[2] Rockwell wanted to create a spring training-themed cover for The Saturday Evening Post, and in August 1956 three Red Sox players (Frank Sullivan, Jackie Jensen, and Sammy White) drove to his studio in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to pose for reference photographs.

[3] Ted Williams and Billy Goodman are depicted in the painting but did not make the studio trip, so Rockwell used other images of them.

[3][4] Rockwell selected a high school student, Sherman Safford from nearby Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to pose for reference photos of the rookie baseball player.

[3] Inspiration for the rookie player may have been Mickey McDermott, who joined the Red Sox in 1948 and was featured in a photograph in Life magazine.

[5] Rockwell visited Sarasota, Florida, and took photographs of the actual Red Sox spring training locker room at Payne Park.