PALM 00029

Graf, Raymond

Pee Wee Reese

2000

Metal/Stone

Bronze/ Limestone

Poised precariously mid—air as he turns a double play, Raymond Graf's bronze statue of Pee Wee Reese captures the athlete's fluid motion and natural grace. Pee Wee Reese (1918—1999), born Harold Henry Reese, first played baseball for the Louisville Colonels beginning in 1938. During the 1940s and 1950s, he was the captain of the Brooklyn Dodgers and led the team to seven National League pennants and a World Series Championship in 1955. The statue was commissioned by Jim Morrissey, one of the Louisville Bats' owners and a friend of Reese's. It is located at the Main Street Entrance to Slugger Field.

A graduate of Murray State University, Raymond Graf (b. 1958) began his sculpture career as a worker in Barney Bright's foundry. Graf's works include the Cardinal Bird outside the University of Louisville Student Activities Center and statues of jockey Pat Day at Churchill Downs and hotelier J. Graham Brown on Fourth Street. Graf has commented about the statue, stating "the thing about sculpture is you get just one frozen moment in time. So you want to have a little action, to see what he's doing. To get that one moment captured forever." (KG)