As of Ichiro’s speech, the writer who left him off the ballot, keeping him from becoming the second unanimous first ballot Hall of Famer, has remained anonymous. Mariano Rivera received a perfect 425 of 425 votes for his initial Hall of Fame bid in 2019.

Ichiro Suzuki, the first Japanese Hall of Famer in baseball history, had one of the most humorous speeches since the late Bob Uecker.