New sculpture in Ridgetown celebrates its role in baseball history

A new wood carving in Ridgetown honours the role of a local baseball hero in inventing the slider.

Harry O'Neill pitched two seasons with the Philadelphia Athletics in the early 1920s and is credited by some sources with developing the pitch, which curves sideways just before it reaches the batter.

The sculpture is of a gigantic wooden hand holding a baseball with a ball glove next to it and "Home of the slider pitch" engraved on the arm.

"We're not done yet," said Ridgetown Independent News publisher Jim Brown, who initiated the project.

"We've got a plaque to go along, and we want to put some home bases in to kind of give it a walkway to it."

Philadelphia Athletics pitcher George Blaeholder is frequently credited with inventing the slider.

But Brown, who is also with the BIA, disputes that version of history. 

"Perhaps there was another pitcher that made it more popular because he had a longer career," Brown said. 

"But this is the originator. Harry showed them how to throw the slider years ago in Ridgetown. It's something that he very likely passed on to someone when he was down in Philadelphia."

The chainsaw sculptor behind the statue, Mike Winia, agreed.

"This is the home of the slider pitch," he said.

"Even though many people out there all over and even in the States claim fame to it, the reality is, when you go back into the history books, and you go back, back, back, it leads you here."