Ichiro Should Absolutely Be A Unanimous Pick For The Hall Of Fame This Year
Everyone's favorite time is upon us, MLB Hall of Fame discussion time! We got the ballot with the newest members and man oh man do I feel old now. What do you mean Fernando Rodney is eligible for the Hall of Fame? What do you mean Adam Jones is on the ballot? We're old now guys, we're old.
But that isn't what this blog is about, it's about Ichiro being a unanimous pick for Cooperstown in his first year on the ballot. I don't want to live in a world where Ichiro Suzuki doesn't get every single vote. Mariano being the first unanimous pick was understandable, the media loved him and he was by far the best at his position ever. But it's INSANE that no one was 100% before because the writers have a stick up their ass. Guys like Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle, Tom Seaver, Ted Williams, Harold Baines, Greg Maddox, Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Cal Ripken Jr., the fact that those guys weren't unanimous because of the writer's ego drives me insane, but that's a topic for another day (I'm not mad!).
Ichiro absolutely should get 100% of the vote for Cooperstown and I really hope the writers do the correct thing. I shouldn't even have to write a blog trying to persuade you that he should be unanimous, if you watched him you know what I'm talking about when describing him.
Put yourself in the voter's shoes. Pretend you're wearing those New Balances in the nursing home and tell me ONE single reason why you wouldn't vote for Ichiro on your ballot? I'd love to hear someone come up with a legit reason. He's one of the best players we've ever seen and I don't care what you say about that, the guy legit could do it all. Some of you may be too young to remember this, but Ichiro came to the states as a 27-year-old rookie and all he did was have 200+ hits and win a Gold Glove every year for the first decade of his career. He also won Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same year. Not a bad way to introduce yourself to the league. All he did was hit and play incredible defense. He was so god damn good right away, we had really never seen anything like it before. He'll forever be a legend in Seattle after the first 14 years of his career up there before heading to New York and Miami for a little pit stop before ending his career as a Mariner in a 2-game stint in Japan during the 2019 season. He was awesome man, I can't emphasis enough what a game changing player he was.
I truly don't know how you could watch him play during his career and say he shouldn't be unanimous. He did everything the right way and was just never hurt. He played pretty much every single game. The records this guy set, I mean no one will come close to 262 hits like he had in 2004. No one, that record will never be sniffed again. No one else will get 10 straight 200 hit seasons either, they won't get to 5 seasons of 200+. His arm was fantastic too, just an absolute weapon. In his time in Seattle he threw out 97 runners from the outfield, insane. Watch that video and look at some of the throws he had, he could make every throw and would make robberies look semi easy. You look at hit hitting numbers, the 3,089 career knocks and you realize those all came after the age of 27. The rumor always was he could hit 40 homers in a season if he wanted to as well, he would put on a show in BP and still ended up with a modest 117 homers. He didn't need to hit them so he wouldn't, he'd set the plate for those Mariners and Yankees teams. He would steal a billion bases right in your face too, 509 in his career. 362 doubles, 98 triples, 1,420 runs, a career average of .311 with a OBP of .355 and tops it off with a career bWAR of 60 right on the nose, I simply don't know what you could ding him on for his career.
Not one person with the power of a Cooperstown vote can come up with one negative about Ichiro's career, I won't stand for it. A true class act on and off the field and was loved by the media, he was a legit star when he came over from Japan and lived up to the expectations. He showed us what a truly incredible hitter looks like, just a complete baseball player in every aspect of the game. The only reason that someone wouldn't vote for him is simply to get their name in the paper and inflate their ego. That is truly the only way he doesn't get 100% of the ballots with his name on it. Someone will play hero ball and not vote for him and give some BS excuse and they will put their whole explanation in a column and talk about why its important that he didn't vote for him and he'll drive home while inhaling his own farts.
MVP, 10 time All-Star, 10 time Gold Glover, 3 time Silver Slugger, All-Star MVP with a sick inside the park homer, 2 time batting champion. First ballot, unanimous. Look me in the eyes and say he isn't.
I truly hope he gets 100% of the vote but I just don't trust the guys with the ballots to do the right thing. Someone will leave him off the ballot in order to give Dustin Pedroia a vote or something, then he'll say "well Ichiro knew he was going in on the first ballot anyways, so why waste my vote on him?". Can't wait for the hero who decides he wanted to get involved in a MLB storyline. We know he'll go in wearing a Mariners hat, but he should also have 100% of the votes. I won't hold my breath though.
PS. If we're being honest he should be in for this interview alone but I'm sure some jerk from Kansas City will hold a grudge.