On Tuesday night, baseball legends Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner earned election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Ichiro and

CC Sabathia’s anticipated election to the Baseball Hall of Fame will hopefully encourage people to think differently regarding the achievements of starting pitchers.

It now appears it's a question of when, not if, Carlos Beltrán will be voted into the Hall of Fame. In fact, next year could be his time, with the ballot wide open. Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner were elected in voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America announced Tuesday night.

Bay Area native and lifelong Raiders fan CC Sabathia is headed to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He enters Cooperstown along with legendary Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki and Astros Pitcher Billy Wagner.

Dustin Pedroia earned enough Hall of Fame votes to stay on the ballot, but how close was the Red Sox legend to enshrinement?

Ichiro Suzuki, the dominant contact hitter whose 19 years in the major leagues, mostly with the Seattle Mariners, became the first Asian player elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese player chosen for baseball’s Hall of Fame, falling one vote shy of unanimous when he was elected along with CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner.

Suzuki came in first in terms of voting with 393, making history as the first Japanese-born player elected to the Hall of Fame. He was close to making history again as he was nearly unanimous– and he would have been in some pretty weighty company to share with Yankee legends Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter.

Australia's Robinson Smith, who recently signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates, had set his MLB sights very high.

Chase Utley and Ian Kinsler had virtually identical careers from a stats and awards perspective, but their Hall of Fame cases vary widely.

The two former Jets' legends weighed in on the team's decision to hire former Lions' defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn as the head coach.