Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners during an MLB game at...

Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners during an MLB game at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif., in 2001. Credit: AP/Larry Goren

As a BBWAA member for three decades, I’m big enough to admit we’re not perfect when it comes to voting for the Hall of Fame. We made that abundantly clear once again Tuesday night when the the world discovered Ichiro Suzuki was not a unanimous selection for Cooperstown.

He missed by a single vote. Out of 394 ballots submitted, only one failed to write in Ichiro’s name, leaving him with 99.7% of the electorate.

Same as Derek Jeter, in fact, who also fell a vote shy of joining teammate Mariano Rivera as Cooperstown’s lone unanimous pick (a clean sweep of all 425 ballots in 2019).

To this day, five years later, that anonymous voter has yet to be publicly identified. As much as the BBWAA continues to push for total transparency in the voting process, the Hall of Fame has insisted that it should only be revealed on a voluntary basis, so a veil of secrecy remains for those who prefer the protection.

In other words, don’t expect Ichiro’s holdout to come forth anytime soon to be pilloried on social media.

Frankly, that anonymous option should exist, despite how it served as a shield in the cases of Jeter and Ichiro. In recent years, I feel like some voters -- consciously or not -- have tailored their ballots for likes or positive X feedback, especially during the Bonds/Clemens era, making the election just a little less pure.

But really, that’s baseball. And going by the final analysis -- mostly -- the BBWAA steers the right players to Cooperstown, in the right proportion, at the right time. While plenty of the post-election conversation will focus on the dizzy rationale of Ichiro’s lone detractor -- just think, Tom Seaver, Ken Griffey Jr. and Nolan Ryan weren’t unanimous either - there were two other instances Tuesday night where sanity loudly prevailed, at both ends of the Hall of Fame spectrum, with CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner.

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As expected, Sabathia -- the Webster definition of relentless, rock-solid, unsinkable ace -- sailed into Cooperstown on his first try, earning 86.8% of the electorate (342 of 394 votes). His credentials were unassailable, despite some still leaving him off their ballots: 2007 AL Cy Young winner for Cleveland, ’09 ALCS MVP with the Yankees, Sabathia is one of only six pitchers in history with at least 250 victories, a .600 winning percentage and 3,000 strikeouts. Not too long ago, voters would have considered his 251 wins a little light for first-ballot consideration -- 300 used to be the benchmark -- or his 3.74 ERA a smidge high.

But the game changes, as does the evaluation for what these modern players achieve, and it’s impossible to deny that Sabathia represents one of the last true aces of his kind. In this age of load management, and the fragility of pitchers, Sabathia was a Clydesdale with a cutter, hoisting teams on his back, oftentimes facing his biggest challenges on short rest. Over a 19-year career, it was never just about the numbers with CC. And the first-ballot distinction recognizes that.

“It means a lot to just be in the Hall of Fame -- period,” Sabathia said Tuesday night. “But first ballot, I know what that means as a baseball player, and it’s very special”

For Sabathia, who retired in 2019, it only felt like a long wait, right up to those final minutes sitting on his New Jersey couch, surrounded by dozens of family and friends. In actuality, he took the express train to Cooperstown. For Wagner, his fellow ’25 classmate, it was truly an eternity, a 10-year sentence in Hall of Fame purgatory, waiting for clogged ballots to clear of steroid-tainted candidates and sensibilities to shift over those years.

Consider Wagner’s journey to upstate New York. Back in 2016, at its origin, Wagner appeared on just 10.5% of the 440 ballots, with five percent being the cutoff to remain for the following year. The next? Wagner actually dipped down to 10.2%, not the direction any candidate wants to be headed with (hopefully) eight chances left.

But Wagner rebounded to 11.1 the next year, 16.7 after that, then made a huge leap to nearly double that (31.7) in 2020, which just so happened to follow the recent inductions of three all-time closers: Rivera, Trevor Hoffman and Lee Smith (via the Today’s Game Committee, a 16-person special panel). Suddenly, Wagner was looking increasingly Hall-worthy in the voting bloc’s eyes, and his stats certainly backed it up. Wagner’s career 2.31 ERA is the second-lowest of the Live Ball ERA (minimum 900 IP) behind only Rivera (2.21), his K/9 rate is the highest all-time at 11.9 for that innings threshold and his .187 opponents’ batting average is the lowest ever (ahead of Nolan Ryan’s .204).

“The only thing that I thought I did well was I didn’t blow a save for 10 years,” Wagner said Tuesday.

Whatever the reason, those numbers apparently grew in stature over the subsequent years, pushing Wagner all the way to 73.8% last January -- a mere five votes short of induction. Given his Cooperstown trajectory, no candidate had come so close without crossing the gates. But Wagner -- an undersized, overthrowing fireballer with a nasty streak that stood 10 feet tall on the mound -- never let his guard down until the tears began flowing after Tuesday’s phone call.

Once again, greatness was justly rewarded. For Wagner, it just took longer. Down to his 10th and final chance.

“It’s not an unbiased process,” Wagner said. “Some guys handle it really well, and some guys don’t. For me, I’m just happy that it’s over.”

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