JOHN TRIBBEY, "LITTLE LEAGUER," circa 1980

COR-TEN steel

Located: Voyles Field, Optimist Park, Veterans Drive, Galesburg, Ill.

"Little Leaguer" is a representational, life-size, COR-TEN steel sculpture of a young baseball player in a traditional baseball uniform. He wears a lucky number seven on his back. Unidealized, the boy strikes a natural pose, relaxed before the pitch. In front of him he grips his pitcher's mitt and behind his back, a half hidden ball.

The sculptor, John Tribbey, says what he found most interesting in his model for this work was the size of his ears.

The work was commissioned by Harold Nichols, then chairman of First Illini Bancorp, Inc. and First Galesburg National Bank and Trust Company, now Wells Fargo Bank.