1936

The Hall-of-Fame started out right with the first class in 1936.  The four best players in history were selected and it's hard to argue against the fifth.  Those five, from best to worst:
Babe Ruth
Walter Johnson
Ty Cobb
Honus Wagner
Christy Mathewson



Before Johnson washed out in his final season he had an ERA+ of 150 in over 5800 innings.  The only other starter to exceed 150 has been Pedro Martinez who had an ERA+ of 153 in fewer than half as many innings (2827).  Third place is Lefty Grove with an ERA+ of 147 in two-thirds as many innings (3940) -- and their careers even overlapped.

It is reasonable to think both the best hitter and pitcher finished their careers in the 1930s and their talents haven't been exceeded in the past 80 years.  It's also reasonable to think that in all the years since their careers ended, maybe someone did come along who was better

Ruth hit more home runs than any other team.  He was the best hitter in the league and an awesome pitcher.  It is simply not possible for any athlete to ever do that again.  Anyone holding a modern day athlete to that standard -- that the only possible way to surpass Ruth is to hit 200 home runs per year, along with earning votes for the Cy Young Award -- is an idiot

It's close between Cobb and Wagner for best deadball player.  Wagner was by far the better fielder and if they gave out MVP awards, he may very well have won every year for over a decade.  In the AL Cobb was competing with Ruth and Tris Speaker so may have had half as many.  Cobb was a dick, like such a dick it actually hurt the team, which is extremely rare in professional sports.  But being a lesser fielder and bigger asshole cannot offset the 87-points difference in ops

Mathewson may not have been the very best possible choice for the fist class.  Most agree Pete Alexander was better.  Cy Young may have been better.  Speaker was better.  Yet it's still cool to see Mathewson among the first five.  For as much personal disdain as there was for Cobb, there was an equal amount of reverence for Mathewson.  In the World Series he started 11 games, pitched 11 complete games and gave up 11 earned runs