There are few things in the world more subjective than art. That said, the artwork that we’ve plunked down into the pages of Sports Collectors Digest over the last 15 years has been so uniformly compelling that its popularity has been quite broadly embraced, which is extraordinarily gratifying.

That very association with SCD helped us entice two of those amazing contributors, Darryl Vlasak and Charles De Simone, to include some of their original pieces in the upcoming Collect.com Auction that marks the inaugural effort by our company into that arena. Both artists are also featured in the Yankee Stadium book that Krause Publications released this month.


Vlasak’s and De Simone’s work couldn’t be more different, save for rather significant point of intersection: a photo realism that borders on the uncanny, even though directed in two vastly different fashions.

De Simone’s work elevates the memorabilia of the greats of the game to almost iconic status, telling the story of the ballplayer in an array of artifacts that look so real you want to reach out and pluck them off the canvas. Vlasak’s talent is to bring the famous ballplayers a sense of humanity and realness that goes far beyond the ballpark in giving the viewer a glimpse not remotely available in a faded photograph or musty newspaper clipping.

Vlasak has originals of Walter Johnson (shown), Joe Jackson and a single painting of Babe Ruth and Miller Huggins in the auction; De Simone’s lineup includes Brooks Robinson(shown),Ernie Banks and Stan Musial.

It might normally be considered gilding the lily to point out that the De Simone works also include an actual autograph from the player himself, except that this particular nuance is an intrinsic part of the unique, 100-plus piece “set” that he has created over the last 20 years.

Both artists are nothing short of sensational.