Baseball Hall of Fame

The all time pinnacle for any player or person associated with our national pastime is enshrinement into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Hank Greenberg said at his Hall of Fame induction ceremony, "When you're playing, awards don't seem like much. Then, you get older and all of it becomes more precious. It is nice to be remembered." The hall of Fame remembers those who were great and it finds a way to remember many who were great only once, or maybe even twice, and some who were never great at all, but still did something great for the game of baseball.

Baseball Hall of Fame History

The Hall of Fame was dedicated on June 12, 1939. Stephen Carlton Clark was owner of a local hotel and sought to bring tourists to Cooperstown, which had been suffering economically when the Great Depression significantly reduced the local tourist trade and Prohibition devastated the local hops industry. His granddaughter, Jane Forbes Clark, is the current Chairman of the Board of Directors. The erroneous claim that U.S. Civil War hero Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, a claim made by former National League president Abraham G. Mills and his 1905 Mills Commission, was instrumental in the early marketing of the Hall.

An $8 million library and research facility opened in 1994. Dale Petroskey became the organization's president in 1999.

In 2002, Baseball As America was launched, a traveling exhibit that toured ten American museums over six years. The Hall of Fame has also sponsored educational programming on the Internet to bring the Hall of Fame to schoolchildren who might not visit. The Hall and Museum completed a series of renovations in spring 2005. The Hall of Fame also presents an annual exhibit at FanFest at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

Jeff Idelson replaced Petroskey as president on April 16, 2008.[2] He had been acting as president since March 25, 2008, when his predecessor was forced to resign for "fail[ing] to exercise proper fiduciary responsibility" while making "judgments that were not in the best interest of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum."

On October 26, 2011 the United States House of Representatives passed the National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin Act that was introduced by Rep. Richard Hanna (R).

Baseball Almanac is pleased to present comprehensive Hall of Fame checklists, Hall of Fame quotes from and about Hall of Fame members, links to playing statistics for Hall of Famers, Hall of Fame ballots, and other interesting data related to hall of fame baseball players from various world wide baseball specific halls of fame.