Diamond Kings' Dick Perez wanted to make baseball cards into art 

There's a reason why baseball cards are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: They're not just a fun way to depict history, but they are -- in their own way -- art pieces themselves. So, when artist Dick Perez got a chance to make some baseball cards for Donruss in 1982, well, he created something that any museum would happily hang on its walls.

In the latest episode of MLB's Carded presented by the eBay Vault, Perez sat down and talked about his approach to the iconic "Diamond Kings" cards he painted for 15 years and which remain a favorite for many of today's collectors.

"I wanted to bring not just art as a way of showing a player, but art as art," Perez said. "You're not looking at a photograph. This work was done by somebody's hands."

Though Perez started out by doing straightforward portraits, he was happy to experiment over the line's 15-year run. His favorite is one of those: 1995's Chili Davis card.

Knuckleballer Tom Candiotti also joined the show this week to talk about his love of card collecting. Though he grew up in the Bay Area, he actually was a Dodgers fan and was always hunting for cards featuring players like Don Drysdale, Maury Wills, Tommy Davis, and -- of course -- Sandy Koufax. That became all the more special when he joined the Dodgers because he got to work with Koufax and didn't have to appreciate him from afar.

"I was able to work with him for the six years I played with the Dodgers," Candiotti said. "Even though he couldn't teach me too much about a knuckleball, he taught your mindset, and your delivery and there was so much to it. I'm going, 'I could pinch yourself sometimes -- actually, slug yourself -- because this is Sandy Koufax!'"

A card collector himself, Candiotti surely thrilled plenty of other collectors when he got his first baseball cards as a rookie in 1984:

Candiotti remembered the feeling of glimpsing his very first baseball card: "'Wow, look at this. On the Brewers! I got a real baseball card! They can never take this away from me now!' So, at that time, I signed every card that came to me at the locker room -- it wasn't a lot -- but I signed every single one of them because I thought it was the coolest thing -- signing a baseball card! '''

Joe Panik then wrapped up the show by ranking three very special cards from his own career using his patented "PANIK METER."

"Baseball's always been a family thing and that's the way it's meant to be. It's meant to be passed down, generation to generation. It's another piece of the game we all share. My dad actually has baseball cards of my own that he's collected from my rookie card all the way through the years," Panik said before getting into his rookies:

The show wrapped up as they all must: With a pack rip. Take it away, Mr. Panik.

For more episodes of MLB's Carded, head over to MLB.TV and live out all your collecting dreams.