He quit his job to paint baseball games. Now he's Great Britain's team artist

PHOENIX -- Leave it to Great Britain to bring a touch of refinement to the World Baseball Classic. While other nations may be content with a team photographer, the Brits are traveling with a team artist.

Andy Brown has made a career of painting the game of baseball after falling in love with the sport during a 10-year stint living in South Korea. He eventually quit his job teaching high school art and made it a full-time career, traveling the world to more than 150 stadiums, including the homes of all 30 MLB teams.

“I bring my brushes and they bring their bats and gloves,” Brown said while painting batting practice on Tuesday, when Great Britain played an exhibition against the Brewers at American Family Fields of Phoenix. “I’ve been painting baseball for over 15 years and it’s been an incredible journey all around the world.”

He loves the action on the field, of course, but also finds that baseball is a perfect subject for art because of the sounds, smells and culture associated with the game -- from the passion of Latin America to growing markets in Europe to the tradition of Asia. Brown has visited them all, and aims to capture all of that in his paintings, which are displayed all over the world, including at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

He typically makes several paintings per day, so he had a second canvas ready for Tuesday’s game against hard-throwing right-hander Jacob Misiorowski and the Brewers.

“It’s my Field of Dreams, really,” Brown said.

Brown originally connected with Great Britain baseball through former manager Drew Spencer, who had seen some of his work. He joined the team, as it were, beginning with the European Championships in 2021, and has traveled with them ever since, including for Great Britain’s first World Baseball Classic appearance in 2023.

A victory over Colombia helped Great Britain clinch a berth in this year’s tournament, with Nationals prospect “Sir Harry” Ford returning as catcher and Yankees infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. joining the team as its star attraction. They open Pool B play in Houston on Friday against Mexico, then face Tarik Skubal and Team USA on Saturday.

Chisholm is from the Bahamas, a part of the British Commonwealth, and first wore the Union Jack a decade ago as an 18-year-old during World Baseball Classic qualifying rounds. Part of playing for Great Britain, he said, was a chance to help grow the game of baseball around the world.

“A lot of us played here with GB before. And I’ve played on an underdog team before,” said Chisholm, who broke into the Majors with the Marlins before he was traded to New York in 2024. “I think it’s pretty cool to be the underdog and surprise a lot of people. I play with Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Cody Bellinger on my team. I’m still an underdog.”

His Major League team is a powerhouse. But has Chisholm ever played for a team with an artist?

“Not a painter. That’s pretty cool,” he said.

By game time on Tuesday, Brown had found the action on the field and on the concourse. The conditions could not have been better, with the Brewers and Brits playing under sunny skies on an 80-degree afternoon.

“I love all the scenes involved in baseball,” Brown said. “The food, the music, the crack of the bat, the movement and drama of it all. And the history of it is beautiful. It reflects the societies and places it’s played in.

“It’s endless. It doesn’t stop. And I’m not going to, either.”