Artist, hobby legend Dick Perez featured in new ‘Diamond King’ documentary

I've got a confession to make. I opened a good share of 1982 Donruss Baseball packs but I don't remember the first Diamond King I ever pulled.

Was it Pete Rose, Nolan Ryan, Dave Kingman? What I do remember was the impact of me seeing these different art cards coming out of my packs. I was enamored.

Growing up as a kid collector in Brooklyn Topps was in my blood. For that reason and poor design 1981 Donruss didn't do it for me. Topps still held the belt.

However, what they did a year later would leave an indelible mark on my collecting thoughts and habits.

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As a kid I would rip a few packs of every baseball card release each year, and then determine which brand moved me the most. That became the brand that got the bulk of my allowance.

Seeing those Diamond Kings for the first time in 1982 was different than anything I had seen in my three years collecting. It really opened my mind to cards that didn't have that Topps logo on them.

Soon my collection was expanding.

Recently on Episode 230 of Sports Card Nation podcast I was privileged to sit down and talk with the man behind the cards that opened my 10-year-old collecting mind — legendary artist Dick Perez. Also joining him was acclaimed director Marq Evans, whose films “The Glamour and the Squalor” (2015) about ground-breaking Seattle DJ Marco Collins and ”Claydream” (2021), which chronicled claymation/animator master Will Vinton's rise and fall as a cinema innovator, were both critically acclaimed.

Now Perez is the subject for his latest biopic “The Diamond King” set to be released in 2024.

Also See: Dick Perez the Picasso of sports artists 

Evans is an artist in his own right with the film screen his canvas. He also shares another thing with Perez — they both had dreams of playing major league baseball. While that dream was not reached, they both excel in the career they ultimately pursued.

I asked Evans what drew him to Perez as his next film subject.

“Last year my 12-year-old son fell in love with baseball as Julio Rodriguez came on scene; that was the player he enjoyed watching,” he said. “He became interested in baseball cards and we were going through my collection and it was when we were going through those Diamond Kings that I thought, what was the story of Dick Perez, the artist who painted these.

“That's when I went to school on Dick Perez and thought this is a great story and would be a great film.”

SCD Archives: Dick Perez the Diamond King of sports artists 

A subsequent phone call to Perez was fruitful and the two just clicked.

Perez's story reads like a movie script in itself. Put on a plane in Puerto Rico by his mother, who couldn't afford to make the trip as well, he traveled alone to New York City as a 6 year old boy who spoke no English. Family in New York picked him up there.

Perez took to baseball, America's pastime. It helped him fit in, gave him a sense of belonging. He loved the sport. His idol from Puerto Rico — Roberto Clemente — was also beginning his Hall of Fame career as well.

Perez knew he was not to be the next Mickey Mantle, but he'd be fine being a lesser named players that could still make a career of the game. His glove was solid but his bat wouldn't cooperate.

However, his knack for drawing was all-star level.

In 1976 Perez met businessman and collector Frank Steele, and soon a partnership was formed. Steele was the "brains" and Perez the talented artist. In 1980 the Perez-Steele Galleries was started. The iconic post cards created for the Baseball Hall of Fame were a huge hit and became a widely desired collectable.

In 1981 a relatively unknown company was granted a baseball card license. They didn't necessarily know what they were doing but knew they had to do something different. With the help of sports writer Bill Madden, Steele and Perez were brought in to bring their art cards to the Donruss line.

They threw around names for what to call these cards and ultimately settled on “Diamond Kings.”

I asked Perez who determined the subjects for his “Diamond Kings” work.

“Donruss had no idea who the players were, they gave it to me and Frank to do,” he said.

They both enjoyed the process of selecting a deserving player from each team as the subjects for the next year's release. Hobbyists know the significance and importance of the 15-year run (1982-1996) of Perez/Steele “Diamond Kings” but I asked Perez if he knew how significant the cards were back then.

“No, not at all. I just thought people, collectors would look at it, accept them and talk amongst each other,” he said. “The 15 years I did them I never received a letter about them. It was when those kids grew up and email came around is when I started to get that feedback.”

I told him I have had 10 of the 20 Topps Project 2020 artists on the show and many pointed to him as inspiration. He was both humbled and pleased.

Evans was an accomplished baseball player through high school and even had a few college baseball opportunities, but filmmaking was almost accidental. He followed the lead of his older step-brother, Kevin Nolan, and learned his skillset by trial and error. Now he takes on a hobby legend and hobbyists can't wait to see the finished product.

To see a preview, support the film and pick up an exclusive numbered Dick Perez card set, check out their website at kickstarter.com/projects/marqevans/the-diamond-king

Want to know why Joe DiMaggio wasn't his biggest fan? Or why a murderer sent him fan mail from prison, or the scary incident that happened on that plane as he came to America? Check out Episode 230 of the Sports Card Nation Podcast.

— John Newman is a collector, dealer and the host of the Sports Card Nation podcast. Catch his Hobby Quick Hits on Monday and his guest interviews on Friday on your favorite podcast plat­form. You can reach him at sportscard­nationpc@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ sportscardnati1