Fly Ball Eagle; The American Sport, is an eleven-foot, eight-inch sculpture created from vintage baseball gloves that I began collecting in graduate school, where I received a Masters in Fine Arts in 1997. This work is inspired by the nostalgia that comes from a well-worn and much loved glove. It seems every person can tell you about their first glove, quickly recalling the feel, the look, the smell, the game, and all of the Major League dreams along the way.

Each vintage glove is a beautiful sculpture in itself, holding its own story. Many of the gloves in this collection still retain a child’s name, hand-penned next to the pro’s stamped autograph. My goal in creating this sculpture was to display the entire collection while conveying the spirit of the game in a single work of art.

To me, the gloves, with their leather fingers, resembled bird feathers. When laid out next to each other the began to transform into great wings. These wings naturally belonged to the Bald Eagle. The head and body are sculpted from gloves and at the heart is a catcher’s mitt holding a baseball that I hand crafted.

The gloves represent Major League dreams; the Bald Eagle represents the American sport; The Eagle in flight, catching the fly ball, represents the heart of the game, and gives the sculpture its name: Fly Ball Eagle; The American Sport.