Leo O'Mealia Sun Coming Up for Spring Training 1953

I love the symbolism of this piece where the sun is coming up and it is spring training for the 1953 season. All the ball players, probably metaphorically the teams, are springing up in a wonderful representation of "Hope springs eternal", as that is how baseball players and their fans feel at the beginning of each baseball season. And of course, Leo's cute lion in the bottom-right corner of the piece.

IN case anyone is wondering, the American League had 8 teams, with the Yankees easily winning the division. And the National league also had 8 teams with the Brooklyn Dodgers easily winning the division. In the Wolrd Series, the Yankees would come out on top for their 5th consecutive title.

ABOUT LEO
Leo O'Mealia (1884–1960) was a sports cartoonist for the Rochester Herald, the Rochester Times, The Globe and the New York Daily News. Leo's work is featured in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. In most of his drawings he added a little friendly frisky lion which became his trademark. He was the creator of a popular syndicated comic strip called Wedlock. Between 1930 and 1931, he did 816 illustrations for 9 Sherlock Holmes short stories (from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes) written by Arthur Conan Doyle. In some of these illustrations he signed as "Leo". Leo created the cover art for Action Comics (issues 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), Adventure Comics (41) and and for Detective Comics (issues 20 and 21). And weirdly, he is credited for cover art on Superman #1. But here's what's weird (taken from DCFandom.com site): "The cover for this issue comes from the first panel of Action Comics #10. The panel was photostatted and cut out by Leo O'Mealia, who then drew the ornate frame around it."