Mr. [John] Heydler, ladies and gentlemen:

It gives me a great deal of pleasure to be present at the dedication of the National Baseball Museum and the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Since,  for a hundred years, this game has lived and thrived, and spread all over our country, and a large part of the world.

It is fitting that it should have a museum, a national museum.

And nowhere else than at its birthplace could this museum be appropriately situated.

To the 13 pioneers who were the moving spirits of the game in its infancy, and to the 12 players who've been nominated to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association: we pay just tribute, just tribute.

But I should like -- and I think that all these immortals of baseball would agree with me -- I should like to dedicate this museum to all America: to lovers of good sportsmanship, healthy body, team mind.

For those are the principles of baseball.

So, it is to them, rather than to the few who have been honored here, that I propose to dedicate this shrine of sportsmanship.