The 2025 baseball Hall of Fame class was announced towards the end of January with Ichiro Suzuki, C.C. Sabathia, and Billy Wagner all receiving their ticket to Cooperstown. With these players being announced there is always the question every year if we will see the illusive “unanimous” hall of fame vote. The only player to be unanimously put into the hall of fame is probably not who you think (Derek Jeter), it was actually Mariano Rivera in 2019. 

Why have we only had one unanimous first ballot hall of fame player in the history of baseball? Well to be unanimous that means you have to receive 100% of the vote from the BBWAA (the Baseball Writer’s Association of America) which is close to 400 writers. Seems impossibly right, that’s because it has been all but one time in the whole history of baseball. Mariano Rivera has been the ONLY unanimous first ballot hall of famer in all of baseball, not saying he doesn’t deserve to be unanimous (definitely does) but there have been a lot of players before and after him that probably deserve to be unanimous just as easily. 

My opinion, in my time watching baseball and learning the history a few players come to mind. In the “modern era” off the top of my head I would vote these players for sure being unanimous Ken Griffey Jr, Greg Maddux, Derek Jeter, Ichiro Suzuki, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, and Cal Ripken Jr. Again, I am leaving some names out but you guys get the idea. You cannot tell me we shouldn’t have more than one player as a unanimous first ballot hall of famer. Which raises the question… Do the writers truly believe there has only been one unanimous hall of famer in baseball history or are they just voting that way to be relevant? Personal opinion, I hate to say it but I think the way the vote is for their own egos and to be relevant in the baseball world. This same group is also responsible for not putting players such as Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, and Alex Rodriguez but I will save that for another article. Finally, I think these writers need to realize what they have done with the “unanimous” vote. If the names listed above that did not receive the unanimous vote we will likely never see a unanimous first ballot hall of famer ever again, and that to me is just not right for baseball!