Even six years into retirement, Ichiro Suzuki retains his burning passion for baseball, training hard every day so he can still drive

Billy Wagner, who briefly pitched for the Red Sox in 2009, has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame alongside Ichiro Suzuki and CC Sabathia in his final year of eligibility.

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 Suzuki, C.C. Sabathia and Billy Wagner were elected as the newest members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the museum announced.

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.

Players are elected to the Hall of Fame provided they are named on at least 75% of ballots cast by eligible voting members of the BBWAA. With 394 ballots submitted in the 2025 election, candidates needed to receive 296 votes to be elected.

The three stalwarts were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday and will be enshrined in Cooperstown this summer.

Red Sox great Dustin Pedroia received a high enough percentage in 2025, his first year of eligibility, to remain on the Hall of Fame ballot next year.

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.

Lefty pitchers Billy Wagner and CC Sabathia both earned their spots in the Baseball Hall of Fame, joining near-unanimous selection Ichiro

Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner were all elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame Tuesday. Ichiro is the first Japanese-born player elected.