Since the first five men elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936 — Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown has become one of the nation’s most recognizable and popular educational institutions. Baseball and America have grown up together, through immigration and industrialization to integration and technology. This special explores the richness of baseball as the American pastime and, like the game itself, appeals to people of different ages and across all cultural heritages, fostering a new appreciation not only of baseball, but of our national character. The program also examines how the American landscape, our language, literature, movies, and summertime living all bear the mark of a 19th-century game that continues to be identified with our nation’s values and aspirations.