Casey At The Bat
Casey At The Bat
2015
oil on canvas with wood
38 x 84
Collection of the National Pastime Museum, San Francisco, CA
Commissioned by the National Pastime Museum to create a work based on the famous baseball poem by Ernest Thayer, my version of “Casey At The Bat” is based on the most famous of marquee match-ups in Negro League baseball: Satchel Paige vs. Josh Gibson. As I was finishing this painting and moving to complete the background, the leaves were turning outside and the World Series was unfolding on my television. My initial conception of a sultry summer match-up turned toward the cold, hard facts of autumn instead. As the poem was written in it’s time during the late 1800’s, I decided to include the courthouse from my hometown, built in the same era, to subtly remind us that baseball is a game of rules and judgments. The factory on the other side of town has more obvious connotations as the words "Thayer Paper Co." are painted on the facade.