Baseball is unique among professional sports in that statistics dominate the evaluation of its participants. It is a practical approach, given the nature of the contest (pitcher vs. batter, essentially), and the large number of games played over the course of a season. These statistics are easily accessible, and are used not only by baseball officials, but by analysts, writers, and fans to draw their own conclusions about how a player has performed in the past and how he will fare in the future. It is this unique kinship of data and sport, coupled with a love for the game, that prompted me to create the Baseball Project.

I do not pretend to be a "stat geek", and the glorification of these statistics is not my goal. Instead, I'm fascinated with how this relatively simple game (throw the ball, hit the ball, catch the ball) generates so much data, and how this data can be used in a myriad of ways. In addition, I think the contrast of sport and math makes for good artistic fodder.

I've considered myself a fan of baseball much longer than I've considered myself an artist, so the "fan experience" is an element of these drawings that I wanted to make apparent. The labor intensive aspect of the Grid drawings, and the game-by-game tracking is mean to invoke the scrutiny that obsessive fans give to the daily performance of their team.

Thanks for visiting the site, and please send me any questions you have, I'm happy to answer them.

Mike Hill
2005