Play Ball!

As summer approaches, so begins America's favorite pastime - baseball. While Edward Gorey is not primarily known as a sports illustrator, he was occasionally commissioned to create sports related images. Here are a couple baseball related images which have an old fashioned look to them.

The July 1993 issue of Sports Illustrated presents a timeline of the history of baseball and the accompanying illustration by Mr. Gorey shows a game in progress. The pitcher, catcher, batter, and umpire all have thought bubbles on what is about to happen.

John Bellairs 1986 book The Eyes of the Killer Robot also features baseball, but this time in a menacing way. The mechanical man with a dangerous pitching arm is brought to life when he is powered by human eyes! Mr. Gorey's color front cover illustration shows the robot in pieces, while the frontis art shows the robot winding up to throw a pitch. The evil machine looks more menacing with his glowing eyes.