Class of 2025 Ready for Their Moment

Three baseball icons have received the game’s highest honor – but they’re still coming to terms with it. 

CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki and Billy Wagner were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in January by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. On July 27, their legacies will be cast in bronze and placed in the Plaque Gallery. Yet as the date nears, the gravity of the moment still hasn’t fully sunk in.

“I don’t know when reality will set in, probably when I get (to Cooperstown) in a couple days,” Wagner said over Zoom during the three electees’ final media availability before the July 25-28 Hall of Fame Weekend. “It hasn’t set in. It blows my mind. 

“I was coaching our travel team, and right before the game, Johnny Bench called. That’s reality. That’s when I felt like I went back to being five years old, and I’m sitting there going, ‘Guys, you are going to have to wait. I gotta talk to Johnny Bench.’” 

Wagner, who was elected in his final year of eligibility on the BBWAA ballot, said is humbled by the recognition. 

“There is something about walking around wearing a National Baseball Hall of Fame hat that still makes me feel like, ‘Are you really that guy?’” Wagner said. “I mean you look back at who’s in there, and I mean, when I walked through the Hall the first time, it was mind boggling to just sit there and take my name being there with the greats of the great, so it’ll definitely take some time to sit there and really let it sink it. 

“I think after the 27th, that moment to be there and to sit down with some of the Hall of Famers and take a breath, that’ll be great.” 

After transitioning from being a starting pitcher to a reliever in his rookie season, Wagner’s hard-throwing style made him a potent back-end reliever. The southpaw pitched for the Astros, Phillies, Mets, Red Sox and Braves and totaled 422 saves, the second most by a left-hander in MLB history. Wagner is the first left-handed relief pitcher to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

While Wagner was elected on his final year on the BBWAA ballot, Sabathia and Ichiro were each selected in their first year eligible. However, Sabathia was unsure whether his career was first-ballot worthy. 

Sabathia pitched 19 seasons for the Indians, Brewers and Yankees. He won the 2007 American League Cy Young Award after going 19-7 with an AL-best 241 innings pitched. Sabathia joined the Yankees in 2009 and won the World Series the same season. He was the third left-handed pitcher to reach the 3,000-strikeout milestone. 

“I had no idea (if I had a first-ballot Hall of Fame case), to be honest,” he said. “That’s why I was checking the (voting) tracker every five minutes. You never know what’s gonna happen.” 

Yet, he too hasn’t comprehended his Hall of Fame label. 

“I think every time I see somebody, they say congratulations, and I’m like, ‘For what?’” Sabathia said. 

But as he has had more time to reflect and has gotten the chance to talk to other Hall of Famers, his appreciation of the feat has grown. 

“I had the chance to talk to Fergie (Jenkins) about (what it means to be a Black pitcher in the Hall), and I’m excited to get (to Cooperstown) and talk to him about what it means,” Sabathia said. 

After growing up as a three-sport athlete in Vallejo, Calif., Sabathia said his speech will touch on several of his hometown mentors and the “village that raised him.”

Ichiro also reflected on his time with Sabathia in New York as Yankees teammates. 

“We were teammates in New York, but as a position player and a pitcher, you don’t really get to have those deep talks that most position players do with each other,” Ichiro said through an interpreter. “When we were at Cooperstown (immediately following the election), and I was able to have dinner with him, we were able to have a lot of good talks and what I came from it was that, he’s just somebody that you see out on the field, that’s the same guy that you get and he’s very straightforward.” 

Ichiro played 19 seasons for the Mariners, Yankees and Marlins after his nine-year career in the Japan Pacific League with the Orix BlueWave. He took American baseball by storm in 2001 and won both the American League Rookie of the Year and the MVP Award – just the second player in history to win both in the same season. Ichiro collected 3,089 hits in MLB and 1,278 more in Japan.

The trio will be inducted alongside Classic Baseball Era Committee electees Dick Allen and Dave Parker. 

The Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be held Sunday, July 27, at 1:30 p.m. ET on the grounds of the Clark Sports Center, located one mile south of the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Noah Douglas is the 2025 communications intern in the Frank and Peggy Steele Internship Program for Leadership Development