Salem grad Cook humbled to be chosen for Virginia Sports Hall of Fame

But he was named Monday to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

"How about that, huh?" Cook said with a chuckle Monday in a phone interview.

Cook, a Roanoke County resident who once served as the groundskeeper for the Salem Pirates and Salem Buccaneers, has been the field and stadium consultant for Major League Baseball since 1991.

The class of 2025 for the commonwealth's sports hall of fame was announced Monday.

Other names of note in the nine-person class include 1975 Martinsville High School graduate and former Detroit Tigers second baseman Lou Whitaker; college basketball television analyst and ex-University of Virginia basketball player Dan Bonner; former soccer star Ali Krieger; ex-NBA player Joe Smith; and former Ferrum football standout Ed George.

The class will be inducted in April in Virginia Beach.

"Pretty humbling," said Cook, who learned of his selection last month.

"Wasn't expecting that one at all.

To be part of that group some pretty high rollers there.

Really.

really honored to be a part of it." Cook, 64, is president of the Brightview Sports Turf Division, which manages the operations for Major League Baseball's special games in the U.S.

and overseas.

When Major League Baseball needs to build a field for a special MLB game or tailor an existing stadium for a special game, it turns to Cook.

"I enjoy sharing what I've learned over the years," Cook said.

"I've been fortunate to have the same crew with me for 25 years or so, so we know what MLB needs ...

and we're able to produce some pretty unique things." One of Cook's newest projects will be turning Bristol Motor Speedway into the site of an Aug.

2 game between the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves.

"Doing what we're building down in the Bristol speedway ...

is going to be quite unique," Cook said.

"How that's going to come together in the time we have to do it, in 30 days, is going to be fun.

"The entire field's being built in the middle of pit row.

To level it, we're having to bring in almost 17,000 tons of stone and gravel just to be able to build a field on top of it.

...

Along with that, there's everything else (to do) fencing, backstop, ...

the bullpens, locker rooms." One of his other new projects will be getting the Tokyo Dome ready for two games between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs in March.

"Whenever you do things in another country, ...

they have nice parks and we've got to come in and work with them and make some changes here and there to get it to an MLB level," Cook said.

Earlier this year, Cook turned the Sky Dome in South Korea into the site of games between the Dodgers and San Diego Padres.

He turned a Mexico City ballpark into the site of games between Houston and Colorado.

He had just 18 days to turn London Stadium into the site of games between the New York Mets and Philadelphia.

Also this year, Cook helped turn 114-year-old Rickwood Field, a former Negro League ballpark in Birmingham, Alabama, into the site of a game between the St.

Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants.

"We spent a lot of time trying to keep the historical features," Cook said.

"A special event." Cook helped build a ballpark next to the setting of the "Field of Dreams" movie in Iowa for a 2021 game between the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox.

"There was nothing out there but corn," Cook.

In 2016, Cook helped build a ballpark on an old golf course at Fort Bragg for a game between the Braves and Marlins.

In 2017, he turned a minor-league ballpark in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, into an MLB-certified ballpark for a game between Pittsburgh and the Chicago Cubs.

The MLB Little League Classic has become an annual event.

He also helped construct baseball fields for three Summer Olympics.

George will be going into the hall of fame as the recipient of the hall's Distinguished Virginian award.

"I was surprised by it," George, 78, said in a phone interview.

"If you've been a poor boy all your life and you come from a bad childhood experience, ...

you value this stuff.

...

So I'm very pleased with it." The E.C.

Glass High School graduate was an offensive lineman and tight end for Ferrum Junior College in 1967 and 1968.

He then played for Wake Forest and in the Canadian Football League and the NFL.

He helped Montreal win two Grey Cups in the CFL and was chosen for the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

"Ferrum gave me a chance," George said.

"I came from a very bad child life.

I had the bad stepfather, ...

got beat up a lot.

Ferrum gave me a chance to go to college.

"Coach Norton ...

taught people what discipline was about how to train, how to stay focused." George, a Charlottesville resident, used to work for an investment firm.

"I consider myself as successful in business as I was in sports," George said.

Whitaker played 19 seasons with the Tigers.

He had 2,369 hits, 244 homers, 1,084 RBIs and 1,386 runs scored.

The former American League rookie of the year and five-time All-Star helped Detroit win the 1984 World Series.

Bonner is an analyst for ACC Network men's basketball telecasts and does NCAA Tournament games for CBS and Turner Sports.

The Staunton resident used to be a commentator on ACC games for Raycom and for the ACCs regional cable package.

Smith shined at Maury High School and at Maryland before playing 16 seasons in the NBA.

Krieger, a Forest Park High School graduate, helped the U.S.

women's soccer team win two World Cups.

The class also includes ex-Hampton High School football coach Mike Smith; Virginia Beach native and former Virginia Wesleyan basketball star Brandon Adair; and former Richmond News Leader and Virginian-Pilot sports writer Harry Minium..

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