Spring Premier Auction 2016

Perhaps only Leroy Neiman's name is more recognizable to collectors when it comes to the field of sports art. And while the styles of these two celebrated artists couldn't be more different, their love and appreciation for the subjects of their work is evident. George Sosnak began his career in baseball as an umpire of military games in Germany after the Second World War, later attending umpiring school in Florida, where he called balls and strikes at Detroit Tigers Spring Training games. It was around this time that Sosnak began to develop his distinctive folk art style, characterized by charmingly crude figures and painstakingly rendered text and statistics applied with almost mathematical precision. Although Sosnak was a prolific artist, by some accounts creating over 800 illustrated baseballs, the popularity of his works has continued to grow with each passing decade. Those commemorating historic events, such as this example, have always been particularly highly prized by collectors. Sosnak is nearly as well known in the folk-art community as he is in the field of baseball collectibles, so it is no surprise that examples of his work can be found in both the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and the American Folk Art Museum in New York City. One of Sosnak's balls (detailing JFK’s Opening Day pitch at a 1962 Senators game) can even be found in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.

This particular baseball depicts Urban Red Faber’s Baseball Hall of Fame plaque from Sosnak’s “Hall of Fame” series that featured Cooperstown plaques and stats. The text provides copious biographical information pertaining to Faber’s career. Urban "Red" Faber spent the entirety of his 20-year major league career with the Chicago White Sox and his many accomplishments are listed here in the recreation of his Hall of Fame plaque. Faber was the last legal spitball pitcher in MLB history.