Plans announced for statue honoring Brooks Robinson

Baltimoreans can rejoice. Brooks is back.

On Monday the Dorothy L. and Henry A. Rosenberg Jr. Foundation along with The Babe Ruth Birthplace Foundation announced that construction is underway for a statue honoring legendary Orioles third baseman Brooks Robinson.

The statue, which will depict Robinson preparing to throw a runner out at first base, will be placed across from the northwest side of Camden Yards, on the plaza between Washington Boulevard and Russell St. Almost two years ago the Baltimore Public Art Commission unanimously approved plans for the 9-foot-high, 1,500 pound statue, and it will be unveiled at a ceremony on Oct. 22, 2011.

"From player to broadcaster, philanthropist to local resident, Brooks has been a pillar of this community for generations," Henry A. Rosenberg Jr., a longtime friend of Robinson, said in a news release. "We wanted to give fans and people in general an opportunity to say 'thank you' by erecting this statue in his honor."

Baltimore native Joseph Sheppard, whose previous pieces include the statue of Pope John Paul II at Franklin and Charles streets and Baltimore's Holocaust Memorial at Lombard and Gay streets, has been working on the statue in Italy.

This will be the second statue built of Robinson, the 1970 World Series MVP who spent his entire 23-year career in Baltimore. The minor league club York Revolution -- which went by the York White Rose when Robinson played in York, Pa., in 1955 -- dedicated a plaza to Robinson with a statue in his honor in 2008. Upon completion, the statue will be gifted to the City of Baltimore.

xcxrlevin@baltsun.com