In his 10th and final year on the ballot, former Astros closer Billy Wagner earned is place in Cooperstown, N.Y. in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Billy Wagner received 82.5 percent of the tally from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, after he missed by just five votes last year.

In Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner, the Baseball Writers Association delivered quite an eclectic trifecta to Cooperstown on Tuesday. The first Japanese player ever elected to the Hall of Fame,

Ichiro Suzuki had already cemented a strong, and likely everlasting baseball card market long before Tuesday’s almost unanimous vote for his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, headlining the class of 2025.

Ichiro Suzuki missed unanimous election to the Baseball Hall of Fame by one vote Tuesday night when he headlined a three-player class selected by the 394 voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Ichiro Suzuki, C.C. Sabathia and Billy Wagner were elected as the newest members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the museum announced.

Suzuki came in first in terms of voting with 393, making history as the first Japanese-born player elected to the Hall of Fame. He was close to making history again as he was nearly unanimous– and he would have been in some pretty weighty company to share with Yankee legends Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter.

Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese player chosen for baseball’s Hall of Fame, falling one vote shy of unanimous when he was elected Tuesday along with CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner.

From 1936-2015, no players were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with even 99 percent of the Baseball Writers Association of America's vote. A funny thing

This year, only three members will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame: Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, and Billy Wagner. Ichiro and Sabathia are first-time candidates on the ballot, while Wagner finally received enough votes to secure his place.

Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese-born player elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and he’ll be joined in the Class of 2025 by starting pitcher CC Sabathia and […]