WORTH THE WAIT
Good things come to those who wait … and wait … and then wait a little longer.
That was certainly the case for the Baseball Hall of Fame class of 2020, whose induction ceremony was finally held on Sept. 8. That ceremony, originally scheduled for July 26, 2020, was postponed for more than a year after Covid-19 gripped the nation.
The Sept. 8 crowd, estimated at 20,000, was a sea of Yankee pinstripes as many attending the ceremony wore a number 2 Yankees jersey to honor New York shortstop Derek Jeter. The maple leaf was also strongly evident as fans came from north of the border to salute another one of the inductees, Canadian outfielder Larry Walker.
Jeter and Walker were elected to the Cooperstown shrine by the Baseball Writers of America Association (BBWAA) on Jan. 21, 2020 — more than a year and a half earlier. They joined veteran catcher Ted Simmons and the late union leader Marvin Miller, former executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, who had already been elected to the class of 2020 by the Hall of Fame’s Modern Baseball Era Committee. No one was elected to the Hall of Fame by either the BBWAA or the veterans’ committee in 2021.
The July 2020 induction ceremony for Jeter, Walker, Simmons and Miller had to be shelved because of the pandemic. That meant the Hall of Fame plaques honoring all four men would not take their rightful place in the Hall’s sacred Plaque Gallery until an official induction ceremony could be held. That finally came on Sept. 8.
Since 1979, the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony has been held on a weekend, with a
