CEREMONY TO BE BROADCAST

Hall Plans Indoor

Induction On 7/25,

TV Audience Only

Cooperstown Classic Events Cancelled

COOPERSTOWN – The Hall of Fame announced a few minutes ago that it still hopes to hold the annual Induction on July 25, but not the unticketed event in the Clark Sports Center fields that can attract tens of thousands of fans.

“We have prepared alternative plans to conduct our annual Awards Presentation and Induction Ceremony as television events taking place indoors and adhering to all of the required New York State guidelines,” Jane Forbes Clark, Hall chairman, announced a few minutes ago.

Miss Clark also announced the Cooperstown Classic events planned for Memorial Day Weekend have been cancelled, including the Legends Game, for a second year in a row.

The Hall of Fame’s 2021 Induction Ceremony will honor the members of the Class of 2020: Derek Jeter, Marvin Miller, Ted Simmons and Larry Walker.

Also honored during the Awards Presentation will be 2021 Ford C. Frick Award winner for broadcasting excellence, Al Michaels, and the 2020 Frick Award winner, Ken Harrelson; the 2021 Baseball Writers’ Association of America Career Excellence Award winner, Dick Kaegel, and the 2020 BBWAA Career Excellence Award winner, Nick Cafardo; and the 2020 Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award winner, David Montgomery.

For decades, the Induction Ceremony has been held as an unticketed event, free and open to all fans. Since 1992, the Induction Ceremony has been held at the Clark gym’s fields, with attendance “approaching and surpassing” 50,000 at five of the last six ceremonies from 2014-19, the Hall said.

The second-largest crowd on record – an estimated 55,000 people – attended the Hall of Fame’s last Induction Ceremony, which took place on July 21, 2019. Last year’s cancelation marked the first time the Hall of Fame did not hold an Induction Ceremony in Cooperstown since 1960.