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Mr. Commissioner, will you officially open the baseball museum?

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Ladies and gentlemen, I now declare the National Baseball Museum

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and the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperston, New York,

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the birthplace of baseball, open.

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May it forever stand as a symbol of clean play and good sportsmanship.

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Ladies and gentlemen, the place of privilege of being the first

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to walk out of the Hall of Museum of Baseball is Connie Mack,

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and now he's in front of the microphone.

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I feel greatly honored in being here today

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where our first national game was started by Abner Doubleday.

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And now the twelve players in the Baseball Hall of Fame,

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elected by the Baseball Writers Association,

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Wee Willie Keeler, he hit him where he ate,

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Christy Mathewson, baseball's big six, master of the fadeaway

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and famous pitcher for the Giants,

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Honus Wagner, the flying Dutchman,

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the greatest shortstop in the game's history.

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Ladies and gentlemen, I was born in 1874.

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This organization started in 1876.

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And when I was just a kid, I said, I hope someday I'll be up there playing in this league.

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And by chance I did.

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Connie Mack, the gentleman that preceded me here at the mic,

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I remember walking 14 miles just to see him play ball for Pittsburgh.

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However, I want to thank you for being able to come here today.

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The next memorial to come before the mic is Tris Speaker,

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greatest defensive player of all time and a great hitter.

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Thank you, Shelley, and I'm very happy indeed to have been chosen by the sports writers

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as a member of this great hall of fame. Thank you.

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Nap Lajoie, baseball's greatest second baseman and a model of grace.

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Ladies and gentlemen, I'm very glad to be here today and to meet all the old timers.

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The next is Cy Young, and we must go into superlatives on Cy Young,

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for he is the only pitcher who has ever won 500 baseball games.

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Nothing pleases me better than to be about and see and know

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that the young generation today is following our footsteps.

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This is about the proudest day of my life.

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Why, I'd be glad to be the bat boy for such a team as this.

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Thank you very much.

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In my dreams I often think what I could do today with a team like they were,

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if they could be now what they were then.

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I would have no mistakes to be worrying about,

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or when they hit those line drives off me I would have no trouble wondering who was going to get them.

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I hope someday that some of the young fellows that are coming into the game

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will know how it feels to be picked on the hall of fame.

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I know the old boys back in there, we were just talking it over.

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Some had been here long before my time.

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They got on it and I worked hard and I got on it.

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And I hope that the coming generation of the young boys today,

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that they'll work hard and also be on it.

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As my old friend Cy Young says, I hope it goes another hundred years

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and the next hundred years will be the greatest.

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You know, it seems like an anniversary for me too and I'm surely glad

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it's a pleasure for me to come up here and be picked also on the hall of fame.