Baseball Writers’ Association announces the results of the first Hall of Fame vote

On February 2, 1936, the Baseball Writers’ Association announces the results of the first Hall of Fame vote. Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth, and Honus Wagner comprise the inaugural class of Hall of Famers. Several other stars like Cy Young fail to make the grade, but will enter the Hall in later elections.

The Hall of Fame is scheduled to be open in 1939 as part of the game’s celebration of its centennial. A claim made by the former 1905 Mills Commission, which proves to be erroneous, suggests that the national pastime was invented by Civil War hero Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, making the small village in upstate New York the perfect place for the induction of the legendary ballplayers.