Derek Jeter’s call to Cooperstown will be delayed a year.
The Baseball Hall of Fame announced Wednesday that it’s canceling the 2020 induction ceremony due to COVID-19 concerns, and rescheduling those inductions for the weekend of July 23-26, 2021.
Jeter, who spent his entire 20-year career with the New York Yankees, was voted into the Hall along with Larry Walker, Ted Simmons and longtime players’ union executive director Marvin Miller.
“Being inducted into the Hall of Fame will be an incredible honor, but the health and safety of everyone involved are paramount,” Jeter said in a statement released by the Hall of Fame.
The Hall’s Class of 2020 will be inducted next year alongside the Class of 2021, with the inductees determined in voting by Baseball Writers Association of America members.
“It is most important to do the right thing for everybody involved, and that means not putting any participants in jeopardy, whether Hall of Famers or visitors,” said Walker, who spent 17 years in Major League Baseball with the Montreal Expos, Colorado Rockies, and St. Louis Cardinals. “I realize how serious this situation has become and how many lives have been lost.”