Inaugural issue of baseball card publication 21 features Jewish Major Leaguers

Since I started blogging about baseball literature and collectibles, I’ve become increasingly enamored with and appreciative of the “art” of the game. Not the way the players perform, but by those who depict those performances through the pencil, the paintbrush, the camera, or any other method.

It’s especially rewarding to find “unknown” artists (although they might take umbrage with the descriptive, and I mean no disrespect; they certainly were unknown to me, but then again, I’m a cretin).

I don’t know exactly when I “discovered” graphic designer Gary Cieradkowski — it was probably during one of my countless Google searches — but he came on the scene via a blog featuring his “Infinite Baseball Card Set” in which he depicted players in out-of-the-ordinary circumstances, that is not their Major League (where applicable) uniforms due to logo issues. Naturally I gravitated to his Sandy Koufax card in his University of Cincinnati uniform, but even that had to be change when the school found out and raised objections.

Not everyone in his set is an all-star or Hall of Famer. The artists likes to give props to the unheralded; in fact, some of these folks never made it to the pros, such as those in the Negro Leagues. But they all make for a good story and a great graphic.

Several of Cierdakowski’s images appear in a weekly baseball “e-zine,” The Outsider Baseball Bulletin, which, according to the publication, is “devoted to baseball history. Each issue features original research, statistics, personal essays, and humor. There will also be stories about baseball-related car crashes, sex scandals, home decorating and….murrrrder!!” Fun.

Cieradkowski has branched out, self-publishing his own magazine, 21: Illustrated Journal of Outsider Baseball. I was honored to receive the first issue, which is devoted to “Jewish Baseball Pioneers & Stars.” In addition to the usual suspects, such as Koufax, Hank Greenberg, and Moe Berg, the 18-page glossy card-stock publication features such notables as

Lipman Pike, the first Jewish professional baseball player
Abel Kiviat, more famously known as an Olympic runner in the early 1900s
Al Schacht, one of the Clown Princes of Baseball
Mose Solomon, the original “Rabbi of Swat”
Baseball lifer Jimmy Reese, born James Herman Solomon, who was still in uniform well into his 80s (and once roomed with Babe Ruth)
“Subway Sam” Nahem, who went on to become a lawyer and union organizer after his playing days
Mickey Rutner, who had a cup of coffee in the Majors, but gained literary immortality as the inspiration for Eliot Asinof’s 1955 novel, Man on Spikes
Guy Zin, the “Honus Wagner” of Jewish baseball card collectibles
Jake Atz, who won 1,972 games as a minor league manager, good for 12th all-time
Harry “Coon” Rosen, softball player extraordinare
Moe Franklin, perhaps the only Jewish player to thrown in with the attempted Mexican League “revolution” in the mid 1940s

Cieradkowski — who is not Jewish, by the way — supplements the stylistic cards with a good portion of research to find the out-of-the-ordinary about each player.

All in all, the inaugural issue of 21 is a great first effort and I hope he continues on his labor-of-love plans for future issues.

For more information, including examples and how to order, click here.