Before he was a Phillies superstar, delighting Philadelphians with near-nightly home runs, highlight-reel catches and surprising answers to questions as the team fights for a second straight pennant, Nick Castellanos was a tourist wandering the streets of Paris in January 2020 with his now wife, Jess. They stepped into a bookstore and happened upon a 75-page book about the life of American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Castellanos was intrigued. “I’m just a fan of his,” he says, adding that he likes “his work and his story.”
Basquiat resided mostly in the back of his mind until this summer, when Castellanos decided his simple, white batting gloves were a little boring. So he texted Kevin Schneider, whose company, Emery Glove Co., makes his fielding glove and batting gloves. (Emery is owned by Chandler Bats, which makes Castellanos’s bats.) Castellanos wanted to try something a little different, he said.
