Baseball Hall of Fame cancels July inductions because of coronavirus

Ken “Hawk” Harrelson, 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 on July 25, 2021.

Former White Sox play-by-play man Harrelson was set to be inducted as the Ford C. Frick Award winner for excellence in broadcasting as part of a class that also included former players Jeter, Walker and Ted Simmons and longtime union chief Marvin Miller.

A record crowd had been expected this summer at the small town in upstate New York to honor Jeter, the former New York Yankees captain who was elected in January by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

This will be the first year without an induction ceremony since 1960.

‘‘I think it’s the right thing to do, I really do,’’ Harrelson said Tuesday. ‘‘They were going to have 100,000 people there, with Yankee fans coming in from all over the world with Derek Jeter. I wouldn’t want my family going up there.’’

Contributing: Daryl Van Schouwen