Raelee Frazier is a

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

who specializes in casting the hands of sports heroes in bronze. Frazier worked as a modelmaker for museums, making representations of historic figures and scientific materials. When the

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fi ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

franchise came to Denver in 1980 a local restaurant asked her to create a display of baseball-related artifacts. She had made life castings for museum clients, including the Smithsonian, so when she was introduced to

Charlie Metro Charlie Metro (born Charles Moreskonich; April 18, 1918 – March 18, 2011) was an American professional baseball player, manager, coach and scout. Notably, he was an outfielder for the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Athletics as well as the ...

, former major league player, she asked if she could cast his hands holding a bat. Metro then collaborated with Frazier to identify 33 baseball players to contribute to a commemorative series of bronze hands holding a baseball bat. Each sculpture in this ''Hitter's Hands'' series includes its subjects signature on the bat, the base and a certificate. Subsequently, Frazier branched out to depict pitchers' hands holding a ball. She has also cast the hands of football quarterbacks, golfers and mountaineer

Sir Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached ...

. Her cast of the hands of

Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe Theodore Roosevelt "Double Duty" Radcliffe (July 7, 1902 – August 11, 2005) was a professional baseball player in the Negro leagues. An accomplished two-way player, he played as a pitcher and a catcher, became a manager, and in his old age ...

toured the US in 2005 in an exhibit entitled ''Shades of Greatness'' sponsored by the

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) is a privately funded museum dedicated to preserving the history of Negro league baseball in America. It was founded in 1990 in Kansas City, Missouri, in the historic 18th & Vine District, the hub of Afr ...

References

External links

Looney, Douglas S. 'Hands-on art gets a grip on athlete's inner self', ''Christian Science Monitor'' (March 10, 2000)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frazier, Raelee Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American sculptors