Stephen A. Smith Ichiro Chris Russo Baseball Hall of Fame voting Screengrab via ESPN

It’s that time of the year again. NFL Playoffs? No. College football national championship? Not quite. No, it’s that wonderful time of year when everyone takes issue with the Baseball Writers Association of America’s votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame. And this year Stephen A. Smith and Chris Russo are leading the charge.

Whether it’s the whitewashing of the steroid era, deserving players left out, or someone making a statement with their votes, there always seems to be some kind of axe to grind when it comes to Baseball Hall of Fame voting. And the Class of 2025 is no different with Atlanta Braves legend Andruw Jones falling just short once again and Seattle Mariners icon Ichiro Suzuki being denied unanimous inclusion by one solitary vote.

While many baseball writers choose to make their votes public, there is still a huge chunk that do not. And to this point, the lone voter who left Ichiro off his or her ballot has not yet volunteered their reason for doing so.

On Wednesday’s First Take, both Smith and Russo took a blowtorch to the voting process, saying that there are too many voters and that they should not be able to hide in anonymity.

“There’s too many voters,” Russo said. “394 people. Newspapers have 15, 16 guys who vote. You shouldn’t have 15, 16. The New York Post has got 13 votes. I don’t understand that. 13 votes! I can see 3, 4 votes. 13 guys voting for the Hall of Fame? To have that many people, Stevie, you’re going to have somebody who wants to be different.”

“I have a better question,” Smith responded. “How the hell is it we know who has how many votes but we don’t know who voted what?”

Stephen A. called it “cowardly” and “typical of baseball” then went on to praise MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred unprompted for some of the changes he has brought to the game to try to modernize it and make it better for the fans. Manfred isn’t exactly a widely popular figure, but the rule changes to increase the pace of play has worked fantastically and ratings and attendance has been up, so he definitely deserves credit there.

After that aside, Smith went back in at Hall of Fame voters after running down Ichiro’s one-of-a-kind resume.

“Who the hell is that person? I want their names! Who are they? These weak-ass people that want to have a vote, but then you don’t want to let anyone know who you are. Stand up! Justify!” Smith exclaimed. “To have the right to vote is a privilege. You have a right to know who that person is and what was your rationale behind being the lone dissenter when everybody associated with Major League Baseball from a voting perspective voted differently than you. You’re the only person that felt differently despite a clear Hall of Fame resume.”

Baseball voters have been en masse much more open in recent years about their Hall of Fame votes as many take to social media or their outlets to explain their ballots. However, it’s far from unanimous. Ryan Thibodeau tracked public HOF ballots before this week’s announcement and had 215 known ballots, just a little more than half of all voters.

We finish the pre-results portion of the tracking at 215 ballots. Good luck to the candidates. Enjoy the announcement, everyone!

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— Ryan Thibodaux (@notmrtibbs.com) January 21, 2025 at 6:04 PM

The Athletic‘s Andrew Marchand (formerly of the New York Post) also went to social media to defend the BBWAA, saying that writers have voted to make their ballots known, but the Hall has prevented them from doing so.

Given the very public backlash, it’s hard to see the lone Ichiro dissenter stepping up now and explaining their vote. And after years of doing things their way, it’s equally as hard to see the Baseball Hall of Fame change the voting process and suddenly making every vote public.

While some baseball writers will take issue with the comments made by Stephen A. Smith and Chris Russo, there is no denying that criticism will continue to come again next year as long as there is a layer of secrecy to votes and not everyone is able to be held accountable for their ballots.