The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was founded in 1939, based in Cooperstown, New York, west of Albany. The players who go into the Hall of Fame (HOF) are selected by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Players cannot be considered until they have been retired for five years. Players who get 75% or more of the cast votes go into the HOF. Others can be elected later by what is known as the Veteran’s Committee. The first in the HOF were Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner.
Some teams have been much more successful than others in producing HOF players. To determine the baseball team with the most members in the HOF, 24/7 Tempo reviewed data from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Inductees are associated with just one franchise, their primary team. Players, managers and executives were all considered. Inductees associated with teams that were renamed or relocated were also considered, but Hall of Famers from defunct franchises were not included. Additional data came from Baseball Reference.
While the team with the most players in the HOF will not come as a shock, you might be surprised at the number of Hall of Famers from other clubs who have been honored. Most of the teams we considered are at least 119 years old, and they have the most HOF players. Three relatively new franchises have not had a player inducted yet.
Some of these teams began their baseball lives in different cities with different names before moving in the 1950s and 1960s. As the St. Louis Browns and Washington Senators, those franchises were mostly also-rans until they moved and became the Baltimore Orioles and Minnesota Twins, respectively. Success soon followed. The Orioles have won three World Series, with Hall of Famers Frank and Brooks Robinson, and the Twins have won two, with HOF outfielder Kirby Puckett.
While some Hall of Famers played their entire career with one team, such as George Brett of the Kansas City Royals, five-time Cy Young-winning pitcher Randy Johnson toiled for six teams and chose to enter the HOF as a member of the Seattle Marlins.
The team with the most players in the HOF is the New York Yankees. Here are the details:
- Hall of Famers: 26
- Notable inductees: Yogi Berra, Derek Jeter
- Franchise active since: 1903
Click here to see all the teams with the most players in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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