New book on the “art” of baseball's best

I first “discovered” Dick Perez many years ago via his “Diamond King ” baseball cards inserted into the Donruss sets.

Little did I realize that that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Perez, a former “official artist” for the Baseball Hall of Fame, has just released The Immortals , a massive, gorgeous collection of his work on the 292 members enshrined in Cooperstown. According to the book’s website, the 592-page retrospective features over 1,400 works that have been “carefully researched and depict the evolution of the game through the changes in equipment, uniforms, ballparks, their vintage billboards, and bygone fashions worn by fans.”

You can get a taste of “immortality” here .

At $199, it’s not cheap. In fact, if you have the coin, you can order special editions.

For $600, you can get a Collector’s Edition: “An original graphite drawing will be tipped in at the front of the book featuring a Hall of Famer of the buyer’s choice, signed by the artist and numbered 1/1.” For $1,500, you can get the Deluxe Edition with “[a]n original watercolor painting… tipped in at the front of the book featuring a Hall of Famer of the buyer’s choice, signed by the artist and numbered 1/1.”

Both versions are “housed in a special slipcase.”

Unfortunately, you can only buy The Immortals through Perez’s website , so there’s no Amazon-ish discount. But if I had the money, I’d surely purchase a copy.