Information on Ron Lewis' Living Legends Set
 

Hello everyone. Ever since I discovered Ron Lewis' set of 20 Living Legends, I knew I had to complete the set. I actually outlined my progress here on the forum a couple of times. I eventually completed my journey, sometime during the pandemic, when I was able to complete the set. However I always find myself coming back to Lewis' artwork, specifically his reasoning behind choosing the 20 players that he did.

Was it some sort of rights agreement between the 20 that he ended up doing? There were certainly many players, including those who he had painted or had been apart of his other works that were not included in the set. Hank Aaron, Ted Williams, and Rickey Henderson are all examples of this, as they're apart of some of his other works, but not the Living Legends set. My only thoughts are that the set might have been tied in with one of the Shows that was going on at the time. Any information would be fantastic. Thank you.

Hey James- I won a complete set in 2017 in an REA auction. Most sets like this are arranged, as you suggested, as part of a contract between the artist and the promotor. I don't know the exact details with the Lewis set, but, more recently, our own Graig Kreindler's set was chosen by Topps - I had inquired why Mantle, Aaron, Koufax and others weren't included. In the Lewis set, Henderson may have been omitted because of it being fairly early in his career (1988) - even though he was 'somewhat' legendary already. Almost all of the players included were retired. Ryan, of course, was not, but Seaver and Jackson had just retired and Schmidt was almost done. But Slaughter & Schoendienst without Aaron...that's just wrong. And of course, Ted, Stan and Joe D. were still around in '88 too.

The last part is what got me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe his print that was made of DiMaggio, along with the 500 Home Run print, came out in the same year that the Living Legends set came out, in 1988. So with the exception of Stan, he'd have produced works involving Ted, Aaron and Joe D all in the same year.

My only thought was maybe reluctance on certain players parts? Would at least explain DiMaggio, as I know he could be moody, or at least that's what I have heard.

I wonder if there's a way to contact Ron Lewis. I'm sure he'd have the answer!

There is an address for him at the end of this SCD article but it's from 2007 so who knows if it's still good.