49 Fun Facts About Baseball Hall of Fame

In which New York village is the Baseball Hall of Fame located?

Cooperstown is now shorthand for the Hall itself, which grew from a battered old ball found in a farmhouse attic nearby in 1935.

Which slugger did 11 of the Hall's first voters skip?

Babe Ruth had retired only the previous June; with no waiting rule yet, 215 of the 226 writers voted him straight into the class of 1936.

Baseball Hall of Fame founder Stephen Clark was heir to which company's wealth?

The Singer sewing fortune let Clark pay for the Hall's building himself; his grandfather had been Isaac Singer's business partner.

Which Civil War general was wrongly credited with inventing baseball in the Hall's home village?

Abner Doubleday was a cadet at West Point in 1839, the year of the supposed invention, and never claimed any link to the game himself.

Which Giants pitcher was the only member of the Baseball Hall of Fame's first five elected after his death?

Christy Mathewson died of tuberculosis in 1925, seven years after he was exposed to poison gas in France as a captain in the Army's chemical warfare unit.

Which Dodgers ace retired at 30 with an arthritic elbow and entered the Baseball Hall of Fame at just 36?

Sandy Koufax led the league in ERA in each of his last five seasons and still quit, warned that he could lose the full use of his arm if he pitched on.

What share of the writers' ballots must a player reach to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame?

75% of ballots is the bar, and anyone named on fewer than 5% is dropped from the next writers' ballot.

How long must a retired player wait before appearing on the Baseball Hall of Fame writers' ballot?

Five years became the wait in 1954; before 1946 there was no wait at all, and even active players drew votes.

How many players may each writer vote for on a single Baseball Hall of Fame ballot?

Ten has been the limit since the first vote in 1936, and a writer may also send back a ballot with no names on it at all.

Which Baseball Hall of Fame body elects managers, umpires, executives and players the writers passed over?

The Veterans Committee, now formally the Era Committees, elected several old teammates of its member Frankie Frisch in the early 1970s.

For whom did the Baseball Hall of Fame's writers hold a special one-man election in December 1939?

Lou Gehrig was terminally ill with ALS, and the Yankees had already made his No. 4 the first retired number in the majors.

Whose 1973 Baseball Hall of Fame election set the precedent for waiving the wait after a player's death?

Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash on New Year's Eve 1972 while flying relief supplies to earthquake-hit Nicaragua.

Which high-kicking Giants ace became the first Dominican-born member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, in 1983?

Juan Marichal won 191 games in the 1960s, more than any other pitcher, yet the writers made him wait until his third ballot.

Who became the first player elected unanimously to the Baseball Hall of Fame, in 2019?

Mariano Rivera swept all 425 ballots as a reliever who relied on one pitch, a cutter every batter knew was coming and few could hit.

Derek Jeter missed a unanimous Baseball Hall of Fame election in 2020 by how many votes?

One writer in 397 left Jeter off, and the wait went on: the pandemic cancelled the 2020 ceremony, so he was not inducted until September 2021.

Ken Griffey Jr.'s 99.32% of the 2016 Baseball Hall of Fame vote broke whose 24-year-old record?

Tom Seaver's 98.84% had stood since 1992; the Mets had landed him by lottery after his first contract, with the Braves, was voided.

Which Japanese star was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2025 with 393 of 394 votes?

Ichiro Suzuki, the first Japanese player elected, was already 27 when he reached the majors in 2001 and still piled up 3,089 hits.

Which Newark Eagles co-owner became the first woman elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, in 2006?

Effa Manley ran the Eagles' business side and made Cleveland pay for Larry Doby, setting a precedent for Negro leagues contracts.

Which Negro leagues legend was the first inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, in 1971?

Satchel Paige had reached the majors as a 42-year-old rookie in 1948 and pitched in that year's World Series for Cleveland.

Which Dodger reached the Hall in 1962 with four votes to spare?

Jackie Robinson drew 124 of 160 votes with 120 needed; kept out of the majors until he was 28, he had only a decade there to show the voters.

Whose 1966 Baseball Hall of Fame induction speech called for Negro leagues stars to be honoured there too?

Ted Williams, elected with 93.4% on his first ballot, used his big day to say the great Negro leagues players were missing only for lack of a chance.

Which Negro leagues slugger became MLB's career batting average leader in 2024?

Josh Gibson took the top spot when MLB added Negro leagues statistics to its record books, 77 years after his death at the age of 35.

Under which category did the Baseball Hall of Fame induct Buck O'Neil in 2022?

Executive was the label, though O'Neil also starred at first base for the Kansas City Monarchs and in 1962 joined the Cubs as the first Black coach in the AL or NL.

Which all-time hits leader was barred from the Baseball Hall of Fame until his 2025 reinstatement?

Pete Rose accepted a permanent ban in 1989 for betting on his Reds and denied it for 15 years before confessing in a 2004 memoir.

Which Black Sox star, a .375 hitter in the 1919 World Series, became eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2025?

Shoeless Joe Jackson came off the ineligible list when Commissioner Rob Manfred ruled that a permanent ban ends at death.

Which slugger's tenth and final try on the Baseball Hall of Fame writers' ballot ended at 66% in 2022?

Barry Bonds, the career home run leader, never came closer in a decade of tries, his candidacy overshadowed by steroid allegations.

