King Saladeen is a big name in the baseball and baseball card collecting worlds these days after creating some of the most impressive and beloved pieces during Topps 2020 and Topps Project 70.

He created loving homages to players ranging from Ichiro to Bo Jackson, CC Sabathia to Bryce Harper. His cards stood out both for his style -- a bright, colorful, and joyfully chaotic blend that could be considered Basquiat-esque -- mixed with plenty of behind-the-scenes research.

"I wanted to figure out a lot about the person, too. I watched a lot of YouTube – and thank God for YouTube so I didn't have to read a bunch of books on these guys. But I would have -- and I did read a bunch of magazines!" Saladeen joked in a recent Zoom interview. "I went through a bunch of stuff just to try to get the inspiration behind every card and every player because I wanted to add a little bit of personality into these cards too, not just like ‘This color is better than this color,’ or I put a word in or something."

He points to his Roberto Clemente card as an example.

"This card is so different than every other card because of his story," Saladeen said. "I wanted to put him in paradise for being, like, the sacrificial lamb. Little different things, man -- I just got chills -- and stuff like that, where I wouldn't have really known [what to include] unless I really was digging into these different players. But all of them are amazing in their own way."

It was a difficult project for Saladeen at first -- and not just because he was going from doing enormous six-foot-by-six-foot installations to teaching himself digital design to create the miniscule cards -- but because baseball fandom was relatively new for the artist.

Growing up in a rough stretch of West Philadelphia, Saladeen is a die-hard 76ers fan and was a pretty "serious high school, college basketball player," himself. It made his recent collaboration with SLAM Magazine a notable career highlight.

But while he was able to play and excel in basketball, he never had that same opportunity to play baseball. Nor were the game's stars household names among Saladeen and his friends.

"[I was] never able to really play [baseball] as a kid, just based on where I lived," Saladeen said. "Certain places in the city where they just don't have access to baseball fields and things like that. So, it was dope -- I'm feeling like a kid again. That's the biggest thing: If I can create and really feel that vibe of being a kid and can put that into the actual art, that's my thing."

While the project has deepened Saladeen's appreciation for baseball and introduced him to many more players and stories than he ever realized, it also makes his Ken Griffey Jr. card -- the first he did for Topps 2020 -- all the more special.

"This project was such a growth thing for me because I wasn't emotionally attached to baseball, having never really played it growing up. I wasn't a fan of a lot of baseball players other than Ken Griffey Jr. because he was young, Black, and he used to have a bunch of commercials and he used to be with other Black athletes like Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson," Saladeen said. "It was just cool to be a part of something that I got to learn about as an older guy. If I was younger, I would have been totally into baseball."

Getting into the sport also brought Saladeen the inspiration he needed for his most recent release that will drop on his website this Friday, July 23. To coincide with the All-Star Game and the Home Run Derby, Saladeen is releasing a brand new bobblehead of his signature JP the Money Bear. Named in honor of his friend, JP Thompson, who encouraged him to pursue art before passing away from cancer in 2013, the bobblehead is incredibly personal to the artist.

In addition to being named after his best friend, this bobblehead wears No. 427 -- "That's my grandmother's birthday, God rest her soul," Saladeen said. "There's a lot of inspiration that go into these pieces, man. I just feel like they're good pieces of product: They're great visually, they've got a great feel and energy to it. I'm putting pieces of my life into it."

There will also be a Bear Season Creators Card available -- with JP smashing a dinger, of course.

"The Home Run Derby was the one thing that I used to always go crazy about," Saladeen said. "That's how I knew about Ken Griffey Jr. and I knew about other players. As a kid never really seeing them play much, but just hearing their names, it was [events] like that. ... I've done cards where it's the traditional stance or an action-kind of pose, or something like that. So, this one was just more, 'Who's gonna knock it out the park? JP is gonna knock 'em out of the park.'"

That's not the only place you can find Saladeen's artwork and the baseball world colliding this week, either: Saladeen has some brand new bat skins available in MLB The Show right now.

"I never thought that I'd be able to design a baseball card. Like, are you kidding me? I'm from West Philly, I love doing art and I've got a lot of opportunities to do some stuff that is like ... wow, you know what I mean?" Saladeen said.

Never one to rest for long, Saladeen is currently working on a solo show to go up in his old Philadelphia neighborhood, so that he can offer the same inspiration and hope that his friend JP did for him.

"I wanted to bring everything that I've been doing all over to my old environment and try to inspire people," Saladeen said. "We've been doing a whole bunch of stuff in the community, as well. Those people need to be a part of my art, too, not just when I come back and do something cool, or we're giving back book bags or turkeys or something like that. It needs to be a lifestyle of seeing this stuff go on. And then more people will be like, 'OK, maybe I can do whatever I'm thinking.'"