Spending a lot of my adult life in St. Louis I got to see, first hand, the power of baseball tradition. including the 12 statues (probably to be 13, soon (Albert Pujols)) outside of Busch Stadium. That tradition drives the fans to keep St. Louis as a baseball town and have caused dozens of players to want to stay in St. Louis after they were traded there.
Cleveland has its statues, too, with Doby, Boudreau, Feller, Thome and Frank Robinson.
But it could have been and still could be a lot more. And that's what this post is about. So let's talk about some of the guys who could still have their statues outside of (or inside) Progressive Field.
Jose Ramirez - Unless something changes drastically (trade, Baerga-like dropoff in his performance) Jose will end up the batting GOAT of this franchise. That deserves a statue even if he falls short of HOF numbers
Albert Belle - Hey, he was a pain in the butt, likely for everyone he dealt with, but even Roy Hobbs tried to bean a reporter with a baseball so there is that. Thirteen seasons and 381 HRs (Eddie Murray with 504 HRs never had more than 32 in a season, Albert had 7 seasons out of 12 with 34 or more), with every season but his rookie year having 95 or more RBI with an 11 year run of over 100 a year. 52 doubles and 50 HRs in a shortened 1994 is still the standard I look up to. Yeah, we know he corked and maybe he even juiced, but the guy was an icon in Cleveland, a literal icon, whose fame was only dulled by the fact that he wasn't playing in New York or LA. He should be in the MLB HOF and hopefully will, someday. Irrespective of that, he should have a statue at the Prog, even if he chooses not to show up for the unveiling ceremony.
Julio Franco - Two things: Franco chasing the money to Asia and Mexico cost him the HOF and the Guardians not finding a place for him on their roster every year cost him the HOF. Franco ended up with 2586 ML hits playing through his age 48 season. However, he had another 790 hits playing in Japan, Korea and Mexico in years where he couldn't get an acceptable ML contract and could make more money overseas. Yes, very shortsighted on his part although I am sure the extra money he made may serve him better than a HOF plaque. Don't know, never talked to him. But, still, he should have a statue at Progressive Field for his lifetime accomplishments. This should be a slam dunk if he ever gets inducted into the MLB HOF, which I think, looking at the totality of his playing career, he should.
Omar Vizquel - I know that the allegations of spousal abuse are likely going to torpedo the standard path to the HOF. However, along with Belle, he was an icon of the glory days of the 90s. Like Franco, if they could have just found a way to keep him around he would have done all or most of his damage in Cleveland. He was as good as Ozzie Smith IMO and I saw a lot of each of them in person and on TV. He deserves to be in the MLB HOF AND to have his statue in or near Progressive Field. I mean, Pete Rose has his statue in Cincinnati so....
Note, there may be older players/managers who deserve statues, too. Tris Speaker, Al Rosen, Terry Francona, for example. But the guys above are the guys I grew up with and they should be honored with statues even if the HOF committee chooses to enforce their own code of morality on these guys.
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