In typical American fashion, Halls of Fame have lost their glory in their translation across the Atlantic from the original shrines established in Europe. Seemingly every high school has one for its graduates, and every profession seems to have its own miniature pantheon. There are Halls of Fame for pornography, social workers in California, and business leaders in Queensland. Yet while the concept has become commonplace, there is still one Hall of Fame in the United States that is endowed with a particular sanctity. Nearly a century after the first class of players was enshrined in Cooperstown, in upstate New York (purportedly where a Civil War general invented the modern game in 1839), the Baseball Hall of Fame still attracts a level of discord that is unparalleled.