With tons of snow still on the ground, I thought it would be a good time to write about a baseball story. We can daydream, can't we?
He's perhaps Baltimore's most beloved baseball player. Well, No. 2 at least. Brooks Robinson, who mined third base for the Orioles for more than two decades, will be immortalized at Camden Yards.
Baltimore's Public Art Commission has unanimously approved plans for a 9-foot-high, $500,000 bronze statue of Robinson that is scheduled for installation by spring 2011 on a city-owned plaza just west of Oriole Park. The Sun reports that he artist is Joseph Sheppard, a Maryland native who created the statue of Pope John Paul II at Franklin and Charles streets and a sculpture for Baltimore's Holocaust Memorial at Lombard and Gay streets.
I have had the pleasure of interviewing Brooksy on a few occassions, and I can tell you that I have never spoken to a finer gentleman. He was generous with his time, engaging, and seemingly excited to talk to me. I never had the pleasure of seeing him play in person (he hung up his spikes in 1977 after winning 16 Gold Gloves), but I can't wait to lay eyes on his statue.
It should be yet another addition to the greatest ballpark in all of baseball.
Photo: Brooks Robinson is in the Hall of Fame, and soon a statue of him will grace Camden Yards. Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images.
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