Voting for the National Baseball Hall of Fame is a privilege. Also a pain. No Hall of Fame and maybe nothing short of Jordan vs. Lebron talk seems to elicit more debate in sports than baseball Hall of Fame talk. I blame Pete Rose. And steroids.

NEW YORK – There’s nothing new to my 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, except the pleasure of voting for first-time eligibles Ichiro Suzuki and CC Sabathia. Of the 28 players appearing on this year’s ballot, I checked six boxes. Ichiro, with his all-around brilliance, ought to be unanimous.

More than ever before, that's the question that has weighed on my mind this winter as I follow the progress of the 2025 Hall of Fame voting. Actually, it's two questions: How many great seasons does a player need to put up before he's a Hall of Famer?

Which of course leaves Andruw Jones, who currently has 72.6% of the known votes (75% needed.) Typically, the public votes will trend a bit higher than the final vote tally for pla