Outside The Confines: Your new Hall of Fame inductees

I just want to talk to that one voter who left Ichiro off their ballot…

Well, the long-anticipated time arrived last night as the newest class of MLB Hall of Famers was announced. Ichiro Suzuki was one vote shy of being a unanimous inductee, and I think perhaps anonymous ballots shouldn’t be allowed because I just want to have a quick chat with the person who made that stupid decision. CC Sabathia was a first-ballot inductee with 86.8% of the vote, and the long wait finally ended for Billy Wagner on his eighth ballot as he got in with 82.5% of the vote.

Not a lot of surprises in those election results, as most anticipated this would finally be Wagner’s year, and Sabathia was a sure-bet first-ballot inductee. Ichiro missing a perfect unanimous induction by one vote is frustrating, but it doesn’t lessen his incredible career and I’m sure internet writers like me are more annoyed by it than he likely is.

Here are some quick hits on the Hall of Fame induction:

• Anthony Castrovince does an overview of the inductees.
• Daniel Kramer looks at the one-vote miss that kept Suzuki from being unanimous.
• Karl Rasmussen rounds up some reactions to Suzuki not being unanimous.
• The complete Hall of Fame voting results. (MLB)
• Brian McTaggart shares the long journey for Billy Wagner to finally get to the Hall of Fame.
• Tom Verducci looks at the diverse skills represented in this year’s Hall of Fame class.
• Karl Rasmussen shares that Billy Wagner was reduced to tears by his induction.
• Blake Silverman looks at the two players who were narrow misses for this class.
• An overview of the winners and losers from this year’s induction. (ESPN)
• Jayson Stark assesses what we learned from the election. (The Athletic subscription required)

Now onto the rest of today’s links!

• Michael Baumann celebrates the Hall of Very Good.
• Dan Szymborski spotlights a slugger the Blue Jays were finally able to sign.
• If you thought the Dodgers were done spending money, then oh boy is Ben Clemens here to tell you how wrong you are.
• Some sad news.

• The Astros are pleading for Alex Bregman to come home, shares Stephen Douglas.
• Ben Clemens tries to determine if free agents who sign early are getting better contracts.
• Davy Andrews looks at the invention of the cleat cleaner.
• Remember that rare Paul Skenes rookie card? An 11-year-old fan finally found it! Story by Stephen Douglas.
• Ken Rosenthal explains that while the Dodgers might be the new evil empire, they should also motivate other teams to follow their lead. (The Athletic subscription required)
• A final Hall of Fame moment to wrap things up.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Make it so.