Babe Ruth was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. He was part of the Hall's inaugural class, joining Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson as one of its first five inductees.
Ruth received 95.1 percent of the vote in the first Hall of Fame election. His selection recognized both halves of his extraordinary career: he was an accomplished left-handed pitcher with the Boston Red Sox before becoming baseball's most influential power hitter with the New York Yankees.
Ruth had retired from playing after the 1935 season, so his election came only a year later. The formal opening of the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown took place in 1939, which explains why some people confuse the election date with the induction ceremony date.
His election also reflected how dramatically he had changed baseball. Ruth's home-run hitting helped usher in the sport's live-ball era, drawing larger crowds and making the home run central to the game's identity. He finished his career with 714 home runs, a record that stood for decades.