Copperstown Expect 200K Crowd at Derek Jeter’s Hall of Fame Induction

By Staff Reporter | Sep 27, 2014 01:44 AM EDT

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Copperstown mayor Jeff Katz is already preparing for a big 2020 Hall of Fame induction of New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter, who recently capped his career with a walk-off win at Yankees Stadium.  

Katz said the home of Baseball Hall of Fame will be up to a huge task of facilitating a crowd that could easily top 100,000 people because of the magnitude of Jeter's entrance into baseball's immortality.  

"Maybe it could be 100,000, maybe 120,000, what if it's 200,000?" said Katz, who believed it's not too early to prepare for that big event - which serves as the icing on the cake for one of the most-accomplished baseball player of all-time.  

"In 2007, when Cal Ripken Jr. was inducted, we had 80,000 people. The county took a good leadership role and got farmland to park cars and arranged shuttle buses to the induction site."

Katz added the precise figure of the crowd that will flood Jeter's induction will be determined a year earlier, when another Yankees legend in closer Mariano Rivera enters the Hall of Fame in 2019.

"Depending on how many people Rivera brings out, that will help us hone in," Katz told WSTM-TV in Syracuse. "Every induction weekend has its own set [of issues]. When you're looking ahead to a guy like Derek Jeter, you have to prepare. That guy has affected and touched so many people that everyone will want to share in it."

The 40-year old Jeter bid his goodbye to New Yorkers in a grand fashion on Thursday after pulling off a walk-off RBI single to help the Yankees get past the Baltimore Orioles 6-5.

Baseball analysts consider the moment as the best send-off an MLB player could get after an illustrious MLB career that saw him selected 14 times in All-Star game and bag 14 World Series championships.

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