Ichiro Suzuki's unanimous snub should suggest ending anonymous voting in Hall of Fame

English audio above. Japanese audios below.

How Ichiro didn’t get unanimous HOF votes—to me, it seems someone didn’t want to have a unanimous selection at all costs, or perhaps that particular writer just wanted to make a point. The individual who voted against Ichiro could have been either lazy, lacked a clear understanding of what a Hall of Famer is, or simply didn't care about baseball.

Perhaps it's because Ichiro didn't start his career in the MLB. But even that doesn’t make sense because the MLB and NPB both had an agreement about free agency, which made it hard for Japanese baseball players to play in the US before a certain age, something that's just beyond a player’s control. If Ichiro had begun his career in the MLB, he would have had the most MLB hits by any player ever at a time when interleague made it possible for hitters to face more pitchers in their careers. In turn, the league became a place where it was harder to get hits.

Ichiro had a stellar rookie season and was excellent his entire career in MLB. With that in mind, he compiled over 3,089 hits in his MLB career in 19 seasons with a BA of .311, becoming a 10-time all-star, an MVP, rookie of the year, a 2-time batting champion, and holding the MLB single-season record of 262 hits.

In perspective, what Ichiro has been able to accomplish in his career is unanimously worthy of the Hall of Fame. Still, somehow, there was a writer out of 354 writers in the Baseball Writers' Association of America who looked at Ichiro's accomplishments and said, "Nah, I know he's a Hall of Famer, but I'm going to vote no." 

That sums up the absurdity of it. If you know anything about baseball and you know certain accomplishments of a player based on the times he played, how can you not cast your vote for Ichiro? Either that or we just have to seriously consider ending anonymous voting in the Hall of Fame. Somehow, that writer has to explain why Ichiro, who has more hits in a single season than anyone else and quite possibly the most hits total if he had begun his career in the United States, is not worthy of the Hall of Fame.I would like to know how he could justify that.