Dave Winfield statue in Alaska

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — More than 50 years ago, a college-aged Dave Winfield embarked on a 2,000-mile journey to play summer ball in a faraway land. In a place he’d never dreamed of playing. In Fairbanks, Alaska.

On Friday, with his family by his side, the 72-year-old was back in Fairbanks. This time, he was getting honored with a statue for his time and for his play in the Golden Heart City. The first statue the Hall of Famer has ever had put up anywhere.

“By this showing here, by this commemorative piece, by all the people I’ve met and things I’ve been able to do, I fulfilled my destiny through baseball,” an emotional Winfield said in front of an adoring group of Fairbanks locals and politicians. “I am grateful. I am honored.”

Why does Dave Winfield have a statue in Fairbanks? Well, it’s a funny story.

A 2022 Tyler Kepner New York Times story mentioned the fact that Winfield — one of the most decorated athletes in MLB history — didn’t have a statue anywhere. Fellow Hall of Famers like Ozzie Smith and George Brett would joke with their friend, asking why he doesn’t have one.

“I go, ‘Come on, Dave, you don’t have a statue?’” Smith said. “You should see the look on his face.”

Well, Fairbanks, Alaska, caught wind of this misjustice.

Winfield was a star during the 1971-72 seasons for the wood-bat league Alaska Goldpanners. He helped bring home a championship for the team in ’72. He was a two-way player back then — hitting 18 homers and knocking in 72 runs, while putting up a 13-4 record and 3.71 ERA on the mound. He blasted a mammoth 500-foot home run off a curling club that’s still talked about today.

But maybe even more importantly, he embraced the town and its people, and they embraced him right back. Post-Alaska, he was a man known for his accomplishments inside the lines, but also in his community.

If anywhere needed a Dave Winfield statue, it was here. Right at the foot of the curling club he hit.

Earlier this year, Fairbanks made the announcement there would be a statue and sculptor Gary Lee Price got to work on it. And on Friday, before the Midnight Sun Game — a solstice game that’s been played by the Goldpanners for 119 years with no artificial light — it was unveiled with Dave in attendance. The sculpture captured the moment Winfield hit his legendary homer, but Price hoped it captured even more.

“Dave, I hope it captures the spirit of not only your life and what you’ve done in the past,” Price said, “but what you’ve become — a model for each and every one of us.”

A woman spoke up from the crowd, telling Winfield how he signed her softball bat when she was a kid and she’s kept it for the last half century.

A director of a local Catholic school talked about trying to get glimpses of the Goldpanners and particularly the 6-foot-6 slugger while walking through town as a kid.

“On behalf of Fairbanks. On behalf of everyone here. It is so great to have you back home,” Mayor David Pruhs said. “It might’ve been 50 years, but you never forget Fairbanks.”

Tonya Winfield, Dave’s wife, gave a pretty good idea of what the city meant to her husband.

“I’ve been married to him for 36 years, so I’ve heard the stories, and many of them were about his time here in Fairbanks,” she said. “For our children to share in it, to experience it. And to see their dad honored in this way, and the reason he’s being honored — not just for his accolades on the field — but for what’s most important to him and the family he was raised in: You have two, you give one. You give back. And he’s always taken that very seriously.”

And what about his Cooperstown friends? What will he tell them now when he sees them and the “where’s your statue” conversation comes up?

“That’s right,” Winfield laughed. “Next time I go to the Hall of Fame, I’ll go up to them and say, ‘Now, who’s got a statue?'”