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players, is known as a great student of the history of the game.
Dick Perez
Dick Perez
Mickey Mantle At Bat
The Diamond King
of Baseball Artists
By Barry Blair, Sports Collectors Digest
ost long-time readers of Sports Collectors Digest
know the name Dick Perez as well as they know
Mthe names Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, and
Sandy Koufax. He is arguably the most accomplished
baseball artist of all time. When asked several years ago
about how many baseball paintings he had done in his
lifetime, he responded, “Somewhere between 2 to
3,000.” Many of those paintings have been turned into
baseball cards and postcards, thus the familiarity with his
name and work by collectors.
Famous Experience
Over the years, Perez has 1994 Donruss Diamond Kings Don
been the “Official Artist” of Mattingly #DK-16 New York Yankees After they broke from Perez, the Diamond
the National Baseball Hall
of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, the
Philadelphia Phillies, and The Roberto Clemente
Foundation. Two former Presidents commis-
sioned baseball paintings from him. Ronald
Reagan asked for one of Hall of Famer Grover
Cleveland Alexander, whom he had portrayed in
the 1952 film, The Winning Team. Bill Clinton
had one done of Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame
shortstop Arky Vaughn, a fellow Arkansan. He did
a commissioned painting for Ichiro Suzuki of a
Signed promo card Japanese stickball game after Suzuki saw one at the
for Diamond Kings HOF that he had done of a game in the streets of
and Dick Perez
New York City. Suzuki, one of baseball’s greatest
Baseball’s Best, contains over 1,400 reproductions of his work in
Perez’s coffee table book, The Immortals, An Art Collection of
560 pages.
A Painter is Born
A native of San
Lorenzo, Puerto Rico,
Perez grew up in Harlem,
then later moved to
Philadelphia with his
family. The Puerto Rico
connection was instru-
mental in his work for the
Clemente Foundation;
each year he paints a
portrait of the Roberto
Clemente Award winner.
Having grown up mostly
in New York City, he
lists Mickey Mantle as
his childhood hero and
all-time favorite player –
probably the reason
Mantle has been one of
Don Drysdale Perez-Steele JSA AB84003
his most prominent
subjects over the years.
Living and working in Philadelphia, he has worked for the
Phillies in some capacity dating to 1972. They honored him
with an art gallery featuring 33 of his baseball paintings on
permanent display at Citizens Bank Park, covering all Hall of
Famers with connections to the city, such as Mike Schmidt,
Chief Bender (Philadelphia As), Reggie Jackson (who grew up
in Philly), and Phillies executive Pat Gillick.
Diamond Kings/Turkey Reds/
Allen & Ginter
His influence in the baseball card
collectibles hobby started with the Diamond
Kings art cards he produced for Donruss
from 1982 to 1996. Each season, one player
was selected to represent every team, and
these were the first cards in the set. By ‘96,
the card industry had changed dramatically,
overcome by too many brands mass-
producing cards, leading to market saturation,
and Donruss soon became a financial casualty.
The brand would change hands, eventually
disappearing from the scene for a few years.
It returned as an offshoot of Panini and was
produced without a major league license, so
the cards contain no MLB logos, including
the Diamond Kings cards.
Kings eventually became available in their
own boxes and sets, no longer just as inserts
within the Donruss packs. At that point, they employed several
different artists to work on each set. They were good, but they
never had quite the same appeal as the originals. With a careful
eye, you can spot the name Perez at the bottom of his cards.
Perez returned to baseball cards with Topps in 2007, doing
Turkey Red cards, including cards of his favorite player,
Mantle. He also did some insert cards for the Allen & Ginter
brand as well. Topps, which now holds the license for all MLB
cards, has several art cards available in its lineup today,
including the very popular Allen & Ginter and Gypsy Queen
brands. While art cards have been around in one form or another
since the late 1800s, a great deal of credit should go to Perez for
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