Saving Faces

Michelangelo, da Vinci, Botticelli ... Baldelli? Devil Rays outfielder Rocco Baldelli (above) may not rank among the Italian masters, but he has made a lasting contribution to art, one that won't biodegrade for 2,000 years. While on the bench during a long recovery from assorted injuries, Baldelli, 24, doodled on Styrofoam coffee cups, using a sunflower seed as his stylus. Soon, he was carving portraits of teammates--each took about five innings to complete--and refining his technique. "I'd need a sharp seed to do the outlines," he says, "then I'd use the dull end to do the shading."

Baldelli did three portraits. Pitcher Mark Hendrickson was "shocked" by the resemblance; catcher Toby Hall admires Baldelli's rendering of facial hair ("long, fuzzy little chin hair, eyebrows, everything"). But all agree Baldelli's masterpiece is his Julio Lugo. "Impressive," says the shortstop. "The mustache he got right, and the nose, that's the difficult part."

The subsequent trading of all three of Baldelli's subjects has led some in Tampa Bay's clubhouse to joke that his pieces have a dark side. That may be why he never did a self-portrait--"It'd be one ugly picture," he says--before his return to the lineup interrupted his art career. Says Baldelli of his Styrofoam series, "It's a real limited edition."