This story was excerpted from Matthew Leach’s Twins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
MINNEAPOLIS -- Growing up in the Minneapolis suburbs, Antione Jenkins dreamed of playing professional basketball. He had some artistic inclination, but he never could have envisioned the size and kind of impact he would make on sports in the Twin Cities.
On Monday afternoon, Jenkins the artist saw the unveiling of his largest creation to date, a mural honoring Black baseball in the upper Midwest. The Twins revealed the larger than life creation, high on the walls of Target Field’s main field level concourse.
“If I was told as a kid I was going to have this mural inside the baseball park, I probably would’ve peed myself to be honest,” Jenkins said. “I’m not going to lie to you guys. Truth be told, I’d probably just be stuck in awe. I wouldn’t even be able to believe it because I never thought I was going to be an artist. Now to have this transition from an athlete to an artist now, it’s just amazing. There are so many doors that have been opening up, and I’ve been doing the same things I would be doing if I was an athlete.”
The mural, called Baseball Heroes, honors a wide range of baseball greats, from the expected, like Minnesota native Dave Winfield and Twins great Kirby Puckett, to somewhat potentially surprising figures like Willie Mays and Lou Brock, both of whom played Minor League ball in Minnesota. There are also icons representing Jackie Robinson and the St. Paul Colored Gophers, a barnstorming team that predated the Negro Leagues.
The visual aesthetic of the mural recalls superhero comics, which was one of two themes that Jenkins presented in the early planning stages. There’s also an unmistakable baseball card flavor to some of the images. It took about a year from conception to debut.
Jenkins originally painted the images by hand, then they were transferred to vinyl to be placed on the wall of the ballpark. Below the mural is a sign with a QR code that allows fans to learn more about the players represented.
Jenkins, a baseball fan himself, acknowledged that he also learned quite a bit in the process.
"Some people I didn't know about were Ray Dandridge, I didn't know about Hilton Smith, Roy [Campanella], there were a lot of those older players I didn't know,” he said. “And even John Donaldson, who was a great pitcher. They had a lot of history about him, but there was only one picture, one photo of him. So there's like a lot of people that even I was like, I was thinking of that they were going to highlight, but we just had to be so nitpicky about it. But I love all of them, to be honest, just figuring out more."
It's a long way from Jenkins’ origins in art, which began with customizing sneakers. He was first noticed for his work when Gary Trent Jr. committed to Duke University while wearing shoes that Jenkins had worked on. Now, Jenkins’ work holds a prominent place in one of baseball’s best ballparks. And it’s not lost on him.
“You guys haven’t seen my legs shaking the whole time?” he told reporters with a smile after the unveiling. “No, seriously, I’ve been getting butterflies. As soon as I first [saw] the first panel come up, I jumped. I literally ran from the entrance all the way over here. I screamed. I’m still jittery right now.”