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You’ve undoubtedly seen them. How could you not – they’re everywhere.

Hooligans.

And they’ve taken over Dodger Stadium.

No, not a violent troublemaker or a delinquent or mischief-maker or vandal, but unquestionably one of a gang and indeed rowdy – but in a fun and passionate way. And believe it or not, one of the ringleaders is Dodgers super-sub Kiké Hernandez.

Sporting his Hooligan T-shirt, Kiké Hernandez poses for a photo with Little League World Series star Mo’ne Davis. (Photo courtesy of @kikehndez)

If you haven’t figured it out by now, the Hooligans we are referring to are the custom-made, Dodgers-themed T-shirts that are frequently seen throughout Dodger Stadium and Southern California these days. They are the creation of 27-year-old entrepreneur and die-hard Dodger fan D.J. Baltazar of Long Beach, CA and his rapidly-growing Hooligan Baseball company.

“The idea of Hooligan Baseball came from Hooligan Hockey, which we launched in October of 2014,” Baltazar said. “When hockey season ended, we tried to build onto it and started Hooligan Baseball in January of 2015 to get a jump on the upcoming baseball season. I already had some designs made up so that we’d be ready by Opening Day.”

So how did Baltazar come up with the name ‘Hooligan’ for his new company? His answer is brutally simple and gives you a clear indication of how his artistic mind works.

“I was trying to think of the craziest types of sports fans that exist,” Baltazar said. “I didn’t like things like ‘Die-Hards’ or anything like that, so I finally landed on Hooligans.”

Sheer brilliance. Hooligan is a term that is generally associated with turn-of-the-century America (the 20th) – when professional baseball was in its infancy – and it’s hard not to smile when you hear it.

It’s nearly impossible to walk around Dodger Stadium without running into some Hooligans. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

As with any form of art and design, there is a lot of trial and error involved. In fact, Baltazar says that for every success there are many rejects.

“For every design that I release I probably have 15 designs that don’t get released,” Baltazar said. “I do roughly 90 percent of my design work off hand on the computer. I don’t do much of it by hand on paper.”

Although the Kiké banana shirt is by far his most popular release to date and remains Baltazar’s biggest seller, Hernandez wasn’t the first Dodger to be featured on a Hooligan T-shirt; in fact, he’s a relative newcomer to the Hooligan gang. The first Dodger to be so honored isn’t even a Dodger any more – former Dodgers third baseman and fan-favorite Juan Uribe.

Juan Uribe will forever hold claim to being the first Dodger honored with a Hooligan T-shirt.

“Juan Uribe was the first Dodger player shirt I made,” said Baltazar. “That was followed by the Adrian Gonzalez El Mariachi Loco and the Scully University shirts, which are still really popular. Then came the Joc Pederson shirt because we all thought he would be a shoo-in for Rookie of the Year.”

As you would expect, the AGon El Mariachi Loco and Scully University T-shirts continue to be big sellers for Baltazar.

Baltazar readily admits that the success of his Kiké banana shirt had everything to do with the fact that Hernandez was often seen wearing it around the clubhouse and, as such, was frequently photographed while wearing it – such as in the above photo with Little League superstar and America’s sweetheart Mo’ne Davis. But how did Kiké get his hands on the shirt in the first place.

“I came up with two or three Kiké designs shortly after the whole rally banana thing started but I was holding onto them for a while,” Baltazar said. “I had a booth set up at the Frank and Son [Collectibles] Show in June and Kiké was there signing autographs. I showed him the designs off of my phone and he liked the one with the banana and asked me if I could print some and give them to him. I told him yes and through my friend at Frank and Son I gave him four or five shirts.

“He ended up giving one to Justin Turner, Joc Pederson, Scott Van Slyke and Andre Ethier,” added Baltazar. “The next thing I know the Dodgers are posting photos on their social media of him doing the Ice Bucket Challenge wearing the shirt and the photo of him with Mo’ne Davis while wearing the shirt and things just took off from there.”

Of course no Dodgers T-shirt collection would be complete without a Clayton Kershaw shirt, of which Baltazar has several. The hands down favorite is one that features Kershaw and 2015 NL Cy Young award hopeful Zack Greinke, which is appropriately called The Dynamic Duo.

If you want a Hooligan “Dynamic Duo” T-shirt, you better hurry – they’re going fast.

