Japanese legendary football star Ichiro Suzuki received 393 votes in the 2025 Hall of Fame vote, with a 99.7% vote rate, just one vote short of being inducted into the Hall of Fame. The National Baseball Journalists Association (BBWAA) released the results of the vote of 321 journalists, however, the practice of only disclosing "partial" votes has raised questions from prominent journalists in the United States, who believe that the move is inappropriate.

Before the announcement of the results of this year's Hall of Fame, the outside world was generally optimistic that the "Japanese legend" Ichiro Suzuki would be selected by unanimous votes, but in the end, he regretted that he could not achieve it by one vote. In this regard, Ichiro Suzuki also joked that he wanted to invite the reporter who did not vote for him to have a drink.

Who didn't vote for Ichiro Suzuki? Today, the National Baseball Journalists Association has announced the voting results of 321 journalists, and the announced votes have all gone to Ichiro Suzuki. But it is puzzling why only "partial" results were announced, rather than the full list of 394 journalists. According to US media reports, this vote in the American Hall of Fame stipulates that each journalist can decide for himself whether to make the results of the vote public.

In this regard, Jeff Passan, a well-known reporter for ESPN, said on his personal social platform that the "transparency" of voting is very important, and he believes that every journalist should make his or her voting results public so that the outside world can clearly understand.

In addition, after the ticket was opened in mid-January, Ichiro Suzuki showed grace. He believes that he is not perfect, "It is because of imperfection that there is motivation to move forward." At the same time, he also shouted to the reporter: "I want to invite him to my house, have a drink and have a chat together." But as of now, the identity of the voter remains a mystery.

Although BBWAA met in 2016 to discuss whether to release the names of the voters, and at that time voted 80-19 to approve the announcement, the subsequent board decided to leave this right to the voters themselves. Jeff Passan, a well-known ESPN reporter, posted on social media emphasizing the importance of transparency in this vote.