Cook was honored to be elected to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame

But he was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame on Monday.

“How about this?” Cook said with a laugh in a telephone interview on Monday.

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

The Class of 2025 for the Commonwealth Sports Hall of Fame was announced Monday. Other notable names in the nine-member class include 1975 Martinsville High School graduate and former Detroit Tigers second baseman Lou Whitaker; college basketball television analyst and former University of Virginia basketball player Dan Bonner; former soccer star Ali Krieger; Ex-NBA player Joe Smith; and former Ferrum football star Ed George.

The course will debut in Virginia Beach in April.

“Pretty humbling,” said Cook, who learned of his selection last month. “I didn’t expect that at all. Being part of this group – there are some pretty high rollers. Really. It’s truly an honor to be a part of it.”

Cook, 64, is president of the Brightview Sports Turf Division, which manages operations for Major League Baseball’s special games in the United States and abroad. When Major League Baseball needs to build a field for a special MLB game or adapt 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 team with me for about 25 years, so we know what the MLB needs… and we’re able to produce some pretty unique things.”

One of Cook’s latest projects will be converting Bristol Motor Speedway into a site for an Aug. 2 game between the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves.

“Doing what we’re building down at Bristol Speedway… will be pretty unique,” ​​Cook said. “How this comes together in the time we have to do it, in 30 days, will be fun.

“The entire field will be built in the middle of the row of pits. To level it we have to bring in almost 17,000 tons of stones and gravel to be able to build a field on it. … There’s also everything else (to do) – fencing, backstops, … the bullpens, locker rooms.”

One of his other new projects will be preparing the Tokyo Dome for two games between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs in March.

“When you do something in another country … they have nice parks and we have to work with them and make a few changes here and there to bring it up to the MLB level,” Cook said.

Earlier this year, Cook transformed the Sky Dome in South Korea into the venue for games between the Dodgers and San Diego Padres. He transformed a baseball stadium in Mexico City into a venue for the Houston-Colorado games. He had just 18 days to make London Stadium the venue for the games between the New York Mets and Philadelphia.

Also this year, Cook helped transform the 114-year-old Rickwood Field, a former Negro League baseball stadium in Birmingham, Alabama, into the site of a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants.

“We spent a lot of time trying to maintain the historic features,” Cook said. “A special event.”

Cook helped build a baseball stadium next to the site of the film “Field of Dreams” in Iowa for a 2021 game between the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox.

“There was nothing out there but corn,” Cook.

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

In 2017, he converted a minor league stadium 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 build baseball fields for three Summer Olympics.

George will be inducted into the Hall of Fame as a recipient of the Hall’s Distinguished Virginian Award.

“That surprised me,” George, 78, said in a telephone interview. “When you’ve been a poor kid all your life and you’ve had a bad childhood experience…you appreciate that stuff.”…So I’m very happy with that.”

The EC 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 Gray Cups in the CFL and was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

“Ferrum gave me a chance,” George said. “I came from a very bad childhood life. I had the bad stepfather… was beaten a lot. Ferrum gave me the chance to go to college.

“Coach Norton…taught people what discipline was all about – how to train and how to stay focused.”

George, a Charlottesville resident, formerly worked for an investment firm.

“I consider myself as successful in business as I am in sports,” George said.

Whitaker played 19 seasons with the Tigers. He had 2,369 hits, 244 home runs, 1,084 RBIs and 1,386 runs. The former American League Rookie of the Year and five-time All-Star helped Detroit win the World Series in 1984.

Bonner is an analyst for the ACC Network’s men’s basketball broadcasts and anchors NCAA Tournament games for CBS and Turner Sports. The Staunton resident was a former commentator of ACC games for Raycom and for the ACC’s regional cable package.

Smith excelled at Maury High School and 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 former 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 sportswriter Harry Minium.