The key figure in building a downtown baseball stadium will soon be memorialized with a bronze statue outside Coca Cola Field.
The statue is a little taller than the real man and he has a hair line from a long time ago and he's smiling as he begins to fire the baseball.
It's Jimmy Griffin, father, grandfather, part-owner of a baseball team, the man behind the baseball stadium.
After he died in 2008, family and friends spent some time considering what kind of monument there should be and they chose one of Jimmy Griffin and baseball. Sculptor William Koch decided upon a picture of Griffin throwing a ball.
"That's what everybody thinks of," said Griffin's son-in-law John Tomczak .
"They think of him throwing out the first pitch on the first day of the ballpark or so many other opening days."
Last night, the clay version of the statue was unveiled, just before it goes to Florida to be turned into bronze to be placed on James D. Griffin Plaza.
The finished product is expected to be unveiled in August.
