Forbes Field, Pittsburgh [First Day of Issue postcard]
Washington DC: United States Postal Service, 2001. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Post Card. Format is 6 inches by 4.25 inches, color image of the stadium on one side. The other side has the canceled color stamp image on the right side. This was canceled in New York City on Jun 27 2001. The stamp image value was twenty-one cents. The left side has a brief text on the Forbes Field over a black and white image. At the bottom, in slightly raised lettering it states Legendary Playing Fields. There is a statement Official First Day of Issue. Below the USPS copyright notice is the statement "Major League Baseball trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. There is a logo for Cooperstown Collection. A first day of issue cover or first day cover (FDC) is a postage stamp on a cover, postal card or stamped envelope franked on the first day the issue is authorized for use within the country or territory of the stamp-issuing authority. There will usually be a first day of issue postmark, frequently a pictorial cancellation, indicating the city and date where the item was first issued, and "first day of issue" is often used to refer to this postmark. Postal authorities may hold a first day ceremony to generate publicity for the new issue, with postal officials revealing the stamp, and with connected persons in attendance. The ceremony may also be held in a location that has a special connection with the stamp's subject. The postmark is one of the most important features of a cover. Stamps are canceled by a postmark, which shows they have been used and can’t be reused. This is one of a set of vintage postcards of ten famous baseball fields. The art for each of these stamps comes from replicas of vintage postcards! Each post card has a descriptive text on the back. At the time these were issued in 2001, three of the ball fields were still in use. Yankee Stadium is known as the “House that Ruth Built.” It was built in 1922 in the Bronx, the largest stadium at that time, to hold all the fans who wanted to see the New York Yankees and Babe Ruth. The Chicago Cubs have been playing at Wrigley Field since 1916. It was there during the 1932 World Series that Babe Ruth hit his famous “called shot” home run. Boston Red Sox’s Fenway Park opened April 20, 1912, the same day the newspapers reported the sinking of the Titanic. The park is known for its tall, green, left-field wall, known as “The Green Monster.” Tiger Stadium is the earliest of the structures to have been built, erected in 1896 on the site of a nineteenth-century Detroit hay market. Two Pennsylvania playing fields opened in 1909. Shibe Park hosted the Philadelphia Athletics first and then the Philadelphia Phillies. It was one of the first modern steel-and-concrete stadiums. Forbes Field, built for the Pittsburgh Pirates, was a huge ball field, boasting the longest plate-to-foul-pole distances in the National League. When the White Sox’s Comiskey Park opened in Chicago in 1910, on top of an old city dump, it was considered the finest baseball facility in the world. Beginning in 1911, the New York Giants played at the Polo Grounds depicted on the stamp. It was the location for all the games of the first “Subway” World Series in 1921. The Cincinnati Red’s Crosley Field, which opened in 1912, hosted major league baseball’s first night game in 1935. Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, sported a majestic, eighty-foot marble rotunda and gilded ticket windows and turnstiles. In 1960, it became the first of these legendary playing fields to be demolished. Forbes Field was a baseball park in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1909 to June 28, 1970. It was the third home of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball (MLB) team, and the first home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the city's National Football League (NFL) franchise. The stadium also served as the home football field for the University of Pittsburgh "Pitt" Panthers from 1909 to 1924. The stadium was named after its adjacent street, Forbes Ave., itself named for British general John Forbes, who fought in the French and Indian War and named the city in 1758. The stadium was made of concrete and steel, the first such stadium in the National League and third in Major League Baseball, in order to increase its lifespan. The Pirates opened Forbes Field on June 30, 1909, against the Chicago Cubs, and played the final game against the Cubs on June 28, 1970. The field itself featured a large playing surface, with the batting cage placed in the deepest part of center field during games. The Pirates won three World Series while at Forbes Field and the other original tenant, the Pittsburgh Panthers football team had five undefeated seasons before moving in 1924. Indeed, it was the late-fifties resurgence of its long-dormant baseball franchise, rather than any intrinsic properties of the stadium itself, that led broadcaster Bob Prince to dub Forbes Field "The House of Thrills" in 1958. Some remnants of the ballpark still stand. Fans gather on the site annually on the anniversary of Bill