On Wednesday, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America will announce the inductees for the 2016 class of the Baseball Hall of Fame. The new additions will join a list that has been growing since Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson made up the first class, in 1936.
But it was not until 1939 that the Hall of Fame would acquire its physical location, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Abner Doubleday’s supposed—but already-dubious—invention of the sport in Cooperstown, N.Y., as TIME explained in the lead-up to that centennial year:
It was not until 1907, 14 years after General Doubleday’s death, that a research committee definitely established Cooperstown as the birthplace of baseball. Civic-proud Cooperstownians, whose pastoral background had already been immortalized as the home town and nameplace of James Fenimore Cooper, bought the original baseball field, spent $25,000 to transform it into a modern ball park and public playground, named it Doubleday field. Three years ago [in 1935], in anticipation of the 100th birthday of the game, baseball bigwigs and benefactors joined hands to make Cooperstown a bigger, better shrine. To preserve its treasures, baseball sentimentalists decided to build an imposing three-story colonial brick museum. To immortalize its heroes, baseball administrators voted to establish therein a Baseball Hall of Fame —to take the form of bronze plaques placed around the first floor exhibition hall…
There are two ways to become an Immortal: 1) election by a 75% vote of the members of the Baseball Writers Association, who have been given the task of choosing players whose careers ended some time between 1900 and the year of election; 2) selection by a committee of oldsters, who choose 19th Century heroes.
The “oldsters” aren’t around anymore, but the 75% rule is still in effect for inclusion in the Hall of Fame.
So, as TIME’s Richard Corliss put it many decades later, “the Hall of Fame, like the Miss America Pageant or the Mount Rushmore sculptures, was essentially a Chamber of Commerce inspiration to lure tourists.”
“But,” he continued, “when the Hall opened in 1939, it became a secular shrine, the Lourdes of baseball. It still is.”
Read the full story from 1938, here in the TIME Vault: Immortals
See The Baseball Hall of Fame's Iconic Images
Just months prior to being named American League Most Valuable Player, Detroit Tigers catcher Mickey Cochrane gazes out from behind his mask at Philadelphia's Shibe Park, Aug. 29, 1934. National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown N.Y. Energized by the first World Series held at Chicago's Wrigley Field, baseball fans crowd the corner of Addison and Sheffield as they await the matchup between the hometown Cubs and the Philadelphia Athletics, Oct. 1929. National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown N.Y. As part of the annual preseason City Series between Philadelphia's two major league clubs, Athletics catcher Mickey Cochrane dives home and tags out Phillies base runner Pinky Whitney at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, April 1, 1933.National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown N.Y. Children raise their souvenir Louisville Sluggers at the second "Bat Day" ever held at Yankee Stadium in New York City, Aug. 14, 1965. Don Rice—National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown N.Y. Members of a baseball team at Peddie Institute, a private boarding school in Hightstown, N.J., gather for a group photograph in front of the main school building, May 1891. J.C. Sunderlin—National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown N.Y. During his first season in the big leagues, Cincinnati's George "Admiral" Schlei sits for a studio portrait in Boston, 1904. Carl J. Horner—National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown N.Y. Visiting Egypt in the midst of their around-the-world ball-playing exhibition, tour organizers and baseball players climb the Sphinx for a photo, Feb. 9, 1889. P. Sebah—National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown N.Y. New York Yankees pitcher Red Ruffing shows off his fastball grip, 1938. William C. Greene—National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown N.Y. Following the 1927 World Series, Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth barnstormed across the country, playing 21 games in just three weeks. Here the Yankees' legends loom large on either side of Kenichi Zenimura and other members of the Fresno Athletic Club at Fireman Park in Fresno, Calif., Oct. 29, 1927. Frank Kamiyama—National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown N.Y. Mel Allen (front), "The Voice of the Yankees," calls a game from the booth at Celeveland Stadium, June 23, 1948. National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown N.Y. Jackie Robinson opens the door to the Dodgers' clubhouse on the day Brooklyn purchased his contract, making him the first African-American player in modern baseball history to join a major league club, New York City, April 10, 1947. William C. Greene—National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown N.Y. The St. Louis Giants and pitcher Bill Drake (far left) pose for a photograph following their game against the Kansas City Monarchs in the inaugural season of the Negro National League, June 14, 1920. J. E. Miller—National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown N.Y. Billed as the "female champions of the world," Margaret Nabel (far right) and the New York Bloomer Girls promoted their barnstorming tours by sending out team photos such as this picture of the 1929 club. Henri H. Davis—National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown N.Y. Photographer Bob Bartosz takes a self-portrait amidst the weeds, debris and ruins of Philadelphia's abandoned Connie Mack Stadium, 65 years after it opened as Shibe Park and nearly four years after it hosted its final big league game, June 1974.Bob Bartosz—National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown N.Y. Pittsburgh great Honus Wagner selects a bat in front of the Pirates dugout, 1915. National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown N.Y.
