Commissioned by the Luckenbill family two decades ago to promote pro baseball in Sacramento, this sculpture now plays on West Capitol Avenue. (News-Ledger photo)
May 18, 2011 News-Ledger
By Steve Marschke News-Ledger Editor
There
are a couple of new guys playing baseball in the middle of 1100-block of West Capitol Avenue
– oversized, bronze fellows. The sculpture was installed with little fanfare
several weeks ago after West Sacramento city staff saw an opportunity to pick
up some “public art” from storage at Sacramento’s
Crocker museum. The city has a policy promoting public art.
“The baseball players were originally
commissioned by Frank and Lee Luckenbill as part of their effort to bring a
regional stadium,” said Mark Zollo, a senior administrative analyst for the
redevelopment agency. “At some point, the Luckenbills donated them to the
Crocker. They were on display at Crocker
Park. The pitcher was up
on one foot, supported by a dowel, and some kids pulled the pitcher over. So
the Crocker put the sculpture in storage.”
“Les Bowman (a former manager in Zollo’s
department) contacted the Crocker. We initiated the loan with them, and in
exchange for the loan, we agreed to do a restoration. We paid about $20,000 for
restoration and installation. They gave us a loan through 2014, but we hope to
extend that.”
Zollo said that the sculpture is mounted more
securely than it was in Sacramento,
and the location is pretty well-trafficked and well-lighted, so he hopes it
won’t be vandalized.
Ultimately, the city would like to put the
two baseball players on display on some city land near the entrance to Raley
Field – the region’s minor league baseball stadium. That site isn’t ready yet,
though, because it’s under construction and sparsely developed nearby.
“This location (at West Capitol) was selected
more as a temporary location – we wanted a place where there is a lot of
activity.”
The piece is called, simply, “Baseball
Players,” and it was designed by artist Lisa Reinertson of Davis. The two figures, who are somewhat
crouched over, stand about eight to nine feet tall.
(News-Ledger photo)
“These are pretty substantial figures,” said
Zollo. “They weigh quite a bit – around 800 pounds apiece.”
The Luckenbills are aware that the statues
have been moved, and approve of the loan, he said. The artist may not yet be
aware that her baseball players are having a game in the middle of West Sacramento’s main street.
An attempt to reach artist Reinertson wasn’t
immediately successful.
EDITOR'S NOTE, 5/23/2011:
After we went to press, artist Lisa Reinertson emailed us a response to
an inquiry made by the News-Ledger. We had asked her whom she used as
models for this artwork. We heard from citizens who thought the
"hitter" might have been modeled on Rickey Henderson or Felipe Alou.
The artist responded:
"The artwork was meant to be a more universal portrayal of a pitcher and
batter and not anyone's particular portraits. "To
answer your question- I used models who were baseball players up at
Chico State where I was teaching at the time. (1991?) They were both
assistant coaches, one a pitcher and one a batter. Since the stadium the
sculptures were originally planned for was to have a new baseball team,
they
were not to be portraits of any famous players from existing teams
elsewhere. I did go and see professional games as I did my homework on
the sculpture and I did look at and get inspiration from images of
stances that may look familiar to those in the know. "My concept
for the sculpture was to capture the psychological battle between the
pitcher and batter as they are about to throw the ball and strike it
back. I wanted to portray the physical tension of each player winding up
and ready- so the exact moment before the movement forward for each
player was the moment I focused on capturing."
