In the years leading up to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's  opening in Cooperstown in 1939, a monumental task lay ahead: electing the game’s all-time greats into baseball immortality.

The decision to open the Hall of Fame in 1939 was timely as it marked “Baseball’s Centennial,” 100 years since 1839, when Abner Doubleday may or may not have created the game in Cooperstown. The Doubleday  story has been widely debunked, though newspapers at the time embraced the idea that 1939 indeed was 100 years since Doubleday invented baseball.

The very first class for the Hall of Fame was announced in 1936, when Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson received the necessary 75% of the vote from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, which was responsible for electing players from the 20th century.

A committee also was created to select 19th-century individuals, though none was elected in 1936.

But the first group of five — along with the 1937, 1938 and 1939 classes that followed — wouldn’t be inducted until June 12, 1939, the day the Hall of Fame and Museum officially opened.

As the results of the election of the first class were released on Feb. 2, 1936, one word stood out across the different stories and headlines: immortal. And tabbed by The Associated Press as “the No. 1 immortal” in the new permanent Hall of Fame? None other than Cobb, the “fiery genius of the diamond for 24 triumphant years.”

There were 226  ballots cast, and Cobb received 98.2% of the vote, more than Ruth and Wagner (each 95.1%), Mathewson (90.7%) and Johnson (83.6%). Thus, the first Hall of Fame class was born.

“I deeply appreciate the honor,” said Cobb, according to the Feb. 3, 1936 edition of the Saginaw Daily News. “I am overwhelmed. I am glad they [the players and writers who elected him] feel that way about me. I want to thank them all.”

Anyone see Cobb?

That sentiment seemingly changed nearly 3 1/2 years later when induction day came around.

An iconic picture emerged from that day, featuring 10 of the 11 living Hall of Famers who made it to Cooperstown on time: Ruth, Wagner, Johnson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Tris Speaker, Napoleon Lajoie, George Sisler, Eddie Collins, Connie Mack and Cy Young.

Cobb missed the photo.

The Tigers legend was “delayed en route by illness and didn’t arrive until after the ceremonies,” according to The Associated Press. Cobb was 53 in 1939. By comparison, Ruth was 44, Johnson 52 and Wagner 65. Mathewson had died in 1925 at age 45.

But what really happened to Cobb that day?

“He was a very combative guy, and he initially didn't want to go to Cooperstown,” said Jim Reisler, the author of the book “A Great Day in Cooperstown: The Improbable Birth of Baseball's Hall of Fame,” published in 2009.

“He was late on purpose. He eventually got there and he was embraced by everybody, and he regretted the fact that he didn't get there on time. It's a great story.”

In the lead-up to June 12, motorists approaching Cooperstown found routes lined with markers in the shape of giant baseballs and arrows directing them to the “Cooperstown Baseball Centennial,” according to The New York Times. The post office was “flooded” for weeks with stamp collectors, and hotel rooms near Cooperstown’s Doubleday Field and in surrounding towns were being booked.

On induction day, Reisler said the Hall of Famers took a special train right into Cooperstown with a bunch of sportswriters. More than 11,000 people poured into Cooperstown to take part in the festivities, according to AP.  

Another AP report said that when Cobb arrived late, he “walked unrecognized.” However, when Ruth arrived, he was signing “everything autograph hunters could find,” and without him, the 100th anniversary celebration “would have lost some of its glamour.”

At the ceremony, the Hall of Famers in attendance received engraved bats and the deceased members were recognized with a “ruffle of drums and the sounding of Taps,” according to AP. The ceremony was broadcast live nationwide, and the bronze plaques baseball fans now have become so familiar with already were in the museum.

The New York Times reported that each of the 10 living members (minus Cobb, “who reached Cooperstown too late for the dedication ceremonies”) spoke briefly. The “venerable” Mack was “mist-eyed as he talked.”  Collins quipped that he’d “feel glad to be the bat boy for a team like this.”

Parading around Cooperstown

A parade to Doubleday Field followed the ceremony, and a three-act “Cavalcade” of the evolution of baseball took place, according to multiple accounts.

The first one involved boys from Cooperstown High School giving a demonstration of “town ball,” a precursor to modern baseball.

The second involved soldiers from Fort Jay on Governors Island dressed as teams of the 1850s, playing under the “rules devised by Doubleday,” according to The New York Times. Those included “soaking” the runner, hitting him with a thrown ball as he rounds the bases, as opposed to typical putouts.

The third act was an all-star game of sorts, with players from each of the 16 MLB teams participating on teams chosen by Wagner and Collins. Wagner’s team, for which Ruth served as a pinch hitter, defeated Collins’ team, 4-2, in seven innings.

While the 1939 induction day was a momentous one, Reisler noted that “the only regret is that Christy Mathewson wasn't there. He was arguably one of the greatest pitchers of all time, and he had died back in 1925. There was a lot of thought that day, as I recall, regret that he wasn't there.”

Accidentally exposed to poisonous gas in 1918 during a military training exercise in France in World War I, Mathewson died of tuberculous pneumonia. He won 373 games and had a 2.13 ERA in 17 seasons.

Thirteen others posthumously were inducted into the Hall, too, and Lou Gehrig technically became a member of the 1939 class that December via a BBWAA special election after his ALS diagnosis that June.

So what’s changed with the Hall of Fame process since 1936?

These days, players must be retired for five years before they can appear on the BBWAA ballot. They have 10 years of eligibility once on the ballot and need 5% to stay on it each ensuing year and 75% to be voted in.

The voting process has become more political in certain situations, Reisler said, but he praised the Hall of Fame’s use of special committees to give players who may have fallen off the BBWAA ballot another fair shot. That’s been seen as recently as this year’s cycle, with Jeff Kent getting inducted Sunday after being elected last December by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee.

“What’s changed? I think at its heart it's still the same,” Reisler said. “The idea is it's a place to remember the greats of the game.”

By Ben Dickson

benjamin.dickson@newsday.com@bendickson__

Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.