Baseball Hall ceremony moved to ’21
Derek Jeter, Larry Walker and the rest of this year’s Baseball Hall of Fame class will have to wait another year for their big moment at Cooperstown.
The Hall of Fame announced Wednesday that it has canceled the July 26 induction ceremony because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Instead, the class will be included at next year’s induction festivities — along with any additional new choices — on July 25, 2021.
A record crowd of over 70,000 had been expected this summer in an outdoor field at the small town in upstate New York to honor Jeter, the former Yankees captain who came within one vote of unanimous election by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in January.
Jeter and Walker were to be inducted with catcher Ted Simmons and the late Marvin Miller, the pioneering players’ union head who negotiated free agency and transformed the sport.
“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.
“I respect and support the decision to postpone this year’s enshrinement and am looking forward to joining current Hall of Famers, fans, staff and my family and friends in Cooperstown in 2021.”
This will be the first year without an induction ceremony since 1960.
The Rays are the first MLB team known to plan furloughs of some full-time employees because of the coronavirus pandemic, The AP reported. The Tampa Bay Times reported that the furloughs are believed to involve less than half the club’s 400-to-500 full-time employees. Meanwhile, some members of the baseball operations department are to receive pay cuts starting at 10%.
Golf: The LPGA Tour won’t resume its schedule until the middle of July at the earliest. The next tournament on the schedule had been the NW Arkansas Championship on June 19-21, a week after the PGA Tour hopes to return in Texas. Now the earliest start for the women would be July 15-18 for the Great Lakes Bay Invitational in Michigan. Meanwhile, the PGA of America said it was moving the Women’s PGA Championship from the last week in June to Oct. 8-11 at Aronimink, outside Philadelphia.
Horse racing: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced that he will allow horse racing to begin again in the state, without fans, starting next month. Churchill Downs in Louisville had presented the governor with a “detailed proposal” last week about safely reopening. Beshear said the two sides reached an agreement Tuesday. The track will begin accepting horses in its stable area on May 11. There wasn’t word on when Churchill might actually begin racing. Currently live racing without fans is taking place in Florida, Arkansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma. Santa Anita Park officials met with Los Angeles County Public Health Department on Tuesday with a proposal to return to live racing at the track without fans.
NBA: Scott Perry will remain GM of the Knicks after agreeing to a new one-year deal with the team, according to reports. Perry ran the team’s basketball operations after Steve Mills was fired as president in February. Longtime player agent Leon Rose was hired to replace Mills on March 2, shortly before the season was suspended.
NFL: LB Clay Matthews is filing a grievance against the Rams over $2 million in unpaid guarantees, ESPN reported. Former Rams Matthews and RB Todd Gurley — who were released by the team March 19 — have publicly vented their frustrations over nonpayments. ... Former Jaguars LB Telvin Smith was arrested on a charge of unlawful sexual activity with certain minors. ESPN reported that Smith, 29, is accused of having sex with a 17-year-old girl multiple times, both at his home and in his vehicle in August and September.
NHL: The NHL hopes its players can return to local team training facilities at “some point in the latter half of May,” if local restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic will allow it. “We are not targeting a specific date at this point in time,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told ESPN. “We are hoping for some point in the latter half of May. Remains to be seen.”