Former MLB coach tells Negro Leagues story through art

DENVER -- Tom Runnells spent more than 40 years as a player, coach and Major League manager. Yet in retirement, he truly delved inside baseball -- er, baseballs -- and found a different and fascinating world.

Runnells now deconstructs baseballs for art. Some works honor legends and former stars; others depict current players. But the pieces dearest to him honor the legends of the Negro Leagues, a part of baseball history that he can’t study enough.

“I just love that connection, still -- researching history,” said Runnells, 66, who retired in 2016, after eight seasons as the Rockies’ bench coach. “Lord, I learned so much about the Negro Leagues history. When I had my gallery showing back in Toledo, that was eye-opening. There are so many players.

“I can do this until I die. There are so many tremendous Negro Leagues players that nobody even knows about. I enjoy that.”

Even more, Runnells, a Greeley, Colo., native, uses the proceeds from all of his works to help ensure the game’s future. Runnells lives in Sylvania, Ohio, a Toledo suburb, so much of his art has been used to fund the Toledo Police Athletic League and Muddy’s Knothole Club, which provides tickets for young people to attend Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens games.

He has assisted Cal Ripken Jr. in the building of a field in a part of the city where baseball was dormant, and is working with Chet Trail, a Toledo school board member and former player in the Yankees, Orioles, Cubs and Mets organizations, on another field project.

Runnells’ pieces are collaborations resulting from an intricate process.

It starts with the research. Sparked by the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues in 2020, Runnells began gathering information with the same energy that he threw batting practice and worked with players on the field over four decades of coaching. He loved doing pieces on Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby, who integrated the National and American Leagues, respectively, and Toni Stone, a woman who held her own at second base for Indianapolis as Negro Leagues baseball persisted beyond MLB integration.

But he learned there was so much more beyond a small list of "firsts."

“I thought, ‘This would be a great tribute to the Negro Leagues, the pioneers of our game, the guys that played for us,’” Runnells said. “They’re the guys that went through all the hard times. You start reading about the stories. Hank Aaron, when he was with the Indianapolis Clowns, went to a diner and they didn't let him in. ... You’re talking about Hank Aaron.

“Obviously, we know about the injustices, but it really got me researching and studying. Mule Suttles and Rube Foster -- one of the original players, managers and businessmen in the Negro Leagues -- it gave me a chance to research and know all of these guys. If you were to ask me three years ago who Turkey Stearnes was, I couldn’t have told you.”

Runnells’ baseball career took him many places -- 10 seasons as a player in the Minors (1977-86), 40 Major League appearances with the Reds (1985-86), lengthy time as a Minor League manager with the Reds, Expos, Tigers and Rockies, Major League coaching with the Expos and Rockies, and even a stint as the Expos’ manager (1990-91). In addition to great times and knowledge, Runnells earned something invaluable to his artwork -- access to all the baseballs he needs.

“I can use throwaway baseballs, ones that Major League teams don’t want because the seams are torn or whatever,” said Runnells, whose works depicting Major Leaguers use only balls from MLB teams. “I’m reusing, so I’m being conscious.”

Runnells then deconstructs the balls and arranges them for a key graphic element -- either the team logo, the player’s jersey number or some other identifying characteristic.

Then comes the collaboration.

Longtime friend Jeff Stone, baseball coach, art teacher and noted portrait artist at Platte Valley High School in Kersey, Colo., completes the detailed player portrait. Frameworks of Sylvania completes the project with a custom frame. They look for unique opportunities.

Runnells’ time in Colorado has fueled a few pieces. For example, he fashioned one as a gift to former Rockies outfielder Ryan Spilborghs, with whom he was so close that they joked about being father and son. Some time ago, Runnells said, Stone called him to do something special in his hometown of Greeley.

As a result, they completed a piece on Eric Davis, a star primarily with the Reds in the 1980s and early 90s, in conjunction with Davis serving as featured speaker for the Friends of Baseball Breakfast of Champions. The piece sold at auction for $1,200, which went toward funding baseball in the Greeley area, from youth to college.

Runnells has gained quite the following.

The Fuller Art House in Sylvania has hosted two gallery showings of his work -- one in 2019 for his legends portraits and another in 2020 for his Negro Leagues works. Fans of current players have commissioned him for portraits, and he is careful to brief players on his projects before asking them to sign.

Runnells has even gone international, with pieces showing in England at a U.S. Air Force base as part of an effort to highlight Black history. A piece depicting Roy Campanella in the uniform of the Baltimore Elite Giants -- one of the teams for whom he caught before his storied career with the Dodgers -- is featured in that effort.

The art bug has long been within Runnells, even though he didn’t start developing his technique until late in his coaching career.

Runnells and Jerry Narron, currently a Major League instructor for the White Sox, were two of the last practitioners of the ornate lineup card, done in calligraphy style. Runnells did all three copies -- for the Rockies’ dugout, the opposition, and the umpires -- in this style. A late change meant Runnells started over.

“Now they’re all done by computer,” Runnells said, incredulously.

The lineup cards were in honor of his mother, who “was always very conscious of penmanship.” The eye for art came from his father, who took art lessons in Italy and spent his later years at the family cabin in Estes Park, Colo., perfecting his mountain scenes.

Runnells, himself, has always loved intricate cardboard puzzles.

“People give me puzzles, and I can sit down for days,” he said.

Next for Runnells is a piece on one of his favorite subjects, Moses Fleetwood Walker -- a barehanded catcher of aplomb for the 1884 Toledo Blue Stockings. With the American Association recognized as a Major League, Walker was the first Black Major Leaguer, until racist policies drummed him out of the game after his first year.

Runnells has depicted Walker before, but he is challenging himself with the next piece, which is in the works.

“It’s a little bit more three-dimensional,” Runnells said. “They wore the old wool jerseys and had leather ties, so I am actually going to have leather coming off the painting or the picture. And I have a photo of old Swayne Field in Toledo on a 16"x20" canvas, built here in Toledo, and that’s my backdrop.”

By the end, Walker and a time in baseball that should never be forgotten will come to life.