Competition for a spot in baseball's Hall of Fame reaches fever pitch

Possession of a plaque establishes a player in the pantheon of the game’s greats, but getting into the hall is no easy matter and the decision process is shrouded in controversey, writes James Moore

Fans look at the plaques of players inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in New York (Getty)

Halls of fame can be found all over America. Each of the major sports has one. Many individual states have them to honour their local sporting heroes. There’s even one for the media that covers them.

There’s a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a Country Music Hall of Fame, a Blues Hall of Fame. There’s one for toys. Believe it or not, there’s one for insurance. There’s probably one for vacuum cleaner salespeople in some sleepy mid western town.

You’d be hard pushed, however, to find one that’s harder to get into, or more passionately debated, than the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.