In a brief ceremony in front of the main gates of Frontier Field Wednesday afternoon, local baseball dignitaries, Red Wings officials and government representatives joined about 200 onlookers in unveiling a memorial statue of Morrie Silver, whose stock drive in 1956 saved baseball in Rochester.
“You can’t talk about baseball legends without including Morrie Silver,” said Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks.
When the St. Louis Cardinals announced in 1956 that they would sell the Rochester Red Wings — the least profitable of the Major League team’s top-level farm clubs — Silver spearheaded a stock drive to raise the $500,000 needed to purchase the Wings.
Silver handed the Cardinals a half-million-dollar check in February 1957, and Rochester Community Baseball was born. Since then, the Red Wings have been one of the few publicly-owned baseball teams in the country.
Silver went on to serve as the team’s president and general manager.
Current Wings general manager Dan Mason said that by organizing the stock drive, Silver “preserved the opportunity for millions of fans to enjoy a game at the ballpark” in Rochester.
The crowd also listened to Rochester’s Mr. Baseball, Joe Altobelli, who has served as a player, manager, general manager and now a radio commentator for the team. Altobelli said Silver “was an inspiration for me.”
“Morrie was the guy who started (community baseball),” Altobelli said. “He was the guy who was ‘community’ in community baseball.”
Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver, who managed the Red Wings in the 1960s before winning a World Series title with the Baltimore Orioles, said Silver was a crucial catalyst in his managerial career.
“I wouldn’t have gotten to the Majors without Morrie,” said Weaver, who added that Silver was “the kindest, most generous, most giving person that was ever put on this earth.”
Weaver said that because of the efforts of Silver and those who came after him, “there’ll be baseball in Rochester forever.”
The final person to speak was Naomi Silver, current Rochester Community Baseball chairman of the board and daughter of Morrie Silver. Naomi said her father possessed two key traits — warmth and insightful intelligence — that drove him to serve the community.
Silver thanked the team’s fans by saying that “first and foremost, my dad did it for you.”
She also thanked the thousands of shareholders who still own a part of the Red Wings, calling them “the army of heroes who allowed us to be here today.”
She then called her family up to the podium to unveil the life-size statue of her father and a small child who symbolizes the future of the team and the community.
“My dad would be so honored today,” she said, “but he would also be gratified because his hopes for the long-term success have lived on.”
The statue was created by local artist Dejan Pejovic, a native of Yugoslavia who immigrated to the United States in 1957. Pejovic studied in London, Rome and Toronto before settling in Rochester. The Morrie Silver Memorial is his third public commission in the Rochester area.
Brooks called the statue “a constant reminder of baseball’s biggest fan and the community’s greatest cheerleader.”
