Before you read today’s column, I urge you to read our story today by Brady Hess about how the town of Tazewell is in the process of raising money for a statue to Billy Wagner, the local high school star who later made it to the pros and who this weekend will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
I have and while reading it was struck by an inspiration: We have lots of statues of politicians — probably not enough, actually. I’m big on statues as public art. We don’t have many statues of sports figures, though. The Arthur Ashe statue in Richmond is the most famous. Virginia Tech has a statue of former football coach Frank Beamer outside Lane Stadium. There could well be more at other sports facilities around the state — educate me! — but the Ashe statue and the coming Wagner statue are the only ones I’m aware of that are (or will be) in non-sports locations.