Muralert (Mural Alert)! Gas House Gang of 1934

Minor league baseball started a month later than the big leagues in 2021 after a rough, nonexistent season in 2020 due to unprecedented international health concerns. The city in which I live is home to the St. Louis Cardinals' Double-A farm team, the Springfield Cardinals. The next level up is AAA in Memphis Tennessee before the BIG SHOW in St. Louis. This is actually the second time the Cardinals had a team in Springfield. The original Springfield Cardinals played from 1931 to 1946. Dizzy Dean and Stan Musial came up through the team.

I was thrilled (to the point of giddy) to be asked in February to design a mural at Hammons Field where our AA team plays, just outside Downtown Springfield, MO. I chose the theme of the 1934 Gashouse Gang, and I had a "ball" delving into St. Louis Cardinals history, baseball history, graphics of the '30s, auction houses, baseball cards and eBay to find reference I needed and to grab photos to frame around the other walls of the space. 

The mural is 21.5 ft long and 9 ft tall. I sketched what I wanted on paper and then worked up the images in the computer using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I bought a small Wacom Cintique this year which really helped when drawing in the texture. I had measured the walls once in February to get the basic dimensions  and ran my drafts into a mockup photo to present my ideas to management. After the imagery was approved, I went back to the stadium to take detailed measurements of the outlets, light switches, door stopper and thermostat to make sure nothing would disrupt the flow of the design. I made adjustments and then sent the large file to a local sign company to print and install like strips of adhesive wallpaper. I wanted a matte print since it is by some windows and the dirty 30s theme might get lost if it had too much luster.

Gashouse Gang player sketch using Golden Ratio.

First draft drawing the shapes in Illustrator sampling colors from 1934 baseball cards.

Simplified version removing the sharp, high knee as he starts running. It was a little confusing understanding the anatomy of the first draft. I then removed the outlines and recolored to match the rest of the mural, pasted into Photoshop and added texture.

The original sketch for Dizzy Dean was going to be for a personal project depicting Satchel Paige

I made adjustments to bring the pitcher higher in the frame to show his whole body and bring more prominence. After I had drawn the sketch a year ago for something else, I found some amazing 1970s Chicago Cubs artwork which had a similar idea, and one had a cool circle frame with stars that I wanted to employ. Don't tell my Cardinals friends that I am in love with old Cubs program artwork. Especially some of the Art Deco-style illustrations-it's just the best!

The print was to go around a corner and onto the door, but the installers couldn't wrap the thin door frame. So on a rainy opening day morning, I brought over my paints and patched the corner and painted the door frame as best I could. It's not perfect, but it keeps your eye from getting stuck on the door and keeps the flow moving.

The corner after the mural was installed and I painted on the door frame.

Panorama view of the complete, Gashouse Gang mural

Me with the mural on opening day, May 4, 2021

Easter egg alert! I scanned in a 1930s baseball card of a player who originally came up through the Springfield Cardinals. The card showed a baseball in his glove. I knew I wanted to enlarge it for the wall so I redrew it and changed out the colored photo head because of the bad moire dot pattern. In game seven, I believe, in the 1934 World Series, "Ducky" slid safe into the Detroit third baseman in a pretty violent way, and Detroit fans were not happy about it. The next inning, the fans were throwing fruit and vegetables at him when he was in the outfield. It got so bad, Commissioner Kinnesaw Mountain Landis stopped the game and sent Ducky to the locker room for his own protection! I changed the ball to an apple to help tell the story.