TAZEWELL, Va. – The 25-pound bronze plaque measuring 15.5 inches by 10.75 inches and featuring Billy Wagner’s likeness and impressive list of accomplishments will officially be unveiled on July 27 when the legendary left-handed pitcher is enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
It will then eternally hang on the oak walls inside the revered plaque gallery at the museum in Cooperstown, New York, alongside those of other iconic individuals who have achieved the sport’s highest honor.
That will not be the only monument marking Wagner’s major moment as plans are underway for a statue to be erected along Main Street in Tazewell, Virginia, to honor the Hall of Famer.
A 1990 Tazewell High School graduate who played both baseball and football for the Bulldogs, Wagner did not receive any interest from major colleges and wound up at NCAA Division III Ferrum College.
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He dominated there, became a first-round pick of the Houston Astros and spent 16 seasons in the majors as the reliever with the overpowering fastball racked up 422 career saves.
Those back in Southwest Virginia proudly watched it all unfold and now their native son is in the most elite of fraternities.
“This is an extremely seismic event for us,” said Brad Pyott, a Tazewell graduate who is now a lawyer in his hometown and among the community members leading the effort to have the statue built.
The projected cost is $250,000 and fundraising efforts have already begun.
The plan is for the 5-foot-10 bronze statue to be placed on a small lot of land in downtown that would become known as Billy Wagner Park.
The sculptor will be Maria J. Kirby-Smith of South Carolina and her work will depict Wagner in an Astros uniform.
Shortly after Wagner got the long-awaited news in January that he had received the votes necessary to be a member of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025, many folks with Tazewell ties decided they wanted to do something to honor him.
There are already two signs in Tazewell citing Wagner, but they wanted this to be more special.
After all, nobody from Southwest Virginia has ever gotten the call from the Baseball Hall.
Among those involved in the project is Charity McDaniel Hurst, Tazewell County’s circuit court clerk and a high school classmate of Wagner.
Also on board is Brad Strong, who was an assistant baseball and football coach at Tazewell when Wagner played for the Bulldogs. He remembers a wide-eyed, uncertain 135-pound freshman morphing into an ace pitcher.
What stood out to him about the diminutive southpaw with the strong arm?
“It was his hard work,” Strong said. “Just the way he challenged himself each and every day. All he heard was he was too short, too small and he just fed off that.”
Of course, to get the statue built they first had to get approval from Wagner who eventually gave the OK.
“Billy’s a pretty humble guy,” Pyott said.
Just another reason why he’s beloved in his old stomping grounds and why folks want to build a statue to honor him with the goal of it being completed by October 2026.
Some autographed Wagner memorabilia will be sold as part of the fundraising effort and organizers will be at the yearly Main Street Moments celebration set for July 26 (the day before the induction ceremony in Cooperstown) to discuss with people their vision.
“I’m excited about the opportunity to get this started,” Strong said.
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Highway to the Hall
This is the third in a series of stories looking at the life and career of Tazewell High School graduate Billy Wagner, who will be officially enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame on July 27 in Cooperstown, New York.