Cubs Honor Williams With Statue
By Marcus Gilmer in News on Sep 8, 2010 2:20PM
Chicago loves its sports teams (for better or worse) and Chicago also loves its sports statues. Yesterday, the Cubs unveiled a statue - the third outside Wrigley Field - honoring legend Billy Williams. The statue, at the corner of Addison and Sheffield, shows Williams in a post-swing pose. Williams played 18 seasons, 16 with the Cubs and the final two in Oakland, a career .290 hitter who finished with 426 home runs, 1,475 RBI, and 2,711 hits. A six-time All-Star, Williams was voted the 1961 Rookie of the Year and twice finished as high as second in NL MVP voting (1970, 1972) and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1987, his sixth year on the ballot. Said Williams of the statue - and the pose:
"It's a grand slam," he said. "I remember [my wife] Shirley and I went out to see it when they first started to mold it and it didn't look anything like this."It's a bronze statue that stands there and typifies what you did for this organization. Most of all, I think my family will get a chance to enjoy it. Different generations will have a chance to come to the ballpark, can come and say, 'This is what my father looked like when he played the game of baseball.'"
Williams joins fellow Hall of Famer Ernie Banks and legendary broadcaster Harry Caray who both have statues at Wrigley; Banks' is outside the stadium just off Clark and Addison while Caray's statue was moved (and rededicated) last week to the corner of Waveland and Sheffield, behind the famous Wrigley Field bleachers. Williams is also one of six Cubs players to have his number retired by the team, his #26 being hung up in 1987 (the others being Banks, Fergie Jenkins, Ron Santo, Ryne Sandberg, and Greg Maddux)