Bill Swank, the local baseball historian has been trying to get a Ted Williams statue erected at the old Lane Field site downtown. Some of you don't know this, but Ted Williams, of Boston Red Sox fame, was born and raised in San Diego and played for the minor league Padres at Lane Field. Swank has been pitching to the city that a statue be made and displayed in Ted Williams' honor downtown.

Other than being a baseball historian, Bill Swank is also known for being Balboa Park's Santa Clause during Christmas on the Prado the holiday season. I'm not completely sure why, but he tried to use that as leverage to get the Ted Williams statue project going.

We missed it during the holiday season, but this is what happened...

Personally, I think there are probably better ways to mobilize the public and get this thing built, but you do what you know. Bill Swank knows Santa Clause. I know how to blog badly.

Luckily though, there seems to be some progress. I'm not sure what, if anything, we can do to get this statue built, but at the very least, we can let people know that the effort is underway.

If they do get a statue built, I propose that the base be made of untreated Northern White Ash (Williams' wood of choice for bats) that people can rub and get splinters from. Then they can walk away saying stuff like, "It hurts... But what a splendid splinter!"