In New York City, baseball is still the sport to follow. While its national popularity waxes and wanes with the years, New Yorkers are always committed to their team — be they Yankees or Mets fans.
The sport shows us a different side of the mega-metropolis. The New York identity is wrapped up in the old-fashioned charm of going out to the ball game, where fans cheer for their team. There’s nothing like the excitement of a nail biting ninth inning, or the summertime joy of eating a hotdog in the stands with friends and family.
While the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants were incredible teams in their own time, today New Yorkers have two Major League teams: the Yankees and the Mets. Both have their own unique flair, just as their fans have their own style.
nyArt.com has a collection of paintings available that commemorate this New York tradition. To understand that tradition, let’s look at the two teams that best sum up NYC baseball. Then, we’ll take a trip through some of our favorite baseball paintings in the nyArt.com collection.
The Yankees
There is no team like the New York Yankees. The black and white pinstripes are as iconic as the Statue of Liberty or the Brooklyn Bridge. While the team originated in Baltimore in 1901, it quickly made New York their home in 1903. Since that time, they have become the quintessential New York sports team.
The list of legends who passed through their dugout is nearly endless. It includes Babe Ruth, Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, and the list goes on. These legends make up a who’s who of the greatest to ever play the sport, and the core of the team always manages to create a defining era around them.
The team has called Yankee Stadium home since 1923, except for a few years in the 70s when they played at Shea Stadium while their home field underwent much needed renovations. The Bronx landmark gained a reputation in its own right, earning the moniker “The Cathedral of Baseball.” The original closed at the end of the 2008 season, replaced by a new stadium of the same name that opened its doors in 2009 — right across the street.
Their long legacy in the city and their penchant for all-star talent has left an indelible mark on New York. They’ve brought their hometown 27 World Series victories and 40 American League pennants. It’s nice to be a Yankees fan.
The Mets
The Mets began in 1962, created to fill the gap left by both the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants moving to California.
The differences between the Mets and Yankees run deep. It’s not just that the Mets play in the National League and the Yankees in the American. The Yankees represent a baseball aristocracy. A long and storied history, enormous player contracts, and dominance mark the Yankees.
The Mets, meanwhile, are an expansion team — albeit, the most successful expansion team in Major League Baseball with two World Series wins and five NL pennants.
As for fan bases, Yankees fans outnumber Mets fans 2-to-1 in New York, but according to a Wall Street Journal poll, Mets fans are far more devoted to their team on average.
The origins of the Mets were rough going. In their first year, the team put up the worst regular season win-loss record in MLB history since it introduced the 162 game season. But the Mets kept developing, and only seven years later, they beat the Baltimore Orioles to win the 1969 World Series. It was an astonishing upset, and it solidified the Mets as a team you can’t count out.
The Mets have called three stadiums home. The first was the Polo Grounds, but they moved to Shea Stadium after only a couple of years. Shea was their home until 2008 when they moved to Citi Field. Despite the move, Shea Stadium is still deeply linked to the team.
In 2000, the Mets faced down their NYC rivals in the World Series (lovingly called the Subway Series, a term now used whenever the two teams face off). The Yankees won the series 4 to 1.
nyArt.com’s Baseball Collection
Roustam Nour’s watercolors featuring New York’s great baseball stadiums are wonderful testaments to the mark that the sport has made on the city. When you view these paintings, you can almost hear the cheering fans and the unmistakable crack of a home run dinger.
This colorful painting of Shea Stadium frames the warm glow of the lights in the cool colors of the city around it. It gives the feeling that when the Mets play, the whole city is watching. The view gives us the best seat in the house, allowing us to take in the fans and the diamond all at once.
In this painting, Nour captures the city in somber hues on a cloudy day. The buildings are expressed in painterly impressions of purple and blue and brown.
Yankee Stadium stands out as the most finely detailed and intricately colored subject. It’s a completely different view of baseball — rather than focusing on the drama of a night game, it shows the more relaxed experience of a lazy day spent at the ballpark.
Paintings of New York Baseball Only at nyArt.com
nyArt.com has many great paintings featuring the stadiums that define NYC baseball. These are the places where names are made and championships are won.
Every work of art is available in multiple sizes and mounting options, including: acrylic, birch, bamboo, gallery wrap, and more.
The selection of fine art prints is curated to bring you the nostalgia and excitement of New York baseball — and just about every facet of the Big Apple. View our collection today and purchase one of our incredible paintings and photographs.
