As baseball season is coming near, I am reminded of a story that ties together two things that are very important to me. I very well might be the only one of you who has been into Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. If any of you have, you will recall that while you were walking laps around the stadium waiting for the gates to open you saw three statues of some of the greatest Phillies and some of the greatest professional baseball players of all time. The likenesses of Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Robin Roberts, and, once you enter the stadium, Richie Ashburn tower ten feet overhead cast in bronze on top of red granite bases. You can find images of these statues online, but you won't find out who made those bases anywhere online. Good thing I am here to tell you. A little known fact apparently is that those bases were quarried right here in Barre, Vermont at Rock of Ages. How do I know this if it is no online? While these statue bases were being produced, we had a friend who worked at the quarries at this time and invited us to come see this future piece of Phillies' history before it got shipped to link up with the statues and be stationed outside the ballpark. Who would have thought that a city that is seemingly divided between Red Sox Nation and Yankee Land could be involved with a team that resides in the flatlands? I guess that these fans might have realized who they should have been rooting for all this time.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Connections From Barre to Philly
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