Waite Hoyt pitched for seven MLB teams over the course of a 21-year career from 1918 to '38, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. Diego Rivera was one of 20th Century art's towering figuresāthe Mexican icon who brought mural art onto the world's biggest stages.
On the surface, these facts would seem to be unrelatedābut on Wednesday, they fused together to create a financial windfall.
A painting given to Hoyt by Rivera as a thank-you for baseball tickets in 1932 has sold at auction for $190,000, according to a Thursday morning report from Larry Holder of .
The painting is titled , which roughly translates to . According to a blurb written for Sotheby's by Tim Mannersāthe co-author of Hoyt's posthumous memoir, released in 2024āthe pitcher and Rivera are said to have crossed paths in 1932, when Hoyt was playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Rivera displayed the fresco at what is now 30 Rock.
Citing "family lore," Manners wrote that Hoyt gave Rivera tickets to see the Dodgers and Riveraālearning that Hoyt had begun painting extensively in retirementāgifted him in 1951.
Collaborations between baseball and fine art are rare, but they do happen. Banksy and Shohei Ohtani, we're ready when you are.
