Picturing Greatness Central Valley Grad Paints Inspirational Portraits Of Major League Heroes In Bears Dugout

Clenching a paint brush between his teeth, Casey Lynch ponders what to do about Ted Williams’ arms. He scratches his head. Takes his cap off.

“They just don’t look right,” says the 21-year-old former Central Valley High first baseman. “He’s my hero. They called him the best hitter who ever lived. He’s just got to be perfect.”

Perfect is what you’d call Casey’s paintings of Stan Musial, Roberto Clemente, Brooks Robinson, Mickey Mantle and Williams. The portraits of those baseball legends stand guard in the dugout of CV’s baseball field, painted as a favor to Casey’s former coach, Ed Garcia, to CV’s players and to his alma mater.

Garcia asked the shy and modest Greenacres man if he’d do the project while Casey was still a CV student.

It took Casey, who’s finishing up his two-year degree at North Idaho College, three years to make good on Garcia’s request. He graduated from CV in 1993.

“I didn’t want it to look bad and was afraid I’d do a bad job,” he says, nervously, looking down at his sneakers. “I didn’t want anyone to be disappointed.”

That’s not likely.

“I saw when he was painting Brooks and it was just unbelievable,” says Garcia. “He’s really talented. I think I might have to change dugouts now because they’re so good.”

The team normally sits in the dugout along the third baseline. But, from all he’s heard about Casey’s work, Garcia says he’s moving into the other dugout to be near the heroes.

Casey used books filled with photos of the players to capture poses and facial expressions - replete with grimaces and drops of sweat - he thought would look good. Casey’s favorite pose for Williams was black-and-white which proved to be tough to paint from. He used a color photo to get the skin tones right and, as he worked, flipped between the two photos.

“Everybody’s got a talent,” he says, not completely convinced the paintings display the true nature of his.

“I’m hoping someone might see this and like it and maybe ask me to do some paintings for them.”

He’s designed logos and quilts before. While he doesn’t want to make painting any more than a hobby, he wouldn’t mind a little extra business. One of his former art teachers provided Casey with acrylic paint and brushes. Piled into a bright red wheel barrow are the cans of red, blue, yellow, white and black paint, a mattress cover Casey uses to wipe off the brushes and an old washing machine cover his mother gave to him to use as a palette.

Casey considers his mother, Julie Lynch, the inspiration for his art. She’s taught Casey everything he knows, he says.

“I believe that God’s given him such a beautiful gift,” says Julie. “I know that I’m biased because I’m his mother. But I’m also a painter and every time I look at his work, I just think that it’s so beautiful.”

His high school art teacher, Sue Mihalic, feels the same way. Casey was a student in Mihalic’s drawing and advanced drawing classes three years ago.

“His true calling is to paint people,” says Mihalic. “He’s able to capture their spirit so quickly and so easily. Casey’s such a wonderful young man. If there was a line to beat your own drum, he’d let everyone go ahead of him.”

Off the field, Casey has traded his bat for a crack at becoming an elementary school teacher. He works two jobs to pay for his classes. The more arduous job is at Standard Iron and Metal Company where the lanky guy hauls sheets of steel out of the warehouse and loads them onto trucks. At Arab E. Arabians Stables he grooms, feeds and cleans up after horses. The only time left to paint is between 6 p.m. and sundown.

When he finally makes it to the field, the killdeer sing for him and the backdrop of pine-filled hills brings some peace when he’s frustrated with how the painting’s going.

“Like when I was trying to paint Roberto and it just wasn’t looking like him,” Casey says. “I put Brooks’ head on Roberto’s body and you can’t tell the difference. It’s tough because I want people to think all of the guys look real.”

And there’s always brotherly love to help ease the tension.

His brother, Nate, 18, is CV’s summer groundskeeper, as well as former third baseman.

“It gets lonely painting by yourself,” says Casey. “It feels good to stop, turn around, look out and see Nate taking great care of the field and then go back to painting these guys.”

Casey’s other brother, Kelly, 20, provides another sense of relief for the do-good, self-proclaimed ‘Momma’s boy.’

“Who’s that? Lou Gehrig?” says Kelly, elbowing Nate in the stomach.

“Nah, it’s supposed to be Ted Williams,” says Casey.

After Nate finished sweeping and watering the field, Kelly scribbled in the letters N-A-T-E between first and second base.

“That’s Kelly for you,” says Casey. “Never serious.”

But that’s not Casey. He goes to church. He’s devoted to his black lab, Wade - his favorite ball catcher. He regularly visits his 85-year-old grandfather, Ben, and helps Mom around the house.

“He’s very kind,” says his mother, Julie Lynch. “He’s always saying, ‘Mom, can I help you do that?’ He’s real good about pitching in. Casey’s always the first to offer to help.”

The neighborhood kids adore him, Julie says. They often ask Casey to come over and play ball with them. It’s not hard to see why. He smiles constantly, even while painting his hero. He tips his hat when he talks. And, of course, he loves that good old American game, baseball.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo