 | Today we're looking at who might get into the Baseball Hall of Fame when this year's class is announced tonight. Plus, Connor McDavid accepts his suspension and Canada's most dominant curler embraces parenthood. | | | Expect a bigger Baseball Hall of Fame class this year
| | | After Derek Jeter and Canadian Larry Walker were voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020, only two players (David Ortiz and former Toronto Blue Jay Scott Rolen) made the cut with the Baseball Writers' Association of America over the next three years. But the writers got more generous in 2024, choosing three players — Adrian Beltre, Todd Helton and Joe Mauer — for induction alongside manager Jim Leyland, who was sent in by a separate committee.
An even larger group could be headed to Cooperstown this summer after the BBWAA releases this year's voting results today at 6 p.m. ET. According to the invaluable Baseball Hall of Fame Tracker, at least three of the 28 players on the ballot are safely on pace for induction along with Dave Parker and Dick Allen, who were voted in last month by one of the (considerably more lenient) committees who review candidates the writers rejected.
Ichiro Suzuki is an absolute lock for induction in his first year of eligibility, and for good reason. The stylish Japanese superstar won the American League MVP and Rookie of the Year awards in 2001 and captured seven batting titles along with 10 Gold Gloves as an outfielder for Seattle before finishing with a lifetime .311 average over 19 seasons with the Mariners, Yankees and Marlins. He also holds the single-season hits record of 258, which broke George Sisler's 84-year-old mark and may stand for a very long time now that the sport prizes power over contact. Oh, and all of this came after Ichiro spent his first nine pro seasons in Japan, where he won three MVPs and seven straight batting crowns before joining the majors at age 27.
According to the tracker, Ichiro is named on 100 per cent of the ballots that writers have chosen to reveal to the public so far. 75 per cent is the threshold for induction, so the only question is whether Ichiro will join Mariano Rivera as the only players to be elected unanimously.
CC Sabathia also appears to be a shoo-in as a first-timer, polling at better than 92 per cent. The massive left-hander was a six-time All-Star who won the AL Cy Young in 2007 with Cleveland and helped the Yankees to a World Series title in 2009. Sabathia was also one of baseball's last great workhorses, logging at least 230 innings five times while striking out 3,093 batters (third-most ever among lefties) over 19 seasons.
While Ichiro and Sabathia are poised to go in right away, it looks like Billy Wagner's long wait is over. The longtime Astros closer, who went on to the Phillies and Mets before finishing with Atlanta, is polling at around 85 per cent in his 10th and final year on the ballot. Wagner fell just five votes short last year, but it looks like the all-time leader in strikeout rate is finally going to Cooperstown.
A fourth potential inductee is Carlos Beltran, the five-tool centre-fielder who hit 435 homers and stole 312 bases over 20 seasons — primarily with the Mets and Royals before he ended his career with a World Series victory with Houston in 2017. Beltran is polling at over 80 per cent in his third year on the ballot. That's up from 57 per cent last year, when it appeared some voters were punishing him for his central role in the Astros' sign-stealing scandal. But the actual percentages typically end up a bit lower than what you see on the tracker, possibly because stingier voters might be more reluctant to reveal their choices.
Also on the bubble is Andruw Jones, the incredibly rangy centre-fielder who earned 10 Gold Gloves with Atlanta while hitting the 30-homer plateau seven times, including a big-league-leading 51 in 2005. Jones is polling at about 73 per cent in his eighth year.
Other interesting names on the ballot include first-timer Felix Hernandez, a Cy Young winner and perfect-game thrower who never reached the post-season in his 15 seasons, all with Seattle. He's polling at less than a quarter of the vote.
Meanwhile, steroid-tainted superstars Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez look like they'll fall well short again. Both men would have been first-ballot Hall of Famers had they not been busted for doping — Rodriguez ranks fifth all-time with 696 homers, while Ramirez is 15th with 555. But they're polling at just 40 and 36 per cent, respectively. That's up a few percentage points from last year, but Manny's hopes are fading in his ninth year on the ballot. It's A-Rod's fourth.
Canadian Russell Martin, a four-time All-Star catcher who spent four of his 14 big-league seasons with Toronto, is on the ballot for the first time. He's polling at around three per cent, putting him in danger of falling below the five per cent needed to stay on next year. But FanGraph's Jay Jaffe makes a pretty interesting case for why Martin's elite pitch-framing abilities make him an underrated Hall of Fame candidate.
Other players on the ballot who played for the Jays include pitcher Mark Buehrle (around 12 per cent in his fifth year) and shortstops Omar Vizquel (13 per cent, eighth year) and Troy Tulowitzki (first year, 0 per cent). | | |  | Seattle Mariners great Ichiro Suzuki could become the second unanimous selection for the Baseball Hall of Fame. (Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)
| | | Quickly…
| | | A couple other things to know:
1. Connor McDavid will reportedly accept his suspension.
The Edmonton Oilers superstar received a three-game ban from the NHL last night for cross-checking Vancouver's Conor Garland in the head on Saturday as they tussled after getting tangled up on the ice. Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers also got three games for a cross-check to the head of Edmonton's Evan Bouchard during the ensuing melee.
Despite reportedly feeling frustrated over drawing fewer penalty calls this year, McDavid is not expected to appeal his first suspension since a two-gamer in 2019. That means he'll miss tonight's visit by Alex Ovechkin's Washington Capitals as well as home games vs. Vancouver and Buffalo before returning Monday against Seattle.
In women's hockey news, the PWHL's Boston Fleet acquired Canadian forward Jill Saulnier from the New York Sirens for American forward Taylor Girard. Here's more on the trade from CBC Sports' Karissa Donkin.
2. Canadian doubles star Gabriela Dabrowski reached the Australian Open semifinals.
Dabrowski and her teammate Erin Routliffe of New Zealand advanced to the final four with a straight-sets win over Japan's Miyu Kato and Mexico's Renata Zarazua last night. The second-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe will face No. 3 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan in the semis.
In the men's quarterfinals today, seventh-seeded Novak Djokovic knocked off No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz to get within two wins of his record 25th Grand Slam title. The 10-time Australian Open champ will face second-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany in the semifinals. In the other half of the draw, No. 21 Ben Shelton of the U.S. plays Italy's Lorenzo Sonego tonight before top-ranked Jannik Sinner of Italy meets No. 8 Alex de Minaur of Australia on Wednesday morning.
Women's No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka kept her bid for a third straight Aussie Open title alive by rallying for a surprisingly tough 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 quarterfinal win over No. 27 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. The top-ranked Belarusian will face 11th-seeded Paula Badosa of Spain, who upset third-seeded American Coco Gauff last night. Second-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland plays her semifinal tonight against No. 8 Emma Navarro of the U.S. Here's more on today's Aussie Open results.
| | | And finally…
| | | Canada's most dominant curler is learning how to balance her career with motherhood.
Until having kids, curling was pretty much all that mattered to Rachel Homan. “Rach is the most competitive person I've ever met," says her husband, Shawn. "It could be a game of Uno and she'll rip your heart out." But there she was this past Halloween, taking a break in the middle of a tournament to drive home and trick-or-treat with her three young children — Ryatt, Bowyn and Briggs, all dressed as little superheroes along with Shawn's Batman. "I told them I would be there,” said Homan, who donned a Superwoman costume.
Rather than slow her down, family life seems to be making Homan even stronger on the ice. The reigning women's world champion and her team are an incredible 45-4 this season, and they've reached the final of all four Grand Slam events so far, winning two of them. Here's more on Homan's evolution from CBC Sports' Devin Heroux.
| | | That's it for today. Talk to you tomorrow.
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