“Being inducted into the Hall of Fame will be an incredible honor,” Jeter said in a statement, “but the health and safety of everyone involved are paramount.”

Walker added: “It is most important to do the right thing for everybody involved, and that means not putting any participants in jeopardy, whether Hall of Famers or visitors. I realize how serious this situation has become and how many lives have been lost.”

The Hall of Fame was expecting a crowd that would have exceeded the record 80,000 or so who showed up for the induction of Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn in 2007. Now, the ceremony has become the latest slice of baseball Americana to disappear from the summer calendar. Both the College World Series in Omaha and the Cape Cod League in Massachusetts had already been canceled, and Cooperstown Dreams Park — where thousands of players flock for youth summer tournaments — had closed for the 2020 season.

The Hall, which has been shuttered since March 15, said in a news release that its board of directors had voted unanimously to move the induction festivities to July 23-26 of next year. The Hall of Famer Joe Morgan, the vice chairman of the board, cited “so many unknowns facing the world” as the main reason for the decision.

The ceremony is essentially an all-or-nothing event. It is free to attend — just pull up a lawn chair — but laborious to plan, with one hotel, the stately Otesaga, serving the Hall of Famers and their families and many local residents renting their homes to out-of-towners. The workarounds of the day, like Zoom conference calls or social distancing, did not apply.