Bloom: First Hall of Fame class had a notable omission
From SABR member Barry M. Bloom at MLB.com on June 10, 2014, with SABR member John Thorn:
Fans have often wondered why Cy Young, the pitcher with the most wins in history, wasn’t inducted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame with the inaugural Class of 1936.
Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner and Walter Johnson were the first inductees and are front and center in the plaque gallery of the red-brick museum on Main Street. On Thursday, many in the baseball world will gather for the 75th birthday of its opening and the day the first four Classes of 1936-39 were inducted.
There’s a good reason why Johnson,who ranks second on the all-time list with 417 wins, got in, and Young at 511 wins, didn’t.
“The 1936 vote was something of a fiasco,” said Major League Baseball’s official historian John Thorn. “The instructions weren’t clear and the criteria for interpreting the vote weren’t clear.”
Read the full article here: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/barry-m-bloom-why-cy-young-was-not-a-part-of-inaugural-1936-hof-class?ymd=20140610&content_id=79110866&vkey=news_mlb
Originally published: June 10, 2014. Last Updated: June 10, 2014.