CC Sabathia’s anticipated election to the Baseball Hall of Fame will hopefully encourage people to think differently regarding the achievements of starting pitchers.

NEW YORK – There’s nothing new to my 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, except the pleasure of voting for first-time eligibles Ichiro Suzuki and CC Sabathia. Of the 28 players appearing on this year’s ballot, I checked six boxes.

While the weather outside is unbearable for most at the moment, conditions in Cooperstown, NY will soon be warming up as the Baseball Hall of Fame is set to announce the newest class of inductees to its distinguished brotherhood of legends.

Baseball Hall of Fame class will be revealed. CBS Sports has two first-time voters who took part in the process. Mike Axisa's ballot can be viewed here while Matt Snyder's can be viewed here. There are similarities to the ballots,

Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball, but he is much more than that at home in Japan. Ichiro is a wellspring of national pride — like Shohei Ohtani now — and his fame across the Pacific was therapeutic as the national economy sputtered through the so-called lost decades.

To this point, only famed Yankee closer Mariano Rivera has been elected to the Hall of Fame unanimously — not Babe Ruth, not Hank Aaron, not Ken Griffey Jr. nor Derek Jeter, just Rivera. Could Suzuki be the second?

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.

That’s why it was immediate to check his name when my ninth Baseball Hall of Fame ballot arrived. This year’s ballot has a decided Mariners feel between Ichiro and Félix Hernández, and I voted for both.

The Seattle Mariners all-time hit king and owner of several MLB and NPB records received the first of what's likely to be two different Hall of Fame inductions earlier this week.