Old News: Original Hall of Fame Announcement
Below these words — and craftily procured from an unnamed library database — is the announcement of the first Hall of Fame ballot, courtesy of the December 24, 1935 edition of the New York Times.
As the reader can see, this was a bit of an exciting notion at the time — and free of the armchair philologizing that comes with many contemporary discussions of the Hall and candidacy for same (i.e. “It’s the hall of fame, therefore it makes sense to pick the most famous players”).
Below are the five players ultimately selected. One weird thing is how much talk there is of an “immortal ten” when, in fact, only five players were selected.
Name Votes % of Ballots
Ty Cobb 222 98.2
Babe Ruth 215 95.1
Honus Wagner 215 95.1
Chri. Mathewson 205 90.7
Walter Johnson 189 87.6
Now here’s the article:
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
On the original Hall of Fame ballot there were 11 writers who didn’t think Babe Ruth should be in. At that point, there should have been a movement to figure out another way to elect Hall-of-Famers!
So true