Canada's first Baseball Hall of Famer is visiting his hometown of Chatham this week.
Pitcher Fergie Jenkins' visit comes as he gets ready for the unveiling of his statue outside of Wrigley Field in Chicago on May 20, 2022. Jenkins said it's a great honour to get a statue displayed to honour his professional career. The statue will be part of the new “Statue Row” where the Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, and Billy Williams statues will be located.
"The honour is incredible. You can't imagine as a youngster having a statue portrayed in your image and as a kid growing up I played sports and I always wanted to be a professional athlete," said Jenkins.
Jenkins said he realized early on that he could become a professional athlete.
"First of all was hockey, then basketball, and then baseball. It just seemed to work its way in there. I said maybe there's an opportunity for me to be a professional athlete," he said.
Jenkins said he has seen the statue and, unlike some statues of professional athletes, this one actually looks like him. He also said he had a lot of input into the sculpting of the statue.
"I've seen it twice. I've seen it done in clay and the wax part before they mould it into brass. It looks really, really nice. It's a portrait of the '71 Cy Young year," Jenkins said.
The making of Fergie Jenkins' statue. Photo courtesy of Chicago Cubs.
Jenkins said more than 50 or 60 people from Chatham-Kent, including Mayor Darrin Canniff, are expected to make the trek to Chicago for the unveiling of his statue. Some of his teammates are also expected to be at the ceremony.
He said he usually visits Chatham four or five times a year but the pandemic put a damper on travel and the last time he visited Chatham was at Christmas.
Jenkins was traded to the Chicago Cubs by the Philadephia Phillies 56 years ago. Jenkins won a Cy Young Award and a record six straight 20-win seasons in Chicago.
He also weighed in on the Chatham Coloured All-Stars and said it would be nice to see that team in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.