Since the first five men elected to the National Baseball
Hall of Fame in 1936 -- Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner,
Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson the National
Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown has
become one of the nation's most recognizable and popular
educational institutions.
Baseball
and America have grown up together, through immigration
and industrialization to integration and technology.
This special explores the richness of baseball as the
American pastime and, like the game itself, appeals
to people of different ages and across all cultural
heritages, fostering a new appreciation not only of
baseball, but of our national character. The program
also examines how the American landscape, our language,
literature, movies, and summertime living all bear the
mark of a 19th-century game that continues to be identified
with our nation's values and aspirations.
