Pop Fly Pop Shop

08/23/2026

12 perfect innings. 36 up, 36 down. AND Harvey Haddix lost the game.

That story has been sitting in the back of my head for years, but somebody suggested Haddix to me a couple weeks ago and suddenly I started seeing it differently.

Not just as a baseball story, but as a story about what happens to stories after they happen. I started thinking about my old grade-school yearbooks. The book itself never changed, but my copy sure did. Bullies got horns and mustaches if they didn't get scribbled out all together. Girls I liked got hearts around their pictures. Eventually the printed story and my version of it became the same object.

That’s where this cover idea came from. Haddix was perfect for 12 innings on May 26, 1959. In the 13th, a runner reached on an error, Joe Adcock later got the hit, and Milwaukee won 1–0. Then, more than 30 years later, baseball changed the official definition of a no-hitter and Haddix’s game was removed from the list. The game didn’t change. The 36 straight outs didn’t change. The story around them did.
So I imagined this as an old romance comic somebody had owned since '59 ... and at some point, knowing how it all turned out, grabbed a pen and scribbled across the cover.

Harvey’s response to the record-book change years later:
“It’s O.K. I know what I did.”

Yeah. Exactly.
Pop Fly #255 — Harvey Haddix: ̶P̶E̶R̶F̶E̶C̶T̶
Available now for one week. Grab yours before you can't.

08/23/2026

THE MACHINE is officially retired.
287 artost-signed & numbered Pop Flys will soon out there in the world, and that’s it.

Pujols was always going to be an important one for me. One of the greatest hitters I’ve ever watched with my own eyes (for the 2 seconds he was a Dodger) , turned into the thing his nickname always suggested: an absolute machine.

Thank you to everyone who picked one up this week. If you got one, you’re now part of the final edition.

#254 is closed. Onto the next one.

08/21/2026

Looking back at the past conversations I've had, here's one with the legendary Dave Winfield back on July 5th, 2023.

Much like Pop Fly started by shooting from the hip and not even trying to start anything at all, Dave Winfield casually was the impetus for the fan-centered spectacle that surrounds the MLB All-Star game that we enjoy every summer.

Thanks, Dave!

08/20/2026

08/20/2026

I went back through my conversation in with Tommy John back in 2022 after hearing that he’d passed. He was one of the athletes I learned some important lessons with...but that's another conversation.

But regarding our chat together, I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed talking with him. He had this really easy way of talking about an extraordinary life like it was all just part of the ride.

This is one of my favorite moments in the conversation. What a way to sum up a helluva baseball career.
"I had fun doin' it"

I’m really glad I got the chance to sit down with him.
Rest easy, Tommy.

08/19/2026

Tickets are at long last returning to boxes soon as our fun extra collectible. We heard you missed them!

The seat is always the same : section 20, row 12, seat 6. It's a nod to the day pop fly started, June 12th, 2020.

Have you ever sat in this seat at a major league game?

08/18/2026

If you have access to The Card Life TV, tune in and see the latest episode! One of the best conversations I've had in a good long while.

here is the broadcast schedule so you can watch it when it’s on in your area;

https://www.thecardlifetv.com/broadcast-schedule

08/17/2026

There is an illustration portion of the project and then there is the composition part. I will typically oscillate between the two, creating checking and going back-and-forth to see if what I am creating is working in context. Such was the case with this week’s piece. First, it started out fully human, then fully robot and ended up somewhere in between it.

I spend a LOT of time with these making them in my mind’s eye until I get the chance to sit down and execute and sometimes there’s a chasm between how you think it’s going to look and what it actually ends up looking like. But that is the fun part. This one was about a three point turn in terms of direction, and that is after totally changing my subject midweek. Harvey Haddix will have to wait his turn.

08/16/2026

POP FLY #254: “THE MACHINE”

I’ve wanted to do “The Machine” for a while, but it always felt almost too obvious.
Then I thought: you know, screw it. Let’s do it. What if I just took the nickname completely literally?
So …this week Albert gets turned into a hitting machine. After a few iterations and experimenting with different approaches , I kept his face human-esque because that’s really the thing, isn’t it? The guy looked like everybody else. He just produced like he’d been built in a lab.

703 home runs, .296 lifetime, 3 MVPs, 11 All-Star Games. Rookie of the Year basically the minute they flipped the switch at the beginning of the millennium.

I love how weird this one got. Baseball is best when it’s weird.
Roots, baby.
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08/16/2026

RETIRED.

POP FLY #253
WORLD SERIES 91: “AND WE’LL SEE YOU TOMORROW NIGHT!”

Kirby Puckett. Game 6.
October 26, 1991.

One of those baseball moments where you already know what happens next & somehow it still gives you chills. (And I say this as a Braves fan even!)

After one week, #253 is officially retired and will not be offered again. We will not see you tomorrow night, but we’ll see you in about two months or less.

Thank you to everyone who added this one to their Pop Fly collection.

On to #254.