Billy at Night

Billy Williams looks different at night in his statue, too.  Without a doubt, the sculptor captured a bit more of the late 60s-early 70s with Billy's sideburns.

Billy Williams

Around the corner and down the block from the Ernie Banks statue is another Cub great, Billy Williams, still active with the ballclub well into his 70s.  From his Rookie of the Year Award in 1961 through his induction to the Hall of Fame, this man has been and is a class act.  Thanks for the memories, Billy!

Retired Numbers

The Cubs have honored six players by retiring the five numbers they wore during their Cub tenure. First of course was Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, with his #14. He was not in Mesa during my visit, but I saw all five of the other honorees. Fergie Jenkins wore #31 and Billy Williams #26 in the Fergie & Friends game and Ryne Sandberg was suited up in #23 for the Cub games before he heads off to manage the Iowa Cubs. And on the final morning, with Billy Williams in uniform working with the batters, I saw the other #31, Greg Maddux, working with the pitchers.
All I needed was Ernie to have had a full house!

Batting Practice

When the Cubs are playing away games in the afternoon, the ballpark is open early in the morning for fans to walk in and enjoy batting practice. Few people are there and it is easy to walk down to the front row and get a good closeup look at the batters at work. After the last group has hit, the players head to the clubhouse for a bit of lunch and walk out to board a bus to drive to the game. Fans line up at a sawhorse barricade and are able to get several autographs from various players and coaches as they leave.
Here we see manager Lou Piniella talking baseball with Senior Adviser & Hall-of-Famer Billy Williams on the field. The other photo shows Hall-of-Famer Ryne Sandberg, working as a major league coach in spring training, signing autographs before jumping on the bus.
I took pictures, jumped in the rental car, and followed along. Pictures from the away game in the next post.

Fergie & Friends

Fergie Jenkins is well-known for hard work raising money for various great causes. For the third straight year, Fergie and his Friends offered a celebrity Old-Timers' Game along with on-field opportunities to take photos and visit with the stars. It was my second time and it was great, highlighted by a chance to share a memory about former Angel Rick Miller and his coach, Jimmie Reese -- sharing it with Rick Miller.
But for this old Cub fan, seeing Fergie pitch two innings, allowing a run and being credited with a win was on of two highlights worth the price of admission. The other was a chance to see Billy Williams hit again, getting a single and scoring a run. He is 2-for-2 in the two games I have seen, and it was wonderful to see him hit again after more than 35 years.

Fergie & Friends For Charity

It was a perfect night for a baseball game, any kind of a baseball game. But the event that had convinced me to head out to Arizona, the Fergie & Friends Annual All-Star Game, was an event to remember. Great music as mentioned in the previous post, lots of nice people to talk to. But the real highlight was the 30 minutes we were allowed down on the field to "Meet and Greet" the All-Stars and Old-Timers. All the former ballplayers were friendly, shaking hands and having pictures taken one after another. Fergie Jenkins, certainly the most successful Cub pitcher of my lifetime with six straight 20-win seasons, was affable and organized. Billy Williams, seen with me in the other photo, spent the entire time smiling and laughing with people. That half-hour, by the way, stretched out to me being on the field for two and a half hours, talking baseball, listening to music, taking pictures, and just loving life and baseball.

Besides Jenkins and Williams, we met Ron Santo, Jody Davis, Bob Dernier, Glenn Beckert, Randy Hundley, Steve Trout and Jay Johnstone among other former Cubs. We also met several Hall-of-Famers including Harmon Killebrew, Bob Feller, and Rollie Fingers. It was a wonderful night all the way around.

My friend Terry, a Mesa-area resident I had just met, spent some time taking photos of each other with the ballplayers and just on the field. "This is baseball heaven," he said, ninety minutes after the fun had started. What else could I answer? "Amen."

The next post will feature another hall of fame ballplayer, but one who played with a much larger ball.

Jersey Name and Number?

Hall-of-Famer Fergie Jenkins hosted his second annual Fergie & Friends baseball game, featuring several baseball greats in a game against Phoenix-area TV and Radio personalities. With a VIP ticket, we were invited down on the field for pictures and a chance to talk to Billy Williams (who got a hit in the game; I had not seen him get one in 35 years!), Ron Santo, Harmon Killebrew, Juan Marichal -- and Meadowlark Lemon, who was Fergie's teammate for three winters on the Harlem Globetrotters. We were on the field for nearly three hours.

Unless there is a young man named FINALLY! including the exclamation point, the jersey seen here was a comment on this year's Cub team ending the 101-year drought of World Championships.

HOPEFULLY!