SACRAMENTO — This weekend, the Sacramento Sports Hall of Fame introduces a brand new class together with one former Grant High School baseball star that rounds out a household of inductees.
Leon Lee has been ready for the decision for a very long time.
“When he known as me this time, he mentioned ‘Bro, you made it,’ and I mentioned, ‘Oh sure!’ I used to be fairly fired up,” he mentioned.
The father of Chicago Cubs star Derrek Lee and the brother of Leron Lee, he hoped to spherical out the group as corridor of fame inductees.
“You hear the tales of individuals telling you ways good you had been,” Lee mentioned. “Basically, I used to be making an attempt to maintain up with my older brother and the blokes round his age – Dusty Baker and Bob Oliver.”
His profession took him to St. Louis the place he performed with legends like Bob Gibson.
“An individual of his stature would not be within the fall league – Lou Brock and a few of the guys – and I a success a house run on him in batting apply and I appeared it. And again in these days you did not try this, so he drilled me proper within the shoulder.”
Then he went to Japan the place he and his brother set information.
“We hit back-to-back house runs 12 instances,” Lee mentioned. “I’ve the Japan report for a single sport. I had 10 RBIs in a single sport.”
Back within the States, he turned an advocate for the Japanese Baseball League.
“I advised Lou Pinella. ‘Ichiro goes to get 250 hits.’ He really received 258,” Lee mentioned.
His journey has now led to him changing into a corridor of famer in Sacramento and a mannequin for the subsequent era of baseball gamers within the capital area.
“The Sacramento Sports Hall of Fame is extraordinarily particular,” Lee mentioned. “I believe it is one of many premier corridor of fames you could be inducted into as a result of it is house.”
The official induction ceremony occurs at Thunder Valley Casino and Resort at 7 p.m. on Sunday.