A far more thriving institution resides in the tiny hamlet of Cooperstown, New York: baseball's ostensible birthplace. The Baseball Hall of Fame honors the game's greatest players, where its members are immortalized by bronze plaques. Like Mecca to the Muslims, a pilgrimage here once in a lifetime is essential for any baseball fan.

Baseball represents an essential part of the American character, making it worthy of historical attention. But our interest here is quite specific. Baseball is uniquely suited to quantitative analysis, a sport that has maintained a comprehensive statistical record spanning more than a century. The rules of play have remained relatively fixed over time, making it a meaningful question to ask whether Babe Ruth (1895–1948) [434] or Barry Bonds (1964–) [2217] was a better hitter, and Walter Johnson (1887–1946) [4303] or Randy Johnson (1963–) [6057] the better pitcher.

Statistical measures can be used to judge whether the best players have been recognized by the Baseball Hall of Fame. Objective measures of significance are rare outside of sports, so baseball's statistical record creates an excellent laboratory to study the forces of fame and canonization. Did the right players get selected for the Hall of Fame? Which deserving candidates have been forgotten? Who has been immortalized standing on feats of clay?

This statistical record makes baseball another test of our historical significance rankings. In principle, our Wikipedia-based significance rankings should reflect the statistical record left behind by each player's on-field performance.