Friday, June 19

Welcome to the Baseball Traveler newsletter. Today, June 18, is both International Panic Day and International Picnic Day. If you're feeling the former, take some time off to enjoy the latter. Or maybe just go to a Minor League Baseball game? 

HomeTrust Park, the longtime (and newly rechristened) home of the Asheville Tourists, underwent a major renovation prior to the start of the 2026 season. Among the new additions are 19 murals positioned along the entranceways and emblazoned upon the brick walls of the ballpark's exterior. You can't miss 'em.

These hand painted works, highlighting the Houston High-A affiliate's logos, wordmarks and history, were created by Asheville-based artist Amar Stewart. He dealt with unique challenges and a harrowing injury over the course of the project but saw it through to completion, which shouldn't be a surprise. Stewart, a cancer survivor, has learned to fight through adversity to keep his artistic pursuits aloft.

"Every brush stroke in there, it tells a story of everything we went through," he said. "We had three months to get this all done, and that's a lot of pressure."

Stewart has lived in Asheville since 2019, continuing an art career that began in his native England. He grew up in the small town of Leamington Spa, which he said is "probably the same size of Asheville," and became interested in the art world while operating a streetwear shop in London.

"I decided being an artist was what I wanted to do, and I ended up moving to New York [City] because I was focused on a lot of hip-hop portraiture," he said. "I went down the route of doing oil paintings and telling the stories of people who inspired me. Focusing on Black and brown culture and painting them in a certain way that hadn't been done before."

That series of paintings, collectively titled 'Hip Hop Royalty," gained attention in the NYC art world and beyond and solidified Stewart's reputation. In the summer of 2016, however, he got hit "out of the blue" with a major setback: stage four tongue cancer.

"They had to basically remove my whole tongue and then use muscle from my legs to rebuild that area, and I had radiation to remove any of the remaining cancer cells," he said. "It's pretty rough, man … I was meant to have a feeding tube for the rest of my life, not eat or drink anything, but fortunately I was able to work a way around it and figure it out."

Amar Stewart's art work, clockwise from left: "Lewis Hamilton," "Black Dahlia," "What’ll it be Mr Torrance?" "Bob" 

Stewart had his cancer surgery in London -- follow-up operations helped him regain his ability to speak -- and returned to New York City in 2017. He resumed his art career and was profiled by The New York Times, but, in a tale as old as time, the high cost of living necessitated taking jobs outside of his art career. This hard economic reality eventually led to the decision to move to Asheville, in 2019.

"There's something nice about opening the door and it's just nature, rather than a building, and the stress of bumping into a million people," he said. 

Stewart's portfolio, featuring his varied personal pursuits as well as commercial work for Asheville bands and breweries, helped him land the mural painting job at HomeTrust Park. It was grueling work -- often delayed by cold temperatures that made it impossible to paint -- and he couldn't do it alone. The assistance of his friends in Asheville's art community turned out to be crucial beyond what he could have imagined.

"I had a fall painting one of the last murals here. I was like 90 percent done and I fell off a 21-foot extension ladder on my pelvis," he said. "I broke my pelvis … cracked my head open, had a bone bruise. That was [in late March]. It’s all healing up now. I remember waking up and seeing my work partner. He was a saint."

That work partner, Ish Weaver, went on to finish the last several ballpark murals along with Lucy Ballentine and Ian the Painter [Ian Wilkinson]. 

"I'm glad I was able to do most of the painting with Ish, but having a team to take it to the finish line and see the finished project was really special," said Stewart. "I was able to chip in where I could, running the admin side but from a hospital bed."

Improbably, but perhaps inevitably, the work got done. Now, when Stewart attends a Tourists game, enlivened by the baseball imagery he added to the walls, it's with a sense of gratitude and accomplishment.

"This was the biggest project I've ever done, by far," he said. "I moved from London. I moved from New York. I thought I would never move away from there  … but now I want to be more a part of the community here. And I love that. I love this. I love the sense of community."

Marty "The Sign Man" Prather, a St. Louis Cardinals superfan, passed away in September at the age of 67. Over the course of four decades, beginning with the 1985 World Series, Prather could be spotted at Busch Stadium holding up signs with original artwork and witty text.

Prather spent his adult life in Springfield, Mo., and on June 12 his hometown Springfield Cardinals paid tribute. Fans received a "Marty the Sign Man" bobblehead and held up their own homemade signs during the game.

READ ABOUT SPRINGFIELD’S TRIBUTE TO MARTY THE SIGN MAN HERE

This won't become a recurring segment in this newsletter, but for the second week in a row I'll conclude with info on a recent Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp promo. David Ratz, the team's VP of promotions and events, tells us about what went down on June 10:

Marc in the Parc was a night conceived from a joke that snowballed in the free-flowing spirit of "yes, and…," and it just took off. It all started two years ago when [senior account executive] Marc Spera was bitten by the Tarp Monster and broke his ankle on the 4th tarp pull of the day (Florida problems). Once back in the office he jokingly lobbied for a Marc in the Parc night. One of the highlights of the night included a Marc in the Parc T-shirt giveaway that prominently features Marc, in the spot where he fell and if you zoom in, you can see his ankle has completely snapped off! 

The Jumbo Shrimp not only promoted free tickets to anyone named Marc (or Mark). Anyone whose name contained the letters MARC or MARK in their first, middle or last name automatically had a free ticket uploaded to their digital ticket account and got a personalized email from Marc, inviting them to the game on him! With over 45 free Marc's in attendance, Marc Spera signed shirts, took photos, and threw out the first pitch and then took a picture with Jumbo Shrimp pitcher Stephen Jones (holding the shirt) where the incident occurred.

All in all, a great night celebrating a remarcable man!

Thanks for reading. Get in touch anytime via email at benjamin.hill@mlb.com and please follow me on Instagram (@thebensbiz), X (@bensbiz) and Bluesky (@bensbiz.bsky.social). 

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