Baseball Hall of Fame Inductions (1936-1938) Quiz

Answer: Ty Cobb

While he wasn't the flashiest name on the inaugural Hall of Fame ballot, it was Ty Cobb who edged everyone out as the top vote-getter. Cobb received 222 out of a possible 226 votes, meaning four voters somehow looked at 4,000+ hits and a .366 lifetime batting average and said, "Yeah, pass."

Cobb's reputation was a strange cocktail of brilliance and belligerence. He played with intensity that often crossed the line to outright hostility, and stories of his spikes-first slides and violent temper endure. But between the foul moods and cleats flailing wildly, he was undeniably one of the most gifted hitters to play the game.

The Hall of Fame itself was still under construction when the first inductees were announced in 1936, with the official opening not coming until 1939. But Cobb was first through the proverbial doors.

Answer: Walter Johnson

"On August 2, 1907, I encountered the most threatening sight I ever saw in the ball field. He was a rookie, and we licked our lips as we warmed up for the first game of a doubleheader in Washington... The first time I faced him, I watched him take that easy windup. And then something went past me that made me flinch. The thing just hissed with danger. We couldn't touch him... Every one of us knew we'd met the most powerful arm ever turned loose in a ball park." --Ty Cobb

Walter Johnson wasn't just a great pitcher; he was a force of nature. Known as "The Big Train", Johnson pitched from 1907 to 1927, nearly all of it in dead-ball conditions where runs were scarce and strikeouts rarer still. Yet Johnson struck out over 3,500 batters (more than double most of his contemporaries) and his 110 shutouts is a record that stood the test of time. (Can you even imagine that today?)

He was a gentle giant off the mound, known for his humility and sportsmanship. On the field, however, batters had the unenviable job of trying to hit a fastball described as "invisible" by some. (The early 20th century was short on radar guns but long on mythmaking.)

When the inaugural Hall of Fame class was announced in 1936, Johnson was a no-brainer. His career ERA of 2.17 and mountain of shutouts still stand as a testament to his dominance in an era of tiny gloves, massive ballparks, and no relief pitching in sight.

Answer: Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth was an amazing baseball player and arguably the first modern sports celebrity. He began his career in 1914 as a dominant left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, where he helped them win three World Series titles. But once his bat was loosed as a full-time outfielder, the dead-ball era came to a screeching halt. (In fairness, there were some rule changes as well that may have contributed.)

With 714 home runs, a career .342 batting average, and a record slugging percentage (.690) that endured into the 21st century, Ruth redefined what it meant to be a hitter. His big personality and appetite for... well, everything, made him a fan favorite and a tabloid regular. Despite all the off-field antics, it was his on-field dominance that made him a charter member of the Hall of Fame in 1936.

Answer: Honus Wagner

Johannes Peter "Honus" Wagner didn't look like your average star. Stocky, barrel-chested, and bow-legged, he seemed more suited to hauling coal than stealing bases. But don't let his build fool you, Wagner was a machine on the diamond. He won eight National League batting titles, stole 722 bases, and played a slick shortstop.

Wagner spent the bulk of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, leading them to a World Series title in 1909. That same year, at age 35, he batted .339 and stole 39 bases. He retired with more hits, runs, games, and extra-base hits than anyone in baseball history up to that point. It wouldn't be until Ty Cobb, ten years his junior, that many of those records would be surpassed.

Answer: Christy Mathewson

Christy Mathewson was the rare turn-of-the-century pitcher who could dominate hitters and schmooze the press with equal ease. Also known as "The Christian Gentleman", he was college-educated, clean-cut, and considered a role model in an era when ballplayers were often seen as rowdy trouble-makers more befitting a bar brawl than polite society.

Mathewson won 373 games and struck out over 2,500 batters, primarily with his signature "fadeaway," a pitch similar to what we now call a screwball. His most famous performance came in the 1905 World Series, where he pitched three complete-game shutouts in six days.

Tragically, Mathewson's life was cut short. He was exposed to chemical weapons during World War I training exercises (although this is disputed) and developed tuberculosis, dying in 1925 at just 45. When the Hall of Fame inducted its first class in 1936, Mathewson was posthumously honored alongside Cobb, Ruth, Wagner, and Johnson.

