ABOUT THE COVER

The painting of Mike Trout on the cover was painted for Beckett by renowned artist James Fiorentino. “I was very excited to be painting Trout as I am a fan of his and love the fact that he is a Jersey kid like myself,” James says. “I was going to originally paint a close up portrait (like many of my baseball cards for Topps and Upper Deck) but ended up with a classic baseball pose which I thought would fit well for the cover. It’s amazing to be able to paint a once-in-a-generation player like Trout and to see him waiting for his pitch to come in. You can almost envision that he’s going to rip a double into the gap. I also love the red jersey color which pops and, again, thinking always that this would be a cover piece.”