Baseball, War Put a Stamp on History

The cry of “Play ball!” soon will echo throughout the land.

From Little Leaguers to major leaguers, the Great American Pastime again will come alive.

Last year the U.S. Postal Service issued a fitting tribute to baseball’s “Legendary Playing Fields” with a series of stamps that featured the home sites of teams long remembered and forever cherished.

Depicted were Crosley Field (Cincinnati), Ebbets Field (Brooklyn, N.Y.), Comiskey Park and Wrigley Field (Chicago), Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds (New York), Shibe Park (Philadelphia), Fenway Park (Boston), Forbes Field (Pittsburgh), Tiger Stadium (Detroit) and Sportsman’s Park (St. Louis).

To fans everywhere, these legendary sites are shrines where history, tradition and folklore intersect between the chalk lines.

Each one of these ballparks has moments that live in sports history.

The Polo Grounds, razed in 1964, was at one time home to the Giants, Yankees and briefly the Mets. The entire 1921 and 1922 World Series were played there.

Ebbets Field, also razed, made history when on April 26, 1939, the first televising of a major league game took place there.

Shibe Park was badly damaged by fire in 1971 and razed in 1976.

Author Lawrence R. Ritter (“Lost Ballparks”) commented about these fields of dreams: “They had their faults, no doubt, but they had magic, magic that will live for years in the memories of those who were lucky enough to have passed through their turnstiles.”

These stamps still are available through the Stamp Fulfillment Services of the Postal Service. You can order them by calling (800) STAMP-24.

Antigua and Barbuda, a former British colony in the eastern Caribbean, has commemorated the legacy of the American Civil War with a set of 30 different stamps and two souvenir sheets.

Highlighted on the stamps are major battles of that war--from the Battle of Bull Run in 1861 to the surrender of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox in 1865.

The stamps of Antigua and Barbuda are available at your local dealer.