Perhaps No Inductees
Will Make It Into Hall
Still, There’s Class Of 2020, Katz Says
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – It’s a novelty to have the Baseball Hall of Fame announce its Class of 2021 in the Hall of Plaques, as it plans to do at 6 p.m. today – but there may be no one to announce, according to Jeff Katz, former mayor, baseball writer and Friends of Doubleday Field president.
He noted that, generally, support for prospective Hall of Famers tend to dip over time. For instance, Kurt Schilling, the front-runner for this year’s class, has had 74 percent support from the Baseball Writers Association of America, one point less than needed to enter the Hall.
Katz predicted that, when balloting comes in later today, Schilling will shake down at about 68.
“If there’s not going to be a 2021, we still have the 2020 hanging over,” he said: Derek Jeter and Larry Walker. “It won’t be like 2013, with no living inductees.”
Katz said he was reading an article this past week, where Hall of Fame President Tim Mead said there will be “some kind of Induction ceremony,” depending of the state of the COVID-19 pandemic by mid-summer.