Clearing The Bases - Issue 033

February 28, 2025

Hello and welcome to Issue 033 of Clearing The Bases, an email newsletter in conjunction with the My Baseball History podcast hosted by Dan Wallach.

The latest episode of the podcast with BRIAN POWERS went live on Wednesday, February 12, so if you haven’t had a chance to listen to that yet, make sure you do. Brian is a licensed architect and the man behind the incredible Bandbox Ballparks project which digitally reconstructs long-forgotten ballparks to preserve their histories.

During our discussion, we talked about the ballparks Brian has saved - both digitally, and in real life - through his work, and it reminded me of a previous guest I’ve had on the podcast: Andy Brown. Andy is an award-winning British artist who has traveled the world painting ballparks and baseball games live, along with the many people who surround them. He was our guest on Episode 8 of Season 1, which went live nearly five years ago.

If you haven’t listened to the episode with Andy yet, you can do that HERE. After years of following Andy on social media, he and I met serendipitously at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa after I recorded my episode with FOD Movie Site tour guide Craig Purcell (Episode 5 of Season 1, which you can listen to HERE).

Andy has remained a close, personal friend all these years, and we have hung out in multiple different states since our first meeting. We’ve seen baseball games together, we’ve gone to an art museum together, we attended the SABR convention in Chicago together, I served him at the bar I used to work at in Wrigleyville, he’s stayed at my house, he’s painted an image for a baseball card set I produced, and he’s even painted me in one of his ballpark paintings during a game we attended together – which I now own. Over the years, his work has become very special to me, and I couldn’t think of a more appropriate time to remind you about his episode, and share some of that work.

Andy has traveled the globe painting sports for over 10 years. He is most renowned for his work painting baseball, which is held in the collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown New York. However, he has painted many other sports including Cricket, Football, American Football, and Formula 1, among others. Usually, Andy goes to those sporting events and paints them live. I have no idea how he does it, even though I’ve watched him do it multiple times. The speed at which he can take in his surroundings, visualize them on the canvas, and then turn that visualization into an actualized piece of art is astounding.

Since he usually needs to start and finish his paintings within a two hour time frame, that urgency is depicted in his style. Quick, broad brush strokes, and lots of movement. It’s hard to really do his work justice in pictures here, because you can’t really see the texture, and the colors don’t pop quite as much as they do in person, but hopefully you’ll get the idea of what his work is all about after seeing the images I’m about to show you.

In the most recent episode with Brian Powers, we spoke about how Brian’s work helped save Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1992, Brian became one of the charter members of the Friends of Rickwood Field, who eventually brought a Major League Baseball game to the historic stadium. Andy Brown painted Rickwood, which you can see below, and on his website HERE.

Brian Powers also talked about his work to help renovate and preserve historic Hamtramck Stadium in Michigan, which was dedicated in 1930 and served as the home of the Detroit Stars and the Detroit Wolves of the Negro Leagues. As many as 17 future Baseball Hall of Famers played there over the years. As one the few remaining Negro League ballparks in the United States, Hamtramck stadium was recognized on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012, but it was in disrepair. Brian helped save it, and it was renovated and reopened to the public in 2022. Andy Brown painted Hamtramck, which you can see below, and on his website HERE.

Brian Powers formed Bandbox Ballparks in 2019 to share his specialized research of our sports architectural heritage, aiming to tell the stories and preserve the architectural legacy of sports venues today to be enjoyed by generations of tomorrow. He has completed the digital restorations of three ballparks, and is currently working on his fourth. One of the ballparks he has completed is League Park in Cleveland. While League Park was torn down decades ago, the original Ticket House is still standing, and is now the home of the Baseball Heritage Museum. Andy Brown painted League Park, which you can see below, and on his website HERE or HERE.

Andy has painted over 120 different ballparks across 15 different countries. He has worked with many teams internationally, documenting their players, training, games, leagues, and tournaments. Andy has even served as the Official Team Artist for the Great Britain baseball team at the World Baseball Classic and European Championships, as well as the Official Team Artist for the Toros De Tijuana of the Liga Mexicana Beisbol.

Andy is the only artist to have painted all 30 MLB baseball stadiums LIVE in one season, which he did during a whirlwind trip in 2019. His work is held by galleries, by Hall of Famers such as David Ortiz and Juan Marichal, and by other private collectors across the globe. His work has received recognition from the BBC, Sky Sports, ESPN, Fox, MLB network and many more media outlets internationally, plus Buckingham Palace and even the board game Trivial Pursuit. While most of his work is done live, Andy has done many paintings of stadiums and other subjects inspired by photographs. This ability especially comes in handy when Andy paints a stadium which no longer exists, such as Ebbets Field, which you can see below, and on his website HERE.

Next time you’re at a ballpark, whether it’s in the United States or anywhere across the globe, keep your eyes peeled for Andy, because he just might be there, painting the game. If you’re not lucky enough to run into him in person, his website has literally hundreds of pieces available for you to buy, whether it be the original painting, a giclee print, or a custom piece which you can commission from him. And again, just because a particular ballpark or stadium may no longer exist, doesn’t mean that Andy can’t paint it for you.

If you’re reading this newsletter right now, you have a chance to enter a giveaway contest no one else knows about. Our latest episode with Brian Powers was brought to you by The Glove Lab in Phoenix, Arizona. The Glove Lab may be a small, family owned business, but it’s a full-service glove pro shop established in 2019 by owner Chris Petroff. Whether your glove is in need of a cleaning, a conditioning, a simple re-lace, or if it needs the works - all the way up to a museum-quality restoration - Chris can help.

The Glove Lab is offering a 15% discount on their full-service package which includes cleaning, conditioning, and re-lacing to all readers of this newsletter if you enter the code MBH15 on their website through the end of the year. If you want to place an order, head to www.TheGloveLab.com to get started.

HOWEVER, The Glove Lab is also giving away a full-service package to one lucky reader, for free! All you have to do is follow both @AZGloveLab and @ShoelessPodcast on Instagram, and like the post we made together on February 28, 2025. Once you do that, you will be entered into a contest to receive a full-service package on the baseball or softball glove or mitt of your choice, thanks to Chris and The Glove Lab.

Don’t forget, it’s a huge help when you Rate and Review the podcast on whatever platform you choose to listen. 5-Star ratings help our podcast get shown on more people’s suggested podcast pages, which means more people will hear our show. It just takes a couple seconds of your time, but it really helps us a lot. And of course, liking us on social media, interacting with our posts, and sharing things with your friends is great, too. Feel free to forward this email to anyone in your life who loves baseball, and hopefully they’ll enjoy the podcast and learn a thing or two. But no matter how you choose to support us, even if it’s just by listening, we appreciate you being here.

Until next time, I’m Dan Wallach, and this is My Baseball History.

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