Did You Play Baseball?
Yeah I can tell.
When I first got my camera in, I had no clue I’d be doing what I’m doing today. For me it was just another tool to be creative and have fun with, but I never would’ve thought I’d be doing commercials at the level I am now. Before I got paid to do music videos and campaigns I was a literal videographer. The first video I ever made where I put the name Calmatic on it was a walk through of an Mos Def art show at HVW8 Gallery on Melrose. I would film concerts, local events, the homies chillin and family gatherings. Whoever was paying a little change for me to film I was there. In 2013 my boy Julien Edwards (who’s played a big role in my journey) suggested me to film his friend Jerry’s baby shower. I think the offer was $200, I was in there like swim wear. I had no clue who this dude Jerry was just knew he was cool and had a close knit family and community supporting his first born.
A couple months later he tapped in with me to film the BTS for a brand he was working on. He picked me up in his Range Rover and we rolled around Hollywood as he shot his first look book for what would become Fear Of God. One distinct memory I have is being in the car with Jerry towards the end of the shoot and he was super hyped how things were going, I remember him yelling, “I’m bout to serve these niggas!” Lmao! All I remember thinking was “I like these long shirts”, had no clue what the brand would become.
Years passed, I’ve ascended in my career and Fear Of God is damn near a house hold name. Jerry is a fashion icon. In 2017 he released his first collaboration with the MLB, with their Fear Of God fitted hats. Thats when I discovered that Jerry was the son of legendary MLB coach Jerry Manuel and Jerry grew up playing baseball. It all started to make sense! Jerry was a baseball guy! There’s something about being a baseball player especially a black baseball player that subconciously connects you with other players. It’s like an unspoken fraternity. I can tell by how someone wears their hat, if they played baseball or not. Even down to the position they played. That perfect curve on Dom Kennedy’s hats? He played baseball when he was younger. Makes sense, if you know you know. I’m notorious for randomly asking people did they play baseball. And most of the time I’m right. On the other the hand I can definitely tell if you’ve never played baseball too.
So now that I have the context of Jerry’s baseball connections I see the brand completely different. I’m noticing details that I never noticed before. (His dad coached the White Sox, thats the Kanye and Don C connection) As much as Fear of God is a high fashion luxury brand, in my eyes they’re a baseball brand that happens to sell other things. When Jerry became a star in his own right he played in the MLB Celebrity All Star Game and previewed some Franklin batting gloves, but instead of saying Franklin it said Fear of God. 😮💨 Crazy! Franklin batting gloves are like the Chuck Taylor’s of baseball. A classic staple that no one would dare play with, but the Fear of God collab made too much sense, started with the same letter, damn near the same amount of letters. The universe!
I hit him up asap on IG like “yo these gloves are crazy how can I get a pair!” he told me unfortunately that they were only a sample. This had to be 5 years ago! But then he posted them again last October and I hit him with a soft threat right away.
Fast forward to last week we released a short piece entitled “Picture Day” which is ironic because the agency I’m starting is going to be called Picture Day (more on that soon). This short film was a full circle moment in so many ways. Me and Jerry brainstormed many ideas on how we wanted to approach this project. At first we were thinking big we wanted to tell a massive story of the history between African Americans and baseball. But the ideas that had us were more expensive than our budgets. So we had to think about a way to essentialize all the history between this group of people and this game. We landed on “Picture Day” a compact concept that expands beyond measure. My my my, what beauty being limited with resources brings.
Back in the day, nobody had fancy cameras. You didn’t have an iPhone in your pocket. The only time you ever got a decent, framed-up picture of yourself was either school picture day or Little League picture day. That was it. So, it mattered. You’d get a fresh cut. Moms made sure your face was greased with Vaseline. And everybody came correct. It was like a ceremony.
But here’s the twist: the kids all wore those league-issued uniforms, recycled year after year. The parents? They turned it into a fashion show. They’d hit the swap meet or the mall and come back with a luxury remix. The Starter jackets, the fresh New Era fitteds, the shoes that matched just right. It was their way of showing love, showing pride, and showing off. That energy, that mix of support and style, is exactly what Fear of God stands on, comfort, luxury, still rooted in sport.
So when we built out the world of “Picture Day”, I wanted those youth sports archetypes to live. The drug-dealer dad who puts everything aside on the weekends just to coach his kid, even though he don’t know the first thing about baseball. The young mom making sure her baby looks perfect, hitting that last swipe of Vaseline across his cheeks. The one team that always felt like the Huxtables. A little more well-to-do than everybody else, you never knew how they all ended up on the same team. The late dad running up because co-parenting is real. Those dynamics are just as much the culture as the game itself.
And let’s be real, no other group of people rock sportswear like us. Black folks took the jersey, the fitted, the batting gloves, and turned them into a lifestyle. You’ll see dudes rocking batting gloves with no bat in sight. That’s just what it is. And Jerry understood that when he trusted me to pull from my world, my memories, my gut.
Even the kids in the spot weren’t random. These were real ballplayers from L.A. the best of the best. Dom Kennedy’s son repping the Dodgers is playing baseball at one of the top high schools in Southern California and his mom who’s next to him in the spot is there at every game. Leo Williams, one of the top 14-year-olds in the city, closing it out with his dad by his side. These aren’t just actors pretending. They live this. You can tell by the way they stand, the way their hats sit, the way the uniforms move with them. It’s authenticity you can’t fake.
For me, this project hit different because baseball has always been my foundation. From Sportsman Little League in Inglewood to varsity ball in high school, to travel teams all across the country, the game shaped me. And trust me this the first of many baseball stories I have in me.
There’s always been this constant talk about how to get more Black kids into baseball or how to get more black people into baseball to begin with. I don’t think it’s something one commercial can fix, but I do think pieces like this open the door. They remind us that our stories around the game are rich, layered, and worth telling.
And honestly, that’s the full-circle part. Jerry’s baseball history, my baseball history. Two different paths but the same heartbeat. Coming together to create “Picture Day”felt bigger than just an ad. It felt like an authentic piece of culture, one that hopefully sparks more people to look back at the game and see themselves in it.
-Cal
PS
The real full circle moment is when I filmed Jerry’s teenage son and his friends for the spot. The same kid who’s baby shower I filmed. And as if I wasn’t washed enough, I told him how crazy it was that I’m filming him 15 years later and he hit me with a unenthused teenage“whaaaaaaat, thats crazy” and walked away.
I saw this campaign and got so hyped, all I could
Think about was me and my dad and my baseball journey, I stopped
To pursue skateboarding and basketball lol but I played rec and adult leagues as well! Baseball is my first love, growing up in the hood, surprisingly many of the OGs including my pops were baseball KINGS! Thought I was one of very few black kids in the teams where I grew up! But seeing this, made me so happy, I had no clue about Jerry’s baseball past or yours! Everytime I find out a brother played baseball it just makes me swell with joy! My grandfather played for the Reds before Vietnam! And another cousins played for the Yankees briefly, it’s in the blood man lol
I remember when Mega introduced me to Jerry and Javier when they were throwing those parties and the first thing we talked about was baseball. This was dope.