In 1969, the same year that Mobilians Cleon Jones, Amos Otis and Tommy Agee patrolled the outfield for the Amazin’ Mets and their run to the world championship, Willie McCovey was terrorizing pitchers throughout the National League.

“No one wanted to pitch to him that year,” said Cleon Jones, recalling McCovey’s MVP season in which he led the National League in home runs, RBIs, on-base and slugging percentages. McCovey, a Mobile native, was a first baseman for the San Francisco Giants. Also slugging home runs that season was Hank Aaron, also a Mobile native, whose Braves would play the Mets in that season’s National League Championship Series.

“I’ve been (asked) all around this country (about the MLB and NFL greats) …how do you get these kind of players from a small city like Mobile?” Jones said on Wednesday. “Hank Aaron used to say, ‘It’s in the water.’”

Soon, the statues of the hall of famers will be erected near Mobile’s waterfront. A groundbreaking ceremony for the approximately $9 million project took place on Wednesday adjacent to the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center, where the plaza will be constructed.

“It’s really about us being able to recognize those who brought recognition to the city,” Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said.

Jones called the development a “dream” of his to recognize Mobile’s unique contribution to Major League Baseball – the city, per capita, has the most homegrown members inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.: Aaron, McCovey, Satchel Paige, Billy Williams and Ozzie Smith.

All five of those baseball greats will be joined by National Football League Hall of Famer and Mobilian Robert Brazile Jr. as the representatives of Heroes Plaza. Nine-foot-tall bronze statues those six Hall of Famers, currently being made by Michigan sculptor Brett Grill, will be installed in Heroes Plaza once it opens approximately this time next year.

The statues will be placed on pedestals. A seventh pedestal, sans a statue, will also be built to allow people to have their picture taken standing amid the Hall of Famers from Mobile.

Brazile, the only Hall of Famer at the groundbreaking, seemed to be elated over the project. He was accompanied to the groundbreaking with his 91-year-old parents, Ola Mae and Robert Sr.

Brazile, a linebacker once nicknamed “Dr. Doom,” played for the NFL’s Houston Oilers from 1975-1984.

“I want to cry,’ he said. “I’ll have a 9-foot-tall statue (of me) that my grandkids and all of the people who know me and what Mobile has done for me … it’s such an honor for me.”

Heroes Plaza will also serve as an entry point to Cooper Riverside Park, where the city envisions hosting more community events and concerts.

It will also be within a short walking distance to the RSA Battle House Tower, where the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame board of directors is hopeful to add an interactive exhibit honoring professional athletes who came from Mobile.

The Mobile County Commission voted on Nov. 13, to appropriate $300,000 to support the museum contingent on matching support from the Mobile City Council. The city could be asked to pitch in an additional $500,000 to support the project.

Stimpson told AL.com that the Hall of Fame representatives have been in contact with the Mobile City Council about the project.

“Once they get the city council on board, we’ll pursue that,” Stimpson said.

Stimpson and Brazile credited Jones, a member of the Mets Hall of Fame, for driving the Heroes Plaza concept. Jones, however, has a vision of recognizing even more former professional stars from Mobile with a concept that he calls “Field of Dreams.”

Stimpson said there are talks about adding a display recognizing additional sports stars from Mobile – including the 1969 Mets outfield. But he said there is no final plan developed.

“We’ve had a couple of ideas on how to display it,” he said. “We’re trying to determine how we properly represent it.”