Danielle Solzman
The Diamond King is a beautifully made documentary and celebration of the life and career of former Baseball Hall of Fame artist Dick Perez. Perez is no longer the official artist for the Hall of Fame, a position he held for 25 years. He continued painting new Hall of Fame members afterwards. If you’ve ever bought a Perez-Steele postcard, you are familiar with his work.
Tom Hanks once said that there is no crying in baseball. I’m sorry to disappoint the iconic actor but if you’re anything like me, you’re probably going to be crying by the end of this film. Maybe it’s something about baseball being such a romantic sport? Or maybe it’s just beautiful editing in how they frame the narrative in The Diamond King.
I grew up collecting baseball cards and yes, I’ve probably seen many of the Donruss Diamond Kings painted by Dick Perez through the years. They were part of the base set of Donruss during their 1982-1991 runs before becoming an insert card in later seasons. Perez kept painting them through 1996–a total of 400 cards in all. During the middle of the season, Perez and the late Frank Steele would meet and start discussing which players would be on a Diamond King card the next season. As a baseball card collector, it’s fascinating to learn this aspect of the business. Card collectors might not have thought anything of them while opening packs but grew to appreciate them later in life. Case in point: people were able to thank Perez at the 2023 National Sports Collectors Convention in Rosemont, Illinois.
Dick Perez’s story is an immigrant story. Growing up in Puerto Rico, he moved to Harlem in New York. This is where he would develop love for both baseball and art. Baseball cards were popular during this time and some of the Topps sets were beautifully painted. It certainly is not surprising to learn how they sparked his interest in art. While living in New York, Perez idolized New York Yankees center fielder Mickey Mantle. In developing his style, he would combine both old-school and new-school approaches in immortalizing baseball players, managers, and executives through art.
Anyone that knows anything about baseball cards knows that Topps held a monopoly for decades. It wasn’t until Fleer sued that the monopoly was busted. Bill Madden was writing about baseball cards for The Sporting News at the time. When he called up Marvin Miller, he learned that Donruss was getting the first license, not fleer. Donruss was a gum manufacturing company at the time, a subsidiary of General Mills. They didn’t even have much of a plan for their approach–their president, Stuart Lyman, knew nothing about baseball cards. Perez was already doing the Perez-Steele postcards at this point in time. Madden brought up the idea to Donruss and they loved it. Perez became their man for years. Eventually, the baseball card market would enter a point of oversaturation.
In watching the documentary, we see how much care he puts into his work. He was working on a painting of Aaron Judge during the filmmaking process. It’s a beautiful piece of artwork as are the many others featured in the film. One of the emotional moments for me is seeing Perez’s paintings of Hank Greenberg. Greenberg came up at a time when antisemitism was terrible across the country. He didn’t have it easy in baseball and the anti-Jewish hate is a contributing factor in why he didn’t break Babe Ruth‘s home run record. Greenberg would later be welcoming to Jackie Robinson when the second baseman broke the color barrier. John Ortiz handles the narration–beautifully scripted by sportswriter Joe Posnanski–and baseball historian John Thorn also adds his two cents.
Perez shares an anecdote about Ichiro Suzuki seeing a painting at the Hall of Fame and wanting to commission an exact duplicate. The artist wasn’t up for doing an exact duplicate and they eventually reached an agreement where he would paint the same piece of the Harlem artwork with Suzuki, his wife, and dog in the background. It’s a beautiful piece of artwork.
New York wasn’t a permanent stay as his family later moved to Philadelphia. This is the city that would really begin to put things in motion for the painter. A job with the Philadelphia Eagles would later lead to becoming the official artist for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1982. If you go to Citizens Bank Park, you can see his work on display at the Cooperstown Gallery in the Hall of Fame Club. The Hall of Fame Club is a stop on the ballpark tour for those who do not have time to see a game.
A lot of baseball documentaries tend to feature several talking heads. That’s what surprises me the most about The Diamond King. It only features a few and with good reason. Perez’s relationship with Frank and Peggy Steele is at the heart of the narrative. That they didn’t see each other for 20 years is truly heartbreaking in and of itself. Even with his Baseball Hall of Fame association, there’s not an instance in the film where a Baseball Hall of Famer is discussing Perez’s paintings. If anything, we get Perez or Peggy Steel discussing comments that Hall of Famers have made about the paintings.
The Diamond King is an appreciation of Dick Perez in as much as it is the game of baseball itself.
DIRECTOR/WRITER: Marq Evans
NARRATION WRITER: Joe Posnanski
NARRATION PERFORMED BY: John Ortiz
FEATURING: Dick Perez, John Thorn, Mary Louise Perez, Peggy Steele, Bill Madden, Bob Kendrick
The Diamond King held its world premiere during the 2025 Palm Springs International Film Festival in the True Stories section. Grade: 4/5
Discover more from Dugout Dirt
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
