The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum has been preserving history, honoring excellence and connecting generations of baseball fans since 1939. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, former baseball commissioner, and more than 14,000 baseball fans helped open the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown. Babe Ruth was one of the first nine players to be inducted spanning the first three classes from 1936-1939. The museum completed its sixth renovation in 1994 and houses more than 260 Hall of Fame plaques. Each year the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum sponsors a Hall of Fame Weekend, which features induction of new players and the return of some Hall of Famers. More than 350,000 people travel to the village each year to pay tribute to the country s national pastime.