Author: Baseball Buddha

Graig Kreindler’s goal is clear “to portray the national pastime in an era when players were accessibly human, and the atmosphere of a welcoming ballpark was just as important as what happened on the field.”  I read that line on the landing page of Graig’s website after a color picture of Christy Mathewson showed up on one of my social media feeds. 

I could never fully visualize baseball from the turn of the last century through the 1950s, since it was in black and white, until a colorized ruggedly handsome Mathewson appeared.  Mathewson in my head was a fictional character, as was Ruth, Gehrig, and Josh Gibson.

Mathewson led me to Kreindler and his emotive paintings of the National Pastime, there was depth to what I saw, no longer a grainy picture but a realness to the moment.  For Kreindler getting the moment right historically is important, it is what drives him, consciously or subconsciously it brings him to the warm summer days of the late 1980s at Yankee Stadium with his family watching batting practice, soaking in the sun as Bob Sheppard’s stately voice soothes the excitable.

Kreindler’s line “…and the atmosphere of a welcoming ballpark was just as important…”, reinforces the feeling of being at or in a stadium with great sight lines, acoustics, and aromas overwhelming the senses and bringing many to a kid like state of euphoria, as they escape the day-to-day grind and stresses of life while attending a ball game and venue that provides this temporal goodness.

I am a nostalgia aficionado, I romanticize moments, players, and teams all the time, it is what I am searching for when I attend games. Going back to Graig’s line, “…in an era when players were accessibly human…”, romanticizing players is what Kreindler does so well, he brings the “accessibly human” part to bear, as Norman Rockwell did with everyday moments, Graig does for baseball. (Graig has won the Norman Rockwell Museum Award and Illustration Academy Award from the Society of Illustrators

Understanding the mindset of baseball players and fans helps to understand Graig, he is obsessive, not in a mentally debilitating way but in getting the symmetry of the moment correct.  To Graig the color of a sign on the outfield wall, the clouds in the sky, shadows on the field, and the dampness of the uniform are as important to him as the batting average, ERA, and wins are to players.  

I was quite nervous to talk to Graig, he has a considerable following, he sells his artwork to well healed collectors, he has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, National Review and a host of other media outlets.  He was very gracious and extremely modest, married to a writer who isn’t a baseball fan but knows Sandy Koufax was a Dodger.  

Graig says it is a godsend to have a partner that understands when he is cursing and breaking brushes or when she is banging her head on the keyboard.  He doesn’t think a non-creative would understand what is going on in his headspace and why it is imperative to get the fold of a uniform just right, as he has stated many times, “Artistic license for him is not an option”.

The refreshing part of Graig and the connection he has to baseball, from his name pronounced Greg like Graig Nettles, 3^rd baseman of the Yankees in the 1970s and 1980s, whom he was named after since his dad is a huge Yankee fan, is he was just trying to stand apart from the rest of his classmates at New York’s School of Visual Arts. 

Growing up he was the “school artist” he was just good at drawing things and wanted to fit in wherever he could, it didn’t cross his mind that he was going to make a career doing baseball visual history, he did assume he would do something in the arts, but when he got into NY-SVA the realization that all of his classmates were the “school artist” set in and he needed to find a genre he was interested in, thus baseball became prominent.  

As fans, we tend to forget how memories were/are created in our minds as we attend the sterile version the MLB gives us in today’s day and age, we are spoiled by the convenience and untroubled by baseballs dark past.  Even the darkness has a romantic side, with Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, and Hank Aaron.  Graig says there is constant pressure to preform and provide for his two kids, “…but there’s also pressure to fulfill whatever it is that we need to do creatively and make the kind of work that we’re proud of,” he says.  For Graig it is painting the forgotten, the less notable especially the Negro League players like he did of Josh Gibson in “Quiet Confidence”.

I found Graig to be “accessibly human”, his honesty and openness about what he is trying to accomplish with his art is humbling, his surprise when I call him brilliant confuses me, he is still amazed that people think his work is good and are willing to pay good money for it.  He acknowledges that he is “competent” at what he does but he says he is not in the league of Norman Rockwell, I disagree.

To see more of Graig’s amazing work his website is https://www.graigkreindler.com/ .

Hear Graig in Ballpark Confidential Podcast’s first interview below, don’t forget to hit the follow button.

Also please check out https://baseballbuddha.com/shop/ and purchase a t-shirt or get one from SwingJuice at https://swingjuice.pxf.io/c/3448355/1…  and Lids at  https://lids.7q8j.net/VyKz96

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I opened the door to the press box that sat on top of the stands, the hot and humid room smelled of body order, there were nine mid 20 somethings that looked over.  No one asked me who I was or what I was doing.  I took possession of the chair by the door, it was the only spot left, I set up my equipment, I wasn’t going to be able to write.

I was nervous for some reason, I was here for the guys in the press box, record them as they dictated the show that was happening on the field and in the stands. The Kingfish announcer was at one end and the Kalamazoo radio play by play guy on the other and directly in front of me.  

The public address guy was in the middle next to the official scorer, the PA guy might be early to mid 30s, he had an ease about him; he has done this before, this was the 2nd game of the season but this wasn’t his 2nd game.  

There was a camera guy between the PA and Kingfish announcer, he looked at me a few times, I was waiting for him to ask me who I was, for whatever reason he didn’t, the guy between the official scorer and the Kalamazoo announcer was working the scoreboard, he seemed nervous, like it was his 2nd game.

There were 3 guys directly to my left, the guy closest was producing the TV or Internet broadcast, he was excitable he kept calling out the cameras and complimenting the operators, he was easy to like, he kept spitting seeds. The guy next to him was assisting, the 3rd, I never figured out what he was doing on his computer.   

One guy kept coming into the booth to tell the announcer and scoreboard operator what was going to happen between innings, he also shook my hand but never told me who he was, he brought burgers and hot dogs for everyone late in the game, I didn’t take one, these boys needed their free meal.  

During the 2nd inning I went around the ballpark and recorded all the sights and sounds, it was a perfect night for baseball, mid 80s, slight breeze, excitable crowd of 3500, half being kids.  The smell of the press box got me again when I walked back in, I tripped a little from the carpet that was tore up.  I took a couple of pictures, I was smiling the entire game.  

I heard the Kingfish play by play guy tell his audience that like the players, all the guys in booth  were trying to get to the next level.  I wanted to tell him to soak this in, this is baseball, the grind of the day to day, the excitement of the new season, Kenosha is special, it has moxy, it isn’t sterile.  

I kept listening to the Growlers announcer in front of me, I liked his voice and how he announced the game, I couldn’t see the batters box, when the pitcher released the ball I waited for the crack of the bat when I didn’t hear anything I tuned in to the announcers.  They were young Vin Scully’s I thought, serious unlike Uecker. 

When the game ended, I packed up my gear, the Growlers announcer shook my hand and asked who I was, I told him I was the Baseball Buddha, he asked if I was on Twitter, he followed me, I followed him, I believe he will go far, this is the baseball I love.  I enjoy being in the MLB press box but I forget what it took to get there,  the guys in the Kingfish box reminded me, soak it all in, the season goes fast, seasons go fast.

Please follow my podcast Ballpark Confidential and subscribe to my YouTube channel to hear more of the press box and see the great show the Kenosha Kingfish put on, these will be available in a couple of weeks, subscribe to the Baseball Buddha Newsletter, it should have popped up. Check out the Baseball Buddha T-Shirts and support SwingJuice!

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