The abstract concept had been around for a couple years by the winter of 1936, so the public was not surprised when the official announcement came.
But when the world learned on Feb. 2, 1936, that Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner had been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, a new classification arose for future players, managers, umpires and executives. And a new national dialogue – one that burns brightly today – was born.
On that day – three-and-a-half years before what was then called the National Baseball Museum opened in Cooperstown – the words “Hall of Famer” truly came to life.
The inaugural Hall of Fame election of 1936 considered players labeled as “moderns,” or candidates whose careers began after 1900. A total of 226 ballots were cast by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, with 170 votes needed for election. Ballots needed to be postmarked by Jan. 25, 1936, and started trickling in via the U.S. mail. By Wednesday, Jan. 29, all of the votes had been received, and an official Baseball Writers’ Association of America tally sheet from the Hall of Fame Library Archive lists the final total from that day.
