The BriefIchiro Suzuki became the first Japanese player to earn entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame.Suzuki earned 393 of 394 votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of America, joining Derek Jeter in falling one vote shy of unanimous selection.

To this point, only famed Yankee closer Mariano Rivera has been elected to the Hall of Fame unanimously — not Babe Ruth, not Hank Aaron, not Ken Griffey Jr. nor Derek Jeter, just Rivera. Could Suzuki be the second?

Tuesday is one of the holy days on the baseball calendar, the announcement of players voted into the Hall of Fame. The honor is extreme and well-earned, with just over 1% of all big leaguers making it to Cooperstown for what they did as players: 275 out of 23,370.