by Todd Hawley
It felt good to know that a hero and idol of my youth was being honored and acknowledged for all the great things he did as a player.
March 31, 2000
I got up Friday morning, March 31, and looked out and saw a bright sunshiny day, the kind of morning that offers hope and promise for what's to come. Or to showcase an important event. And as I watched the Giants slog through a less than spectacular spring training, I could look forward to the season at hand and hope when the season starts, the Giants will come out kickin' butt. In spring, when a young man's fancy turns to you-know-what, according to the bad old cliché, this writer's thoughts turn to a Giants' pennant come October. So do the other contributors to this site. And of course, I could look forward to seeing the Giants' new showcase, Pacific Bell Park.
Those things went through my mind as I hopped on a BART train at Fremont to attend the unveiling of the Willie Mays statue at Pac Bell Park. I only spent 15 minutes trying to find parking, thanks to those far-sighted BART officials who thought putting in more bus lanes at Fremont at the expense of removing parking spaces several months ago was the wave of the future.
As a result, I got a late start and missed one or two BART trains but still got to the city around 10. So far so good. Then I had to wait 10 minutes for a MUNI train over to the new park, and I stressed while I worried about whether I'd get there on time. I did run into a guy wearing a Seals hat (and yes, I told him about my Seals site) and we chatted about the new park . Turns out the guy is a history major at San Francisco State University, and we talked about history and baseball. What an interesting combo!
And speaking of the two, I come to the reason for this piece (and gee, it only took me three paragraphs to get there): the chance to honor a boyhood hero (even if McCovey was and always will be my favorite Giant!) by attending the unveiling of the Mays statue. As it turned out, my new "friend" and I got there around 10:25 just in time to hear the Glide Memorial Church Choir singing. We walked over in back of a few rows of people to observe the festivities. I have to admit too as I rode up to the park how beautiful it really is.
The ceremony started out of course with Jon Miller and Lon Simmons beginning things and over the next 90 minutes moderated the festivities. Lon was in characteristic good humor. Some folk (including me) yelled out "LON!" To which he replied "My name Jose Jimenez." Now if you're over 35 like me, you'll understand the joke. If not, well, ask any old geezer you know. Lon also offered a cute reply to the numerous honking trucks speeding past by saying "Thank you!" on cue after one of them honked their horn.
The ceremonies also featured numerous past and present Giants, Bobby Thomson (looking quite well for a man who must be close to 80), Herman Franks, Charlie Fox, "His Majesty Willie Brown" (who proclaimed the day "Say Hey Day"), just to name a few. While Herman Franks delivered a heartfelt speech, for some reason, Fox's comments more than anyone else's struck a certain chord with me. His speech was a pithy one, to the point. Most baseball folk aren't terribly articulate (and Barry, you said some nice things in your speech but even you admitted "how tough" it was to speak about your godfather), and yet Charlie's speech is the one that stuck with me after I left. Probably because his remarks were well thought out and to the point, unlike most of the others in attendance.
As I stood there in the sun (and feeling my cheeks and bald spot slowly turn pink and then red), I watched the Mays highlight reel along with everyone else. I found myself getting a little misty-eyed. Maybe because it felt good to know that a hero and idol of my youth was being honored and acknowledged for all the great things he did as a player. Maybe because of all the memories it evoked for me personally, even if in those long ago days I was a (gasp!) Dodgers' fan.
I know last September being at the last game and seeing all those old Giants players did the same thing for me. I seriously doubt if I went to a Dodgers game and they honored all the old Dodger players I watched in the '60s and '70s that I would feel the same way.
In my opinion, the event was marred only by Commissioner Bud Selig being there and getting his remarks in too. My new friend's comment, "Hey Bud! You suck!" seemed especially appropriate. His speech was punctuated by cries from the crowd "Hey, what about Pete Rose?" What about him indeed?
After a brief monologue from Bill Cosby and remarks from the sculptor, it was time to unveil the statue. The statue took two years to create and having worked on writing projects for months at a time myself, I couldn't help wondering if the sculptor kept thinking "Oh wait, just a little more touchup on Willie's face or his shoes and then it will really be finished!" When you have a creative mind like mine and work on a project for a long period of time, you come to realize it will never be truly finished and you always want to tweak it some more. I look back at reviews or articles I've written for EEEEEE! and feel that way.
The statue of Willie was finally unveiled, and oh, my, it is beautiful! Just like the rest of Pac Bell Park. When it was finally Willie's turn to finally "say hey," he commented on how lifelike it looked and that he was almost "scared" to look at the statue because of its reality. He was quite humble and thanked everyone for being there.
After a few closing remarks, the ceremonies ended and we all got up to leave, some like me on MUNI. I managed to take some pictures and plan to get more once I do the "tour" of the place, next week sometime.
I'm writing this listening to the Giants' exhibition game against the Brewers and thinking, as always, how optimistic I am about the Giants this season. Well, of course I can be. We can all be. April hasn't happened yet, and the season hasn't started yet.
Of course this summer may be a different story. Stay tuned.
Todd Hawley used to be a Dodger fan, but he's feeling Much Better Now. Visit his San Francisco Seals site immediately. Or you could e-mail him at thawley@tdl.com.