The Next Cleveland Indians Statue: 2 Obvious Choices For Progressive Field

The Cleveland Indians will be adding some more statues around Progressive Field in the near future, to accompany the bronzed tributes that exist to honor Bob Feller, Larry Doby and Jim Thome.

Which Cleveland Indians players should be the next to get a statue at Progressive Field?

Fox 8 Cleveland’s John Telich posed the question on Tuesday night via Twitter:

Which former @Indians great could have a statue if u had a say ? And can u see any current one , someday being remembered this way??
— .@JohnTelich8 (@JohnTelich8) January 25, 2017

With Lou Boudreau and Frank Robinson set to be permanent fixtures at the ballpark, it got us thinking about who should be next. There are really only two obvious choices that would match the level on field production and fan appreciation needed, and those are Kenny Lofton and Omar Vizquel.

Kenny Lofton was one of the all-time most loved players in Cleveland history. The career leader in steals for the Tribe, Lofton would be a sabremetric darling right now in today’s game. While he only won 4 Gold Gloves, he is still widely regarded as a great defensive outfielder. He also posted 48.5 of his career 68.2 WAR in a Tribe uniform, meaning that his borderline Hall of Fame career was based largely on his play at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.

His statue would also be the easiest one to think about. While Thome’s is his iconic stance getting ready at the plate, Lofton’s would have to be a recreation of one of the greatest catches in baseball history, where he robbed B.J. Surhoff of a home run. How can it NOT be this catch?

Omar Vizquel’s story with fans is pretty much the same. Everyone loved him. I mean it, literally everyone. There’s not a single Cleveland fan that didn’t think Vizquel was one of the greatest to ever play for the Indians.

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There is also no argument that he is the greatest defensive shortstop not named Ozzie Smith in baseball history. Via Jayson Stark, “Incredibly, he had three seasons in which he played at least 140 games and made five errors or fewer. That’s as many seasons like that as all the other shortstops since 1900 combined.”

That my friends is elite level defense, the type that wins 11 Gold Gloves over the course of a storied career. The only players with that many Gold Gloves and as many hits (2,877) in history? Just a couple of random guys named Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente.

The Vizquel statue would also pay homage to his incredible defensive legacy. While there are no fewer than 100 worthy plays to recreate, it would have to be of Vizquel making a signature bare handed play that all of us can replay in our heads over and over again. The problem is we’ve seen him do it so often, there just isn’t one play to can beat out all of the others. That doesn’t mean you can’t tell us, though, what play should be used.

Next: 5 Hidden Issues That May Haunt The Tribe

So, Mr. Dolan. Better start making plans for your 2018 statue ceremonies now.

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