“The Gods and Goddesses of Baseball,” was unveiled on Monday, March 26, 2007, at 170 King Street near the Caltrain Station. The work of art is right across the street from Oracle Park, home to the San Francisco Giants baseball team. Attached to a commercial office building and rental apartments, these sculptures are part of the structure’s public art installations.
The nine larger than life mythological creatures span an area of about 120 feet and were created by Russian born sculptor Alexei Kazantsev, who came to the United States in 1993.
The designs were privately commissioned and depict a new pantheon of Greek gods and goddesses acting out a game of baseball. The sculpture consists of both male and female figures participating in various positions of the game. There is a minotaur featured as an umpire, a centaur as a batter, and a merman as an outfielder.
Being from Russia, Kazantsev had never played baseball, and actually, had never seen a game. He did extensive research that involved hours of reviewing photos and videos of the game. The culmination of that work led to this amazing, yet unorthodox interpretation of these Greek mythological effigies.
They were constructed out of reinforced concrete, using silicone molds that were initially carved from clay.