What did Jim Thome ask the Baseball Hall of Fame to leave off his 2018 plaque?

The Chief Wahoo logo gave way to Cleveland's plain block C on his cap, and the Hall said no new plaque would carry the caricature again.

Why did the Baseball Hall of Fame stop deferring to players on plaque cap logos in 2001?

Rumoured team payoffs for caps swirled around Wade Boggs, said to have promised Tampa Bay its logo; he denied it and went in as a Red Sox player in 2005.

Nolan Ryan wears which team's cap on his 1999 Baseball Hall of Fame plaque?

Texas Rangers years were only his last five, yet they brought two more no-hitters, the seventh and last at the age of 44.

Which pitcher chose a blank cap for his 1987 Baseball Hall of Fame plaque rather than slight the A's or the Yankees?

Catfish Hunter won five World Series, three in a row with Charlie Finley's A's and two more with George Steinbrenner's Yankees.

Greg Maddux's Baseball Hall of Fame plaque cap has no logo because he split his career between the Braves and which team?

Chicago Cubs scouts drafted him in 1984 and the club brought him back in 2004 for his 300th win, so he asked for no logo rather than pick a city.

Which 2015 inductee's Baseball Hall of Fame plaque shows a Diamondbacks logo despite a decade in Seattle?

Randy Johnson led Arizona to the 2001 World Series title as the Series co-MVP and threw a perfect game for the club at the age of 40.

When Roy Halladay's family chose a blank cap for his 2019 Baseball Hall of Fame plaque, who remained its only Blue Jay?

Roberto Alomar, inducted in 2011, was the first to go in as a Blue Jay; Halladay, who died in a 2017 plane crash, had starred for Toronto and Philadelphia alike.

Which pitcher, elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937, holds the career wins record with 511?

Cy Young's 511 wins are almost 100 more than anyone else's, yet the writers gave him just 49.1% in 1936 and he had to wait a year.

Which Deadball Era star in the Baseball Hall of Fame had his 1909 tobacco card pulled, making it a collectors' grail?

Honus Wagner objected to the card for reasons historians still debate, and a rare survivor sold for $7.25 million in 2022.

Hank Aaron's 97.8% of the 1982 Baseball Hall of Fame vote fell just short of whose 98.2% from the first election?

Ty Cobb was named on 222 of 226 ballots in 1936, while nine of the 415 writers somehow left off Aaron, then the career home run leader.

Which shortstop was named on 537 of 545 Hall ballots in 2007?

Cal Ripken Jr. played 2,632 games in a row for Baltimore and ended the run himself in 1998, taking his own name out of the lineup; eight writers still left him off.

Which three-time MVP catcher came up short on his first Baseball Hall of Fame ballot in 1971?

Yogi Berra topped the 1971 ballot with 67.2%, but the writers elected nobody that year; twelve months later 85.6% carried him in.

Which Cleveland fireballer reached the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962 in his first year of eligibility?

Bob Feller drew 150 of 160 votes, a 93.8% share, despite losing nearly four seasons to Navy service in the Second World War.

Which Dominican star was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2024 in his first year of eligibility?

Adrián Beltré drew 95.1% of the vote; his trademark was the home run hit from one knee, a swing he pulled off in Game 5 of the 2011 World Series.

Which first baseman reached the Hall on his sixth ballot, in 2024?

Todd Helton drew just 16.5% on his first ballot in 2019, yet 79.7% of the writers carried the lifelong Colorado Rockie in on his sixth.

Which left-hander was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2025 in his first year of eligibility?

CC Sabathia was traded to Milwaukee in mid-2008 and went 11-2 in 17 starts, finishing sixth in the National League MVP vote after only half a season there.

Which two long-overlooked sluggers were voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame for 2025?

Dick Allen and Dave Parker were both inducted after their deaths: Allen died in 2020, and Parker a month before the July 2025 ceremony.

Which Dodgers voice won the Baseball Hall of Fame's Frick Award for broadcasters in 1982, not yet halfway through his 67-year run?

Vin Scully had fans in Los Angeles carrying transistor radios into the ballpark, listening to him call the very game they were watching.

Which trio forms the Baseball Hall of Fame's class of 2026?

Beltrán, Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent got there by two routes: the writers elected the two center fielders in January 2026, and a separate panel had picked Kent a month before.

Roughly how many three-dimensional artifacts, from bats to uniforms, does the Baseball Hall of Fame hold?

40,000 is the Hall's own tally, and hardly any of it was bought: the museum has long declined to pay for mementos, relying on players and fans to donate them.

Which comedy duo has had a gold record on display at the Baseball Hall of Fame since 1956?

Abbott and Costello earned it with their "Who's on First?" routine, which still plays on a loop inside the museum.

Which 1940s superstar drew just 44.3% of the 1953 Baseball Hall of Fame vote, then fell short again before his 1955 election?

Joe DiMaggio had retired after 1951, and his 117 votes in 1953 kept him eligible when a longer wait came in; 88.8% finally carried him in.

Who was first to wear a Padres cap on a Baseball Hall of Fame plaque, despite nine seasons as a Yankee?

Dave Winfield went in six years before Tony Gwynn; his New York years were soured by a long public feud with owner George Steinbrenner.