Answer: Napoleon Lajoie

Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie was one of the most feared hitters of the early 20th century, combining bat control with a determination that made pitchers dread his spot in the lineup. Born to French-Canadian parents in Rhode Island, Lajoie earned the nickname "The Frenchman", although I'm sure pitchers had other names for him.

In 1901, Lajoie hit .426 for the Philadelphia Athletics, a single-season average that remains one of the highest in American League history. He later jumped leagues (and caused quite the legal fuss) to join the Cleveland Bronchos, who renamed the team the "Naps" in his honor.

Lajoie finished his career with 3,252 hits, a .338 batting average, and five batting titles. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1937, the second year of voting, securing his title as one of the all-time greats at second base.

Answer: Tris Speaker

In the outfield, Tris Speaker combined the instincts of a shortstop with the range of a sniper rifle. Known as "The Gray Eagle", partly for his prematurely graying hair and partly for his eagle-eyed defense in center field, Speaker remains one of the greatest defensive outfielders in baseball history. He played a shockingly shallow center field, so shallow, in fact, that he could turn double plays at second base.

At the plate, Speaker was no slouch either. He collected 3,514 hits, batted .345 for his career, and set a record for the all-time leader in doubles with a mind-boggling 792. That's not a typo. In an era of bunts and bloopers, Speaker found the gaps like it was his day job. Come to think of it, I believe it was his day job. (Pete Rose came close to beating that record, but still needed another 50 when his career ended.)

Answer: Cy Young

Denton True Young earned the nickname "Cy", short for "Cyclone", because early in his career he threw so hard that a catcher's fence was reportedly torn apart like it had been hit by one. The name stuck, and so did his reputation as a workhorse. He won 511 games over 22 seasons, a record that is treated with the same reverence as a unicorn sighting.

Young pitched in over 900 games, completed 749 of them (yes, really), and compiled a 2.63 ERA in an era when gloves were little more than children's mittens. He threw the first pitch in World Series history in 1903, won the pitching Triple Crown in 1901, and once went 25 straight innings without allowing a base runner. It's no surprise that every year the best pitcher in each league gets an award named after him.

Answer: Grover Cleveland Alexander

Grover Cleveland Alexander was as steady and serious as his namesake, at least when he was on the mound. "Old Pete" (a name based on old western film characters) won 373 games over his career, tying Christy Mathewson on the all-time list. His 28 wins in 1911 was also a record by a rookie in the modern era.

Alexander led the National League in ERA five times, in wins six times, and in shutouts seven times. But perhaps his most legendary moment came in the 1926 World Series. Pitching for the Cardinals, he came in as a reliever with the bases loaded in Game 7 and struck out Yankees slugger Tony Lazzeri. Depending on the source, he may or may not have been seriously hungover at the time.

Behind his calm demeanor on the mound was a life often marked by difficulties. He served in World War I and suffered from shell shock (PTSD), which, combined with bouts of epilepsy and alcoholism, shadowed his later years.

Answer: Alexander Cartwright

Alexander Cartwright was a bookseller, amateur ballplayer, and founding member of the New York Knickerbockers, a mid-19th-century social club that played what we would now recognize as early baseball. Cartwright helped codify rules in 1845 that included nine-man teams, a diamond-shaped infield, and no more getting runners out by throwing the ball at them. I'm not advocating a FULL-time reinstatement of that rule, but I don't think I'm alone in kind of maybe wanting to see just one game....

Cartwright also helped organize one of the first recorded games between two clubs: the Knickerbockers and the New York Nine in 1846. While the Nine trounced the Knickerbockers, 23-1, Cartwright still got a participation ribbon in the form of historical recognition.

That said, modern scholars have taken a closer look at Cartwright's legacy and found it a little fuzzier than the Hall of Fame plaque might suggest. Some of the rules attributed to him were likely the result of broader group consensus, and others evolved well after his departure from the scene. But in a world where Abner Doubleday was once falsely credited with inventing baseball outright, Cartwright's contributions still earn him a at least some credit about the game's origins.