According to the Associated Press on Wednesday, Canadian baseball legend Ferguson Jenkins will be honoured with his own statue on June 10 in his hometown of Chatham, Ontario. The statue which is nine feet, will be a bronze figure, and will be a replica of the statue made by American sculptor Lou Cella. Jenkins was honoured with a statue outside of Wrigley Field in Chicago last May. Among the other sculptures Cella has created include those of former Seattle Mariners broadcaster Dave Niehaus, former Mariners superstars Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez, and former University of Washington football coach Don James.
Jenkins, who is 80 years of age, played 19 seasons of Major League Baseball from 1965 to 1983. He pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers and Boston Red Sox.
Jenkins won the National League Cy Young Award with the Cubs in 1971. That year he had a record of 24 wins and 13 losses with 263 strikeouts and an earned run average of 2.77. He led the National League in wins (24), and Major League Baseball in complete games (30).
Jenkins was a National League All-Star thrice with the Cubs (1967, 1971, and 1972). He also led Major League Baseball in complete games while with the Cubs in 1967 (20), and 1970 (24), and the National League in strikeouts with the Cubs in 1969 (273). In 1974 with the Rangers, Jenkins led Major League Baseball in wins (25) and complete games (29). In 1991, Jenkins became the first Canadian inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
