Local Resident is the 2026 SABR Jefferson Burdick Award Winner

By Mary Casey-Sturk

Fort Thomas artist, author, and researcher Gary Cieradkowski has been honored for his significant contributions to the baseball card hobby. 

Cieradkowski is the recipient of the 2026 SABR Jefferson Burdick Award.  Established in 2020 by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), the Jefferson Burdick Award honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the baseball card hobby. In hobby circles, he is best known for his Infinite Baseball Card Set, an ever-growing, independently produced collection of cards highlighting a mix of baseball outsiders, overlooked legends, and untold stories. 

Fort Thomas Living spoke with Cieradkowski about his work and influences.

FTL: What is the Infinite Baseball Card Set?

Cieradkowski shares, “The idea can from my missing my father. He and I were very close, and even though I lived far away, we always talked several times a week. I got my love of obscure and out-of-the-ordinary baseball characters from him, and we would introduce each other to stories we came across. He passed away unexpectedly in the Fall of 2009, and suddenly, I was without someone I could share those stories with. I missed our conversations. One evening, when I was thinking about a character I thought he would have liked, I decided to start a blog. I drew a baseball card image of the player and posted it. But it looked lonely on the page by itself, so I wrote the story of the player as if I were telling it to my dad. Then, a few days later, when I came across a player I thought he’d have liked, I drew another card and wrote a story to go with it. I did this whenever I missed him and did it just for us. But then, quite unexpectedly, I started getting emails from people who happened upon the blog. They were interested in the same stories as my dad and me. The site just kind of took off from there.” 

“I called it “The Infinite Baseball Card Set” because I wanted it to be a never-ending set of cards and stories. There’s no start, no finish, and no rhyme or reason to the kinds of players I cover. There are Hall of Famers right beside a guy who played in the minor leagues, and no one has ever heard of. But they all have a story.” Adds Cieradkowski.

Just a sampling of his Infinite Baseball Card Set checklist includes Alta Weiss, Joe Schlabotnik, Pythias Russ, Andy the Clown, Lou Gehrig, and Jack Kerouac. 

FTL: The cards aren’t all baseball legends, explain the connection with Jack Kerouac and others?

“I also wanted to show how the game creates a common link between people who don’t seem to have anything in common. Take the poet Jack Kerouac. We associate him with the beatniks, jazz, and wandering around the country in search of meaning in life. But Kerouac was also a huge baseball fan. So much so that as a teen, he created his own fantasy baseball game, complete with entire leagues, fictional players with their own individual backstories, and even newspaper articles about the games. He carried that game wherever his travels took him, playing out entire seasons throughout his life.” Cieradkowski continues, “It’s sometimes surprising to learn about how many people you wouldn’t associate with the game were actually big fans. For instance, I found that my favorite musician, jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, was the catcher for band leader Cab Calloway’s baseball team. When the band had downtime between gigs, they had their own team and played for other bands and nightclub acts.”

FTL: Were you always interested in baseball and baseball cards?

“I always loved the game since I could remember.” Muses Cieradkowski, “My two grandfathers would tell me about the players they saw growing up, and my dad would tell me about his favorite players. That made me want to learn more about the game’s history. And baseball cards were the easiest way to find some of that history. I think that I became an artist as a kid because I wanted to make the baseball card set that I wanted. Not the ones you buy in the corner store, but hand-drawn cards that introduce you to players and teams you never heard of. The cards become a way to tell the story.” 

FTL: Who are your favorite players?

“It’s hard to pick a favorite player. I find myself gravitating towards anyone who, for some reason or another, never got their big break. Like Van Lingle Mungo. Besides having a priceless name, Mungo was probably the hardest-throwing pitcher in the majors during the 1930s. But he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, who were lousy at the time. Mungo would pitch a great game but lose by a run because his teammates were so inept. Because of this, Mungo thought that if he wanted to win, he needed to strike everyone out so his teammates couldn’t screw it up. He inevitably injured his arm from throwing too hard. If he had played for the Yankees, his career would have been entirely different. I like the great “what ifs” in life.” Says Cieradkowski.

FTL: What artists influenced you? 

“Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is my favorite. I stumbled upon a book of his posters when I was a little kid and fell in love with the colors and energy of his work. I also appreciate the tiny details he puts into his paintings – a hand gesture or a sly smile on the face of a background character – that bring his art to life.” Cieradkowski continues, “I try to do the same in mine, adding little things that make it personal, like adding one of my friend’s likeness in the background or their name on the outfield wall advertisements. Although what I do is very different, I credit the linework, movement, and detail in my art to my study of Toulouse-Lautrec.”

More About the Artist

Cieradkowski not only has your curiosity covered with these cards, but in most cases, he’s created a companion booklet or a blog post.  These cards are visually appealing, the colors, uniforms and backgrounds are meticulously researched as are the write-ups on the card back. Even an occasional Easter egg is added for fun!

Highly collectible, his work is displayed in Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Pittsburgh’s PNC Park, Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and Worcester’s Polar Park and his t-shirt designs for Team Brown Apparel are available in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the Smithsonian Institution.

To learn more about Cieradkowski and see examples of his work, visit: StudioGaryC.com

About Jefferson R. Burdick:  Jefferson R. Burdick (1900–63) was a pioneer card collector whose invented classifications still govern the hobby; he donated his enormous collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains one of the most popular destinations for researchers. He created The American Card Catalog, the bible of the hobby, and tribute is paid to his work whenever anyone brings up T-206 other codes common in card collecting.