Ruth in, Cy out: Remembering inaugural HOF Class of 1936

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum has become an integral part of America's pastime -- and it all started one February day in 1936.

Though the players wouldn't be formally inducted until the Hall of Fame opened its doors in Cooperstown, N.Y., in 1939, it was on Feb. 2, 1936, that the inaugural five-player class was unveiled. With everyone who had played Major League Baseball to that point eligible for election, including some votes coming in for active players, it's no surprise that it was an absolutely star-studded group: Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, and Ty Cobb.

What was surprising, however, were the overall vote totals -- both for the five players who made it and some of the legends who did not.

For starters, it was Cobb -- not Ruth -- who received the highest vote total in the first election. The former received 222 of 226 votes (98.2%) while Ruth and Wagner each received 215 (95.1%). In other words, four voters left off Cobb, while 11 found a reason to leave the iconic Ruth off their ballots.

Even those tabulating the votes were shocked. Per The Associated Press report at the time, Ruth and Cobb were each unanimous selections on the first 100 ballots. Then, they finally came across a Ruth-less submission.

“The committee was amazed," The AP wrote. "Vote counting stopped momentarily for a discussion of how anyone could leave the great Ruth off the list of immortals. The same happened when Cobb missed his first vote.”

As it turns out, that would become the norm. After all, no player was unanimously elected to the Hall of Fame until 2019, when Mariano Rivera received all 425 possible votes.

As for the 1936 vote, Mathewson (205 votes) and Johnson (189) were the only other players to receive the necessary 170 votes, while all-time greats like Tris Speaker (133), Cy Young (111) and Rogers Hornsby (105), among others, fell short of the 75% threshold.

Lou Gehrig, who had just completed his 13th season and was about to embark on an MVP season later that year, received 51 votes. Jimmie Foxx, who didn't retire until after the 1945 season, appeared on 21 ballots. While some writers felt those players had already done enough to cement their place in Cooperstown, many other voters said they believed those greats would get their chance after retirement, and thus, did not vote for active players.

Of course, all five of those players -- Speaker, Young, Hornsby, Gehrig and Foxx -- eventually got in. In fact, 40 of the 47 players who received at least one vote in 1936 ended up being immortalized in Cooperstown at some point.

Even with so many all-timers not getting in on the initial vote, those who did get in still formed the greatest Hall of Fame class in history. While that's to be expected given the size of the player pool, the Class of 1936 accounted for 737 bWAR, easily the most by any class in Hall of Fame history.

The next-highest total is 565 WAR by the Class of 1939, which was comprised of Gehrig, "Old Hoss" Radbourn, Cap Anson, Buck Ewing, George Sisler, Eddie Collins and "Wee" Willie Keeler. Perhaps fittingly, those classes were inducted alongside one another -- along with the Classes of '37 and '38 -- after the Hall of Fame opened in '39.

From the historical significance to the on-field resumes, it's safe to say that the five players elected in 1936 will forever be in a class of their own.