Thursday, April 2, 2015
We received this story from Fred in response to our April Fool’s Day 365 posting:
My wife was taking her two sons to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. because they loved baseball. As they were packing for the trip in April, Kit’s brother, Mike, stopped by. They boys told him how excited they were.
He responded, “Didn’t you know about the fire in the Baseball Hall of Fame? It’s been on the news all morning. The museum lost a lot of the valuable artifacts”.After much questioning, no one could dispute the story. (This was before 24-7 news coverage and Google.) The boys were beside themselves and calmed down only after a lot of tears were shed. As Mike was leaving several hours later, his parting words were, “April fool.”
This anecdote got us thinking about the origins of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The idea of a baseball museum was conceived in 1935 as a way of increasing local post-depression tourism. The museum was opened in January 1936 with the induction of five charter members: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson (posthumously), and Walt Johnson. The athletes were selected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). Today the BBWAA and the Baseball Hall of Fame Committee on Baseball Veterans select the honorees. The following Detroit Tigers have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame:
| Player | Years | Manager | Years |
| Earl Averill | 1939-1940 | Sparky Anderson | 1979-1995 |
| Jim Bunning | 1955-1963 | Ed Barrow** | 1903-1904 |
| Ty Cobb | 1905-1926 | Ty Cobb** | 1921-1926 |
| Mickey Cochrane | 1934-1937 | Mickey Cochrane** | 1934-1938 |
| Sam Crawford | 1903-1917 | Bucky Harris | 1929-1933, 1955-1956 |
| Larry Doby | 1959 | Hughie Jennings | 1912-1920 |
| Charlie Gehringer | 1924-1942 | ||
| Goose Goslin | 1934-1937 | ** Elected to Hall of Fame as player | |
| Hank Greenberg | 1930, 1933-1941, 1945-1946 | ||
| Bucky Harris* | 1929, 1931 | ||
| Harry Heilmann | 1914, 1916-1930 | ||
| Waite Hoyt | 1930-1931 | ||
| Hughie Jennings* | 1907, 1909, 1912, 1918 | ||
| Al Kaline | 1953-1974 | ||
| George Kell | 1946-1952 | ||
| Heinie Manush | 1923-1927 | ||
| Eddie Mathews | 1967-1968 | ||
| Hal Newhouser | 1939-1953 | ||
| Al Simmons | 1936 | ||
| Sam Thompson | 1906 | ||
| Bold indicates played more games with Detroit than any other team * Elected to Hall of Fame as manager |
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https://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/det/history/hall_of_famers.jsp
Photo: Ty Cobb, First player inducted to the Hall of Fame was a Detroit Tiger
To commemorate the City of Troy’s 60th Anniversary in 2015, we will publish a different story each day that highlights a person, discovery, or event that occurred locally, regionally, nationally, or even globally between 1955 and 2015 and that helped shape our lives and our community. We will try to post stories on important anniversary dates, but we also realize that dates are less critical than content and context. We will include the facts related to controversial stories, allowing our readers to form their own opinions. We invite you to read and comment on the stories. Your suggestions for topics are also welcome and can be posted on our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/TroyHistoricVillage. You can also email stories or ideas to the 365 Story Editor at ed@thvmail.org.
