The evolution of the Baseball Hall of Fame, as seen in one fantastic GIF
The National Baseball Hall of Fame is set to induct its next class of members Sunday, as Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio are enshrined in Cooperstown. That brings the count of Hall of Famers to 310 players, managers, executives and umpires.
[Related: Who’s your favorite 2015 MLB Hall of Famer?]
Going to Cooperstown and taking in every plaque and artifact is still your best Hall of Fame experience, but if you can’t do that, we have something pretty cool that you might enjoy. This image below — created by Yahoo Sports’ GIF master Eric Orvieto using images from BaseballHall.org — shows the evolution of Hall of Famers, from the first class in 1936 to this year’s honorees. It’s longer than your normal sports GIF, but worth your time:
On a related note, here are a few interesting Hall of Fame factoids to along with the GIF:
• Here’s the breakdown of the 310 members: 215 former players, 28 executives, 35 Negro leaguers, 22 managers and 10 umpires.
• The largest Hall of Fame class came in 2006, when 18 people were enshrined. The number was so high because pioneers from the Negro League were honored that year. The next biggest years were 1939 and 1946, when 11 Hall of Famers were added.
• The highest vote-getters over time have been Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan (both with 98.8 percent) while the lowest belong to Ralph Kiner, Fergie Jenkins and Al Simmons (all at 75.4 percent).
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
