We’re still a coupla weeks out from Punxsutawney Phil showing his furry little self to see how many more weeks of winter we’re in store for. If you happen to be somewhere in the Northeast or around the Gulf of…ahem, America you are already giddy with anticipation for relief, and frankly, even those of us in warmer climes are hoping for a change of seasons. Yesterday I personally met eight people who are currently without homes and each interactions leaves me a bit more speechless.
So when we are thrown bones of hope for better days like the announcement of who will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this summer which went down late yesterday–especially when it’s told through the poetic and insightful lens of THE ATHLETIC’s Jayson Stark– one can’t help but be a tad more warm than they previously were:
The quiet, tundra-battered streets of Cooperstown looked just a little different Tuesday evening than they’ll look July 27 — and not just because you’ll be able to ditch those parkas and snow shovels.
Main Street in Cooperstown has never before been confused with Little Tokyo. But that’s about to happen. Ichiro Suzuki’s Induction Day is roaring right at us. And it was going to be a celebration for the ages even before Ichiro made history one more time Tuesday, by flying into the Baseball Hall of Fame with an incredible 99.7 percent of the vote, appearing on all but one ballot.
But it won’t be just the Ichiro Show. It will be CC Sabathia’s Induction Day, too. And if you’re familiar with CC’s work — and immense presence — you know it’s hard to imagine him being overshadowed by anyone, even Ichiro. That’s as true as ever after a stunning showing in this election, in which he attracted a massive 86.8 percent of the vote in his first year on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot — more than Bob Gibson (84.0 percent).
But also …(i)s Cooperstown ready for Billy Wagner? It had better be, because it’ll be his Induction Day, too. The most unhittable left-handed closer in history finally nudged his vote total above the 75 percent threshold needed for election — in his 10th and final year on the ballot. A year after the voters broke Wagner’s heart, by leaving him five agonizing votes short, they let him know what the thrill of election victory feels like.
There’s a distinct New York connection with this year’s honorees. Sabathia, of course, reached the pinnacle of his career by leading the Yankees to their only world’s championship of this century to date by becoming the necessary stablizing force and relative youth movement needed to reinvigorate the aging Core Four and stellar closer Mariano Rivera and catapult them over the defending champion Phillies in 2009. Wagner did his part to put the team in Queens into a similar situation by serving as the wily closer for the Mets’ final Shea Stadium teams, including the 2006 edition that fell perhaps a Carlos Beltran checked swing short of a National League championship and who at least put them in a position to provide a couple of final heartbreaks for those loyal to the Orange and Blue in the next two seasons. Both, of course, were prolific and vital parts of other playoff teams in the oughts and beyond–Sabathia with the Indians and a spirited playoff run for three glorious months in Milwaukee, Wagner a key contributor to the Houston Astros of the late 90s and early oughts. But New Yorkers being what they are will and did celebrate these hurlers’ accomplishments and, to his credit, Sabathia has already announced his plaque will be adorned with an “NY” logo.
As for Ichiro, his direct connection to New York is a bit less significant–by the time he become a Yankee, he was already in his 40s during a disappointing run of playoff underachievements. But by virtue of the vote that Stark chronicled yesterday, he now has indisputable ties to at least three of his former teammates:
It’s now six years since Mariano Rivera stomped out the most absurd tradition in sports — by becoming the first player elected unanimously to the Hall of Fame. Wouldn’t you have thought someone would have joined him by now? But I guess it was always a harebrained idea to think the first unanimous position player would be Ichiro — if only because …
He’s a man who had zero hits on this side of the Pacific until age 27.
What do 4,367 hits — 3,089 of them after he arrived on our shores — earn a man? How about 393 votes out of 394 votes cast … and a plaque in one of his favorite towns on Earth.
Sure, we knew the history. Babe Ruth wasn’t unanimous…Even here in the theoretically more enlightened times of the 21st century, Derek Jeter and Ken Griffey Jr. didn’t reel in 100 percent of the votes. But a man who didn’t even get started until he was 27 nearly outpolled all of them. (Jeter, of course, fell one vote short of unanimity in 2020.)
And if you’re a proud booster of the M’s you’ll clearly jazz to the fact that Ichiro’s most productive years in America were spent in Seattle, as Asian-influenced a city in North America as you’ll find. Like Sabathia, his initial year as a free agent signing was pretty darn good. His 2001 “rookie” performance yielded 242 hits–the first of TEN consecutive years as a Mariner reaching that number–and a personal-best 127 runs scored–the first of EIGHT consecutive seasons of triple digits in that category. And while those 2001 Mariners ultimately couldn’t make it to the Fall Classic they did set a modern major league record with 116 regular season wins.
At a time when the unquestioned top performer is a Japanese import with an even broader array of talents named Shohei Ohtani, it’s significant to note that Suzuki will become the first Asian-born player in MLB history to enter the hall. No, he obviously won’t be the last. But Ichiro’s ability to succeed against the world’s best–even after a significant run in Japan is what has likely inspired Ohtani, as well as his teammates Yoshinobu Yamamato and now Roki Sasaki, to try their luck and seek their fortune in America, much to our (and especially Dodger fans’) delights.
And here’s two more warming thoughts: we’re now less than 30 days away from seeing those Dodgers in uniform at their exhibition opener, and less than two months away from their defense of their World’s Championship against the Cubbies in perhaps the most apropos venue for a season like this to begin–Tokyo.
So who needs ol’ Punxsatawney anyhoo?
Courage…