Having a Ball

Sosnak spent decades as a baseball umpire, and if you are living the baseball life, you have a lot of down time. While waiting to work a minor league game in Idaho in 1956, he was asked by a female fan if he could paint her favorite player on a baseball. The amateur painter said yes and the rest is history. He gave her the baseball as a gift. He went on to paint, and give away, hundreds more.

Over time his reputation spread, and he mixed commissioned baseballs with projects of his own. In many cases he would start with a star’s signature, then build his design around it. He memorialized great moments and championship teams, but he also recorded oddities and trivia. There’s a Sosnak ball on the player who was traded for a candy bar. There’s one for Johnny Mostil, by legend the only center fielder to ever register an out by catching a foul ball.

Experts have pored over his life and work since his death in 1992, and above all else there’s this: Sosnak painted because he loved baseball. He painted because he was happy to oblige. It wasn’t about making a living as a painter; his off-season jobs ranged from donut maker to construction worker. He never officially made it to the bigs as an umpire, but from his home in Lakeland, Fla. he umpired spring training games for the Detroit Tigers.

Legendary Tigers manager Sparky Anderson acknowledged both sides of Sosnak’s career in a quote that would have made him proud. “He did the most wonderful job of hand-painting a baseball. He was the best I’ve ever seen at doing his job. He also did a good job of umpiring.”