COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Baseball’s Hall of Fame has canceled its traditional outdoor induction ceremony for the second straight summer because of the pandemic and plans an indoor, televised event for those being honored, including St. Louis Cardinals greats Ted Simmons and Larry Walker.
Derek Jeter, Simmons, Walker and late players’ association executive director Marvin Miller were to have been inducted last summer, but the pandemic caused the ceremony to be called off for the first time since 1960.
A crowd of about 55,000 attended the 2019 ceremony for the inductions of Mariano Rivera, Edgar Martinez, Roy Halladay, Mike Mussina, Lee Smith and Harold Baines.
This year’s ceremony remains scheduled for July 25 but will look different. No new inductees were chosen for this year’s class.
Hall of Fame chair Jane Forbes Clark cited the “continuing uncertainties” of COVID-19 in making the change. She said the new format will adhere to “required New York State guidelines.”
This year’s awards presentation includes late Boston Globe writer Dick Cafardo, winner of the 2020 Baseball Writers’ Association of America Career Excellence Award; Dick Kaegel, the 2021 BBWAA winner after a career covering the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals and editing The Sporting News; Ken Harrelson, the 2020 winner of the 2020 Frick Award for broadcasting excellence; Al Michaels, the 2021 Frick winner; and late Philadelphia Phillies chairman David Montgomery, winner of the 2020 Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award.
