A lively sandlot game in an engraved village, the stamp that put the national pastime on the mail for its hundredth birthday.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Catalog Number: Scott #855

• Denomination: 3 cents (3¢)

• Date of Issue: June 12, 1939

• Printing Method: Rotary Press, Engraved (Intaglio)

• Perforation: 11 × 10½

• Color: Violet

• Subject: A sandlot baseball game, issued for the Centennial of Baseball

• Format: Commemorative single

CONDITION ANALYSIS (Seller-Assessed)

• Status: Used

• Grading: Very Fine

• Postmark: Light black postmark of faint lines toward the right side. The baseball design and text all stay clean and clearly readable.

• Obverse: The full sandlot scene, the crossed-bats emblem, the denomination panel are all sharp and identifiable.

• Reverse: No original gum present, as expected for a used stamp. The paper shows light toning with a few small specks, and no tears or thinning visible.

• Centering / Margins: The design is within the frame, with a strong downward shift.

• Perforations: Intact on all four sides, with bottom perforations touching the design frame. 

HISTORY

The Baseball Centennial stamp of 1939 celebrated a birthday that historians now know is a myth, and that is part of its charm. The story went that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839, a tidy origin tale promoted in the early twentieth century to give the game a purely American pedigree. In truth, baseball evolved gradually from older English bat-and-ball games, and Doubleday almost certainly had nothing to do with it. But the legend gave the country a date, and in 1939 it threw a centennial party, complete with the opening of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

This stamp was part of that celebration. Rather than show a modern professional stadium, its engraving depicts a rough sandlot game in a small village, with a batter at the plate, a catcher crouched behind him, fielders scattered across a dusty lot, and townsfolk gathered to watch. It captures baseball as most Americans actually knew it, a neighborhood game played anywhere there was open ground.

Issued June 12, 1939, in violet, it became one of the most beloved American sports stamps and remains a favorite among both stamp collectors and baseball fans, a small violet window onto the game's romantic, half-invented origins.

STEVEN SAYS

Funny thing about this one: the whole "invented in Cooperstown in 1839" story is basically a myth. Baseball grew out of older games, but the legend gave everyone a date to celebrate, and the Hall of Fame opened that same year. I love that the design shows a scruffy sandlot game, not a pro stadium. This is a favorite with baseball collectors.