The Baseball Hall of Fame announced on Wednesday that it is canceling the 2020 induction ceremony due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The 2020 baseball season took another big hit on Wednesday, as the Baseball Hall of Fame announced that it has canceled the 2020 induction ceremony due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The event, which was expected to draw around 70,000 people, had been scheduled for July 26.
Instead, Derek Jeter, Larry Walker, Ted Simmons and Marvin Miller will be inducted on July 25, 2021. A lot of fans were looking forward to it, especially the Jeter induction, as he’s one of the biggest New York Yankees stars of all time. For Walker, the long wait will last another year, as he got in on his 10th and final try with the BBWAA, while Simmons has had to wait since he last played in 1988.
However, given the current conditions of not knowing when it will be fully safe for large crowds to gather again, this appears to have been a necessary decision. Jeter, Walker and Simmons were all quoted in the above article from the Hall of Fame as supporting the decision.
Though next year’s ceremony will feature both the Classes of 2020 and 2021, this year’s inductees figure to still have a large portion of the spotlight, as there are no likely first-time candidates who will get in next year.
However, it could be an interesting ceremony nonetheless. Curt Schilling is by far the closest holdover to getting in, as he got 70 percent of the vote in 2020 (with 75 percent necessary for induction). We could see the Boston Red Sox star, Schilling, on the same stage as Jeter, the Yankees star, from the days of the two teams’ heated rivalry of the early 2000s.
In any case, the 2021 induction ceremony figures to be a special one, so let’s hope that it will take place at a time when we’ll all be able to enjoy it. Until then, we can still recognize Jeter, Walker, Simmons and Miller as true Hall-of-Famers.