Canada Post

Jun 3, 2023

Sat., June 3, 2023timer4 min. read Fergie Jenkins’ statue at Wrigley Field proved to be such a fitting tribute to the greatest pitcher this country has ever produced that the municipality of Chatham-Kent knew it had to come up with a similar honour. Darrin Canniff, the long-time mayor of Chatham-Kent, was at last year’s unveiling in Chicago. He was a guest of Jenkins, just the fourth player immortalized by a franchise that has been around for more than 150 years. Canniff was sitting beside Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts, a man he had never met, when he suggested installing a replica statue in Jenkins’ hometown. Ricketts gave his blessing and the wheels were in motion to honour one of Canada’s best athletes with a homecoming celebration, which will take place Saturday in front of the Chatham-Kent Civic Centre. “I think all my relatives are going to be really proud,” Jenkins told The Star. “The only other statue was a cenotaph of a soldier, and now they’re going to have a statue of an athlete, a ballplayer. I think my family, relatives, friends, the guys that are still around that I played ball with — hockey, basketball, high school mates — I think they’re all going to be pretty proud of the fact that they knew me, I knew them, and I had a one heck of a career.” Jenkins didn’t just have one heck of a career, he defined an entire generation. He was Canada’s first Cy Young winner and its first representative in the Baseball Hall of Fame. And he was the first pitcher in big-league history to finish his career with at least 3,000 strikeouts and fewer than 1,000 walks. Only Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling have done it since. The now 80-year-old was the type of pitcher that doesn’t exist anymore. A workhorse who not only took his regular turn through the rotation across 19 seasons, but also frequently requested the ball on short rest if an ace was throwing for the opposing side. Jenkins didn’t shy away from top competition, he leaned into it. The resumé speaks for itself. The man who honed his craft by throwing rocks at passing trains in Chatham was a seven-time 20-game winner, a three-time all-star and easily one of the most dominant pitchers of his era. From 1967-72, Jenkins averaged an astounding 306 innings per season while tossing 140 complete games. His 284 career wins are the most by a Black pitcher. Within this country, Jenkins’ impact went beyond the mound. He was a four-time Canadian athlete of the year and the first ballplayer to receive what was then called the Lou Marsh Award . He was named to the Order of Canada, got his own stamp from Canada Post and made contributions away from the field through his role as chairman of the Ferguson Jenkins charitable foundation. “I think it started to impact me when I was voted the Canadian athlete of the year a couple of times and won the Lou Marsh,” Jenkins said when asked about the significance of his career within Canada. “I went to some dinners and dedications, one in Montreal, a couple in Toronto. And I started to tell myself that if I continue to play well, I can win a lot of ball games. That’s what really set my mind to saying I got to do all the right things.” Saturday will be a walk down memory lane for Jenkins, who has spent most of his post-playing career living in the United States but still has a lot of ties in Chatham. His daughters live in the area, as does his ex-wife, and Jenkins frequently returns, having last visited at Christmas. Chatham is eager for its moment. The town is making hats, baseball cards, shirts and socks to commemorate the occasion and hotel rooms are hard to find. American sculptor Lou Cella, who designed the statue off a 1971 Sports Illustrated cover photo, will be on hand as will Hall of Famer Larry Walker , Blue Jays legend Jesse Barfield and representatives from the Cubs. “Chatham-Kent loves Fergie, and we’re swinging for the fences at this event,” Canniff said. “Our downtown will be packed with people coming to honour Fergie and the great things he has done, both in his career and for Chatham-Kent. For the festivities we have custom swag … activities for kids and families and there will be celebrities coming in from all over North America. It’s going to be a huge day.” One can’t help but wonder what this weekend would have meant to Jenkins’ parents. They met in Chatham and grew up during a time when a moment like this was unfathomable. His mother, Delores, was directly related to a former slave who arrived in Ontario via the Underground Railroad. His father, Ferguson, was a semi-pro ballplayer whose career peaked before Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier in 1947. Delores, who suffered from glaucoma, passed away early in Jenkins’ career. Ferguson attended the Hall of Fame ceremony in 1991 before passing away four years later. Now, the town they called home, will have a statue of their son, who lived the dream they couldn’t, prominently displayed for generations to come. “It’s going to be more of a party than we had in Chicago because it’s a real small town, you know, 24-25,000 people,” Jenkins said of Chatham, whose greater area also includes Kent. “It’s going to be a party that won’t be forgotten. They’re closing off streets and they might even shift a lot of activity to the ballpark, which was called Rotary Park at one time and they renamed it Jenkins Park. It should be a lot of fun.” Gregor Chisholm is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @GregorChisholm or reach him via email: gchisholm@thestar.ca SHARE: