Baseball Hall of Fame

Baseball Hall of Fame
The National Baseball Hall of Fame was dedicated in Cooperstown, New York, in 1939. The year 1939 was chosen to celebrate the supposed centennial of baseball as it was then believed that Abner Doubleday had developed the game at Cooperstown in 1839 - a story that was later discredited. Of the 25 immortals who had been elected to the Hall of Fame up to that point, 11 were still living; and all of them journeyed to Cooperstown to attend the centennial celebration. Selections to the Hall of Fame are made annually by two groups: the Baseball Writers' Association of America and the Baseball Hall of Fame Committee on Baseball Veterans. More than 200 individuals have been inducted into the Hall of Fame and the first players chosen (in 1936) were Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson.