Ichiro Suzuki—just his name brings a smile to baseball fans. The post A Star Like No Other: Why Ichiro Suzuki Seems Destined to Join Mariano Rivera in Hall of Fame Immortality appeared first on EssentiallySports.

Ichiro Suzuki could join Mariano Rivera as the only unanimous picks for baseball’s Hall of Fame and CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner and Carlos Beltrán also could be elected when results

Ichiro Suzuki said he wants to meet with the one person who voted against his induction into the Hall of Fame after he fell one vote shy of being unanimous.

Mariners' Ichiro Suzuki fell one vote short from becoming a unanimous inductee into the Hall of Fame and just wants to grab a drink with the writer.

If that remains the case when the final results are released by the Baseball Writers Association of America on Tuesday, Ichiro will be the first Japanese-born player in the Hall of Fame and just the second player ever to be unanimously elected to Cooperstown.

It won't be official until the voting is released, but Ichiro Suzuki is heading to the Hall of Fame. The Japanese outfielder is expected to be one of the names inducted into Cooperstown in the 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame class.

Other bits of intrigue ahead of Tuesday's 6 p.m. announcement: Will CC Sabathia be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and is this the year Billy Wagner gets in?

Ichiro Suzuki could join Mariano Rivera as the only unanimous picks for baseball’s Hall of Fame and CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner and Carlos Beltrán also could be elected when results

Ichiro Suzuki could become the first Japanese player in baseball’s Hall of Fame, and CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner and Carlos Beltrán also could be elected when results of the writers’ voting are announced.

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 was among the few Japanese players who transitioned well from Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball to Major League Baseball.

The girl, now 17, filed a lawsuit on January 16, seeking unspecified damages for negligent supervision and premises liability.