In addition to his contemporary and ever-evolving Dodgers T-shirt line, D.J. also has several self-promoting T-shirts and other items, including Hooligan Baseball caps in both fitted (Flexfit) and snapback styles. Of course, they come in only one color – Dodger Blue.

Hooligan’s snapback hat.

When Baltazar comes up with a new idea or, in some cases, when he is contacted by someone – including several Dodger players – about a new design, his turnaround time from concept to delivery is usually two to three weeks, although he has on rare occasion been able to do so in a week.

“Once I turn the artwork over to our silkscreener it’s entirely in his hands,” Baltazar said. “Obviously, I’m not his only client so it all depends on how busy he is at the time, but he’s usually pretty good about getting stuff back to me pretty fast. I think the fact that he’s a Dodger fan helps too,” added D.J. with a laugh.

In addition to being a longtime Dodgers season ticket holder with his dad David Baltazar, they are also longtime L.A. Kings season ticket holders – hence the Hooligan Hockey thing. And with the Dodgers season now over and the Kings season just beginning, Baltazar is once again gearing up with several new Hooligan Hockey designs. But even though his company actually started with Hooligan Hockey, he readily admits that the success of Hooligan Baseball far exceeded that of Hooligan Hockey in its inaugural season. But like all new (successful) start-ups, he is reinvesting everything right back into his company.

“When we first started Hooligan Hockey we were basically trying to figure everything out so that everything would run like a well-oiled machine, so we were just sort of breaking even,” said Baltazar. “But when baseball season started, within the first two weeks, [Hooligan Baseball] just took off. When Adrian Gonzalez was crazy hot and hit those three home runs in one game, within a day or two of that we released the El Mariachi Loco design and that just kind of launched us off.

“Comparing baseball to hockey, we doubled our [social media] followers, we doubled our sales, we doubled our orders, we basically doubled everything,” Baltazar added. “What we weren’t making with hockey we made up for with baseball and were able to re-launch hockey this year with a bunch of new products like four different kind of hats and beanies and scarfs and promo items and all that kind of stuff. We were able to do that because of the success we had with baseball.”

Because of the success of Hooligan Baseball, Baltazar was able to re-launch Hooligan Hockey this season with “a bunch of new products.”

Don’t expect Hooligan to slow down anytime soon. Baltazar is already planning to open a warehouse and showroom in Bellflower, CA before the Dodgers kickoff their 2016 season.

“We’ll have a warehouse that can hold our stock and we’ll have a distribution center where we can ship from,” Baltazar said. “Hopefully we’ll also have a showroom where people can actually pick out the shirt they want right there rather than ordering it online, or they can stop by and get it if they need it in a hurry. We’re also considering having a weekend sale every couple of weeks and maybe even set up some autograph sessions with current and former Dodger players.”

Additionally and without getting too specific, Baltazar said that he is already working on several new Vin Scully designs for 2016 in what will most likely be the Hall of Fame broadcaster’s final season at the microphone.

“I know for sure that when I launch Hooligan Baseball for next year I will have four or five Vin Scully designs just knowing that everybody’s going to be wanting Scully stuff,” said Baltazar. “That’s definitely going to be a big thing for us next season.”

As with any successful art design-type business, piracy of original artwork by unscrupulous (and obviously less talented) individuals is a huge problem – something that D.J. recently fell victim to.

“I got a text from a friend of mine telling me that some guy was selling knockoffs of my Kiké shirt on Instagram. I mean, he copied it right down to the exact spots on the banana so I knew right away it was my design. I couldn’t believe the nerve of this guy,” Baltazar said. “I immediately sent him an email informing him that if he didn’t take down the ad and stop selling the shirt that I would pursue legal action against him.

“To his credit, he removed the ad within minutes. I mean, like, one minute,” added Baltazar. “I then got an email from him apologizing to me saying that he didn’t realize that he had done anything wrong. I mean, come on. He used my exact image and photoshopped out my logo. How could he not realize it?”

Unfortunately, it’s thieves like this that force honest, hard-working and creative artists like Baltazar to have to hire and retain attorneys to protect their original artwork and ideas. But such is life in today’s cut-and-paste digital world.

Although no one knows for sure how long Baltazar’s success will last – not even D.J. – but it’s probably safe to say that you will continue seeing Hooligans wandering around Dodger Stadium and Staples Center for years to come.

(Hooligan images courtesy of hooliganbaseball.net)