Though the historical evidence was dubious at best, Baseball's Centennial Commission accepted the findings of the Mills Report of 1907 that Abner Doubleday was the founder of baseball in 1839 in Cooperstown, New York. In 1936 the Hall of Fame was founded in that quaint community, and the first inductees were selected by the Baseball Writers Association of America commission and a special veterans' committee. Players inducted in the 1930s were as follows:

1936

TyCobb

Honus Wagner

Babe Ruth

Christy Mathewson

Walter Johnson

1937:

Cy Young

Tris Speaker

Napoleon Lajoie

Morgan G. Bulkeley

Ban Johnson

Connie Mack

John McGraw

George Wright

1938:

Grover Cleveland

Alexander Cartwright

Henry Chadwick

1939 :

Cap Anson

Eddie Collins

Charles Comiskey

Candy Cummings

Buck Ewing

Lou Gehrig

Wee Willie Keeler

Charles Radbourn

George Sisler

Albert G. Spalding.