Mendez is a Maryland-based sculptor who was commissioned to create six player statues for the 20th anniversary of Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards this year. Frank Robinson’s statue was unveiled last month; the remainder of the season will see statues of Brooks Robinson, Earl Weaver, Jim Palmer, Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken Jr. added to Camden Yards. Each player is depicted in an 8-foot statue in one of his iconic poses. As an Orioles fan, what does this project mean to you?
What’s neat about this project is several of the Orioles, from Brooks Robinson through Cal Ripken Jr., I got to see all of them play. When I sort of got turned on to baseball in my midteens, a friend and me would go to Memorial Stadium … and later at Camden Yards. These are the people of my youth, and it’s really fun to kind of meet them and talk to them and ask them questions most fans don’t get to ask.
What kind of questions?
I spent about two hours with Brooks Robinson. I’d ask him about the early days. I knew when he was coming up in the 1950s, athletes at that time were not paid what they are today and I knew most had an offseason job. He worked for Shell Oil. I talked to him about being in Baltimore, we talked about golf … the current Orioles and what he thought. Just a lot of things like that.
How did you sculpt?
I didn’t start designing and sculpting until May of last year. I typically do a one-fourth scale first, about a 2-foot version. In that scale, I work out the design and all of details, and that’s the model that most of the staff on the Orioles reviewed and the players reviewed. And then those get approval from the Orioles to have them enlarged.
– Liz Farmer
