Birrer Art - Statues

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Being out at Yankee Stadium for the 1998 World Series with the Joe DiMaggio statue was a lot of fun. Guys who I had seen on TV were sticking microphones in my face and asking me questions. This was heady stuff for me at that time.

Up on the elevated train platform at Yankee Stadium, you could look down on the statue and see all of the people as they approached it. You could see the moment that they realized what they were looking at and then the pointing and nudging would start. And the smiling and the posing for photos and on and on it would go, all day long. I've never seen a reaction like this and it was wonderful to see the impact that my wood had on these total strangers who happened by.

Since it was the World Series, there were all manner of camera crews and rigs floating around looking for stories. That day, the solid wood Joe DiMaggio was one of the stories for their World Series setting pieces.

And on and on it went, all day long.

And on...

Mickey Mantle's Restaurant on Central Park South (59th St.) in Manhattan was one of the last stops for the DiMaggio statue before being offered for sale in a Leland's sports memorabilia auction. I had agreed with the owner, Bill Lierdeman of Mickey Mantle's, to bring the statue in on a Sunday and set it up in the restaurant near the door. I had already displayed my Mickey Mantle statue in the restaurant some years earlier, so this was familiar territory. Then on the way to work the next day, I heard that Yankee great Joe DiMaggio had passed away. What timing. Since it was February, the news crews mostly turned up at Mickey Mantle's restaurant, as it was the defacto Yankee nerve center in the off season. And there the statue sat.

Here is the Leland's Auction catalog that included the Joe DiMaggio piece. It was purchased by a Seattle-based MD, who has a large private collection.

The papers ran stories on the death of Joe DiMaggio and several of them included photos of the statue as it was placed prominently at Mickey Mantle's Restuarant on Central Park South.

That's the basic story and some of the highlights of the early years of this endeavor. To be continued...

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