Famed Artist Shocks Fans with Favorite Baseball Card Reveal
Baseball card collectors of the 1980s and 1980s may or may not know the name Dick Perez, but they almost certainly know of the Diamond Kings cards he created for Donruss during that time. Of the 400+ portraits he painted, collectors might assume his favorite was a top superstar like Ken Griffey, Jr., Bo Jackson, or Nolan Ryan. Now the new film "The Diamond King" answers the question definitively with an answer no collector expected.
With the public release of "The Diamond King," fans and collectors now have a chance to learn the inspiring and largely untold story of Dick Perez, the artist behind some of the most popular and unique baseball cards of the 1980s and 1990s. As the film's title suggests, these cards are of course the Donruss Diamond Kings, which debuted in 1982 and ran continuously with Perez artwork through 1996.
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Over the course of that 15-year run, Perez gave the "Diamond King" treatment to nearly every major star in the game, some of them more than once. The result is that the Diamond King roster is an absolute who's who of the biggest names in baseball and the Hobby. As far as Cooperstown cred, the set includes more than 100 cards of Hall of Famers, including inner circle inductees such as Nolan Ryan, Ken Griffey, Jr., and Johnny Bench. Add to that the many legends collectors presumed would get their call from the Hall: Doc Gooden, Dale Murphy, Don Mattingly, and of course Pete Rose! Had a favorite player growing up in the late 1900s? Good chance he was a Diamond King!
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Ask a dozen collectors which Donruss Diamond King was their personal favorite, and you might get a dozen different answers, but ask collectors which was the favorite of Dick Perez and you'd likely get shrugs or some very wrong guesses. Growing up in New York, Perez idolized Mickey Mantle and even dreamed of replacing him in the Yankees outfield someday, his own .188 batting average notwithstanding. Of course, Mickey Mantle was never a Donruss Diamond King, at least not during the Dick Perez era. Ditto Roberto Clemente, who Dick came to idolize later on as the greatest of all Latin players from his native Puerto Rico.
In the film, audiences learn Dick eventually moved to Philadelphia and became a Phillies fan. Of course art doesn't always imitate life as Dick identifies a painting he did of various 1970s Phillies stars as the worst painting he ever did. Of course, his Diamond Kings cards are another matter: Pete Rose (1982), Steve Carlton (1983), and Mike Schmidt (1984) led off for the Phils and offered about as potent a big three as any team of the era could claim. However, the Diamond King Perez named his favorite played for five different teams, not one of them Philadelphia.
How about Puerto Rican superstars such as Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez or Roberto Alomar? Once again the answer is no, though Dick's favorite Diamond King was born on an island in the Caribbean. So who was it? Knowing it would take most collectors a hundred guesses or more, it's best at this point simply to reveal the card.
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Believe it or not, the Diamond King that artist Dick Perez identified as his favorite of all-time is the 1995 Chili Davis. Dick noted being particularly fond of this year's design and artistic style, both of which marked departures from prior years. Given that Dick's original training was as a designer and the bulk of his professional career was as an artist, perhaps it's no surprise that his favorite Diamond King of them all has nothing to do with the player but has everything to do with the aesthetics of the card. Of course, for collectors the revelation--one of many in the new film--was about as surprising as opening up their first pack of 1982 Donruss, only to find a card that looked like it should be hanging in the Louvre.
Jason A. Schwartz is a collectibles expert whose work can be found regularly at SABR Baseball Cards, Hobby News Daily, and 1939Bruins.com. His collection of Hank Aaron baseball cards and memorabilia is currently on exhibit at the Atlanta History Center, and his collectibles-themed artwork is on display at the Honus Wagner Museum and PNC Park.