Beauty of a Game

I may not have been the coolest 1st grader at Windsor Elementary, but my lunchbox begged to differ.

What I dream about finding at flea markets vs. what I typically find at flea markets.

Doesn’t stop me from going, the thrill is in the hunt. Although I may have to wait for it to cool off some here in SC before I venture back out again. This past weekend was brutal.

Do you check out flea markets and yard sales looking for cards and other baseball memorabilia?

Reply ❤️ for "Yes, regularly!"

Reply ✅ for "Sometimes"

Reply 👎 for "No, never"

🔥⚾️🎨 Hank Aaron of the Indianapolis Clowns, on a repurposed 1952 postcard, by artist Gypsy Oak.

This pic was taken at a baseball art exhibit so you can see some glare & my faint outline. Now that it’s in my collection, I should probably take a cleaner one.

A comic book ad, for baseball cards, that are found on boxes of snack cakes.

If there were a Venn diagram of my childhood obsessions, this is pretty much the center of it.

Happy Heavenly Birthday to Hometown Hero Tom Brewer, of Cheraw, SC.

To learn more about Tom check out my article "In Honor of a Hometown Hero" on the Beauty of a Game Substack: https://beautyofagame.substack.com/p/in-honor-of-a-hometown-hero

Boys’ Life magazine, April 1952. Cover illustration by Carol Johnson.

#8 Catching - is that supposed to be Yogi?

in 1985 college football fans could pay a couple of bucks for a Georgia vs. Alabama program, featuring this awesome cover illustration by UGA alum Jack Davis.

“I looked over to ‘Scoop’, and I said, ‘Man, we got all brothers out here,’” - Dave Cash

in 1971, the Pittsburgh Pirates fielded the first all-Black and Afro-Latino starting lineup in Major League Baseball history.

🔥⚾️🎨 🎨: Hank Aaron, by artist Brent Naughton. I love the way Brent builds up those colored pencils over layers of washes to really get those colors to pop. Trust me, online viewing doesn’t do it justice!

This was the first piece of Brent’s work I ever saw, years ago at the now-defunct annual “Baseball as Art” exhibit at the Cleveland County Arts Council in Shelby, NC. It always offered a chance to see amazing works by some of the biggest names in sports art, all in one huge room. It’s a shame they no longer host that exhibit, it’s sorely missed.

Brent Naughton Sports Artist

Even a dozen years later, the graphics for 2014’s “No No: A Dockumentary” still leave me floored.

And the film itself is just as awesome.