An interesting story showing how baseball can work itself into our daily lives, seeping into our subconscious, and briefly weaving through the lives of three strangers.
Early last fall, I discovered the work of Mark Penxa, specifically his series depicting images inspired by baseball: Stealing Signs, Dead-ball Era Baseball, Memories From My Last Life; 1927. I remember viewing the collection online, noting which of the 100 images depicted St. Louis Cardinals & Browns, and asking my wife which I should order for my office or Isaac’s room. And then, of course, I completely forgot to order. Actually, I forgot about the works entirely, blissfully unaware that the images were quickly selling out: these were all 1/1’s.
Fast forward to last week. I signed Isaac up for a 2008 Heroes Box at Jawdys Basement hoping for the Cardinals, or at least cards he can trade for Cardinals. What we got was so much more. After a lackluster break (just Mets colored parallels), we received two offers for “shared” hits: Dave at Fielder’s Choice offered to give us the shared hit outright while Ernest at Blue Heaven offered the shared hit for a small trade. One thing leading to another, we settled on another side trade: his Cardinals for our Dodgers. More on that later… noting only that Ernest mentioned a Grover Alexander card he was sending our way.
I flew to Guadalajara on Monday, an adventure in and of itself: late connections, arriving at my gate at O'Hare while the doors were literally closing, and discovering my bags had not made it with me to Mexico. After the Monday chaos, a full workload on Tuesday, and a night of Paloma’s waiting for me Tuesday evening, something triggered memories of Stealing Signs that afternoon. I grabbed my Blackberry, eventually found Mark’s site, and after a few technical difficulties, inquired about a piece I wanted all those months ago: Untitled #003:
Amazingly, the piece was still available and I pestered Mark for payment information to ensure I would be the eventual owner. Unbeknownst to me, Mark had recently learned of a close friend’s death and I felt horrible for my “just making sure you got my message” email. I apologized as clumsily through email as I would have in person. Mark assured me it was no trouble and actually shared a few details of his loss. It turns out the gentleman who inspired Stealing Signs passed away earlier on Tuesday: I asked about 003 a few hours later. He thought it was great that someone asked about the series on the day of his passing, asked to re-enable the web presentation, and purchased a print from the series.
Emboldened by coincidence, I asked who, if anyone, was depicted in 003. I did a quick check on baseball reference sites for the 1927 Cardinals roster but nothing stood out. I boarded my flight home none the wiser. Later that afternoon, I saw that Mark had replied back: the player was Grover Alexander. When I got home, Isaac was excited to open the box that had arrived earlier and inside, among some great 80’s / 90’s era Cardinals and a Lou Brock pin was a Grover Alexander card. Ernest had included a 1950 Grover Alexander Callahan card (he had to tell me, I have no clue on these things).
Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.
Foot note: Looking through Isaac’s cards, I think the artwork is probably based on the photo from these Conlon cards. The 48 marks above his left shoulder probably correspond to Alexander’s 48 strikeouts in 1927.
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