Ralph Fasanella

Sandlot Games #2

Oil on Canvas, 1957

Sandlot Game #2 is a recollection of the early 1930s, when the Fasanella family lived in the East Bronx. The neighborhood was more spacious than the streets of lower Manhattan, and the boys quickly converted vacant lots into baseball fields. The painting invites the viewer’s eye to wander casually, as if one were a passerby happening upon the game, rather than drawing it to a central focal point. There is no concentration of action or single dramatic moment, although the pitcher leans forward, gazing intently at the catcher. Two players chat at second base, a group of boys shoot craps in the outfield, and a lone figure watches the whole scene from his perch on the branch of a tree in the outfield at the left.