The Hall of Fame's First Five

On January 29, 1936, the Baseball Writers' Association of America announced the first players elected to the new National Baseball Hall of Fame: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson. Cobb received the highest vote total of the five.

The Hall of Fame itself would not open its doors in Cooperstown, New York, for another three years. The five inaugural inductees represented the sport's first generation of dominant stars: Cobb and Wagner as hitters, Ruth as the game's first great power hitter, and Mathewson and Johnson as its most celebrated pitchers of the dead-ball era.

Voting has continued every year since, with candidates needing to appear on 75 percent of ballots cast by eligible writers for election.