The first Hall of Fame class was chosen 82 years ago today

Back on February 2, 1936, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner became immortalized as the inaugural class in the Baseball Hall of Fame. While the actual Hall in Cooperstown, NY would not be built for another three years, on this day the term Hall of Famer was born. Baseball's Hall of Fame started to take shape back in 1934. Stephen Clark, a Cooperstown resident, purchased a baseball used by Abner Doubleday and displayed it in Cooperstown’s Village Club. With the ball becoming a very popular attraction, baseball’s presidents and commissioner gave Clark permission to start displaying other memorabilia from across the country. National League President Ford Frick suggested that a Hall of Fame be created to celebrate baseball’s centennial in 1939. With Doubleday purportedly inventing the national pastime in Cooperstown back in 1839, it was chosen as the location for the Hall. Frick asked the Baseball Writers Association of America to vote for the five greatest players in baseball history as the inaugural class. 226 ballots were cast by members of the BBWAA, with 170 votes needed for enshrinement. The ballots had to be sent back by January 25, and by January 29, all of the votes had been received. The five men were technically decided that day, but the Hall of Fame recognizes February 2nd as the official day they were chosen as that is when it was broadcast to the world.

"At the Hall of Fame, we go with the date of the public release as the official date of election, not the date on which the votes were counted," Museum Librarian Jim Gates said. "While today’s elections are pretty straightforward, looking back we don’t always know the days that the BBWAA counted their votes. So it’s easier to track and confirm the public release of the vote based on newspaper datelines. Most importantly, that’s the day when the player finds out, and you become a Hall of Famer the day that both you and the world learn that you have been elected." The initial reaction by the masses was jubilation. These five spectacular men had been, and still are, staples of Major League Baseball. However, as we also see today, there was some outcry over the voting system. Ty Cobb, the man who held the all-time hits record for decades and still owns the highest career batting average, received 222 out of 226 votes. Babe Ruth, the most polarizing and famous baseball player of all time, received 215. How do you not unanimously vote these pantheons of baseball into history? "The amazement in this corner is not the ballots that these leaders received but the gap where X failed to mark the spot," John Kieran wrote on February 4, 1936 in The New York Times. "It remains a mystery that any observer of modern diamond activities could list his version of the ten outstanding baseball figures and have Ty Cobb nowhere at all in the group. Four voters accomplished that amazing feat." The shock didn't just come from the fans and media. The men counting these historic ballots also took notice.

"The committee was amazed," the Associated Press reported. "Vote counting stopped momentarily for a discussion of how anyone could leave the great Ruth off the list of immortals. The same happened when Cobb missed his first vote." Those historic votes cast 82 years ago, and the ones not cast, ignited a debate that still rages on to this day. Should players ever be a unanimous decision? Will we ever see a unanimous selection? Ty Cobb received 98.2% of votes. Babe Ruth got 95.1%. Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio, not a single unanimous selection. Curious, isn't it? "The First Five hold a special place in Baseball history," wrote Dan Holmes. "In the Hall of Fame, the plaques of those five men stand separate facing visitors as they immediately enter the gallery. In many ways, these five players serve as a standard bearer for future inductees."