Ichiro Suzuki wants to have drink with Hall of Fame holdout - ESPN

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Ichiro Suzuki wants to raise a glass with the voter who chose not to check off his name on the Hall of Fame ballot.

«There's one writer that I wasn't able to get a vote from,» he said through an interpreter Thursday, two days after receiving 393 of 394 votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of America. «I would like to invite him over to my house, and we'll have a drink together, and we'll have a good chat.»

Suzuki had been to the Hall seven times before attending a news conference Thursday with fellow electees CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner. The trio will be inducted July 27 along with Dave Parker and Dick Allen, voted in last month by the classic era committee.

Suzuki struggled to process being the first player from Japan elected to the Hall.

«Maybe five, 10 years from now I could look back and maybe we'll be able to say this is what it meant,» he said.

BBWAA secretary-treasurer Jack O'Connell recalled Suzuki was at the Hall in 2001 when he called to inform the Seattle star he had been voted American League Rookie of the Year. Suzuki received 27 of 28 first-place votes — all but the one from an Ohio writer who selected Sabathia.

«He stole my Rookie of the Year,» Sabathia said playfully.

Sabathia remembered a game at Safeco Field on July 30, 2005. He had worked with Cleveland pitching coach Carl Willis in a bullpen session on a pitch he could throw to retire Suzuki, which turned out to be a slider.

«I get two strikes on Ichi, and he hits it off the window,» Sabathia said of the 428-foot drive off the second-deck restaurant in right field, at the time the longest home run of Suzuki's big league career. «Come back around his next at-bat, throw it to him again, first pitch he hits it out again.»

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