he also was with the Marlins for three years and spent three with the Yankees.
Ichiro ended his career with 10 All-Star selections, was a Gold Glove winner and a three-time Silver Slugger winner. When Ichiro came to the United States he had already been a phenom. He collected 1,278 hits in the Nippon Professional Baseball league in Japan, which if you add that to his MLB totals would give him more overall hits (4,367) than Pete Rose, MLB's all-time leader.
Suzuki and Sabathia have a lot of history and now will go into the Hall together. They finished first and second in 2001 voting for AL Rookie of the Year and later were teammates for two seasons with the Yankees.
Sabathia took to social media to congratulate his teammate Saying "Ichiro - we started as rookies together and we’re going out together. Always admired the way you approached the game and the great teammate you were to me and so many others. Thank you for everything you’ve done. HOF"