Which were the greatest Hall of Fame classes of all time?
Membership in the 2025 class will be finalized next week on Jan. 21 when results of the media vote are announced. We already know that the 2025 class will have at least two members since one of the Eras committees in December elected Dave Parker and Dick Allen.
Based on publicly announced voting to date, Ichiro Suzuki appears to be a lock for election, and C.C. Sabathia is a strong candidate. Billy Wagner and Carlos Beltran are also above the required 75% threshold currently, while Andruw Jones sits just beneath it.
What follows is a look at the best Hall of Fame classes for each 10-year period since the Hall’s inception in 1936. The choices are made on a two-pronged track. The first is objective greatness: How many were elected and how great were they? The second prong is more subjective: call it a personal favorite. For that prong, we'll look at cultural as well as performance considerations.
1936-1945
From a standpoint of greatness, it’s impossible to look beyond the inaugural class of 1936. Those were the five inductees who represented the game’s best from its inception to that point. Their names are legend: Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson.
At the time, Cobb was the career hits leader, Ruth the career home run leader, Johnson the career strikeout leader, and Wagner the consensus best fielder. As for Mathewson? He combined a 373 win total with a role-model reputation.
"Conceded to be the fastest ball pitcher in the history of the game."Walter Johnson's Hall of Fame plaque
There was no such statistic as WAR in that era, but applying it today does nothing to undermine the status of that inaugural class. The five averaged 139.86 WAR between them, still easily the highest average for any Hall class consisting of more than one member.
For the first decade, that 1936 class did have some competition. That was especially so of the 1937 group, when voters rectified their 1936 oversight and elected 511-game winner Cy Young as part of a class of eight. That same class featured Tris Speaker, Nap Lajoie, Johnn McGraw and Connie Mack.
1936-45 personal favorite: It’s impossible to look past the inaugural 1936 class.