White Sox announce statue for Buehrle to be unveiled in July

The White Sox saved a surprise for SoxFest, announcing a statue of former pitcher Mark Buehrle, to be unveiled on July 11 at Rate Field.

Buehrle joined fellow 2005 World Series champs Jose Contreras and Freddy Garcia onstage at the Ramova Theatre Friday to celebrate the 20-year anniversary. Buehrle's surprise for the fans was buying a beer for everyone in attendance, which he claimed was partly on him but mostly thanks to chairman Jerry Reinsdorf.

Following the announcement, Buehrle talked about what the honor means to him.

“Insane, unbelievable. I'm kind of at a loss for words,” he said. “To retire my number is an incredible honor, then to put a statue up of me out there forever?

“I guess the number could be unretired and put back into play, but the statue, unless somebody tears it down or does something to it, it's always going to be there. I really don't have words for it, but it's an amazing thing.”

Construction of the statue is well underway, so this wasn't a surprise to Buehrle. Fans were shown a video of the progress, along with the day he put the uniform back on to pose.

Buehrle pitched for the White Sox from 2000-11, then played four more seasons with Miami and Toronto. He received 11.4% of Hall of Fame votes this year, enough to keep him on the ballot.