CHICAGO -- Five great stars, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson and Honus Wagner, will represent the 20th century in baseball's Hall of Fame.
They were the only players who received sufficient votes to be memorialized in the museum planned at Cooperstown, N.Y., birthplace of the national pastime.
Ten players who have starred since 1900 would have been accepted had that many received 75 per cent of the total vote. There were 226 votes cast making it necessary for each player to get 169 to win.
Cobb Far Ahead
Members of the baseball writers' Association of America did the voting and their most popular choice was Cobb. He received 222 Ruth and Wagner were next with 215 each. Mathewson received 205 and Johnson 189.
Except for the leaders and a few others the vote was widely split Napoleon Lajoie the graceful hard hitting second baseman who spent 21 years in the majors was kept out of the hall of fame because there have been so many other stars at that position. He was forced to divide the vote with Rogers Hornsby, Eddie Collins, Johnny Evers, and Frankie Frisch. Lajoie received 146 votes, Hornsby, 105; Collins, 60; Frisch, 14, and Evers 8.
Speaker Misses List
Tris Speaker, for 22 years a brilliant fielder and heavy hitter was another who missed out by a small margin. He received 133 votes, Willie Keeler, the former Brooklyn and New York outfielder was next to Speaker with 40 votes Keeler however will be nominated from the stars who played before 1900.
Few of the present day heroes received consideration.
Lefty Grove, the great Boston southpaw received only 12 votes and Al Simmons of Detroit got but 4 Jerome (Dizzy) Dean drew one. Nobody voted for Carl Hubbell or Lon Warneke and only nine chose Bill Terry. "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, who received two votes was the only member of the "Black" Sox given consideration.
Gordon (Mickey) Cochrane, manager of the world champion Detroit Tigers, proved the most popular catcher, getting 80 votes. Roger Bresnahan, the old Baltimore and New York Giant backstop was next with 47.
Honor George Sisler
The best first baseman since 1900, in the opinion of the sports writers was George Sisler former St Louis Browns star. He received 77 votes 26 more than Lou Gehrig and 56 more than Jimmy Foxx.
Jimmy Collins, who played with both Boston clubs and who unquestionably as the greatest third baseman in the history of the American league was accorded 58 votes Harold (Pie) Traynor, of Pittsburgh received 16.
All those selected for the hall of fame except Mathewson played 20 years or more in the majors. But "Matty" probably was the most popular figure the game has ever known. He was a brilliant pitcher and led the National league in 1909 and 1910.
Many Receive Votes
Cobb spent 24 years in the big time 22 of them with Detroit. His lifetife major league batting average was 367 Wagner the best or all shortstops, was with Pittsburgh 20 years averaging 330 at the plate Johnson was with Washington 21 years, winning 414 games and losing 276. Ruth needs no introduction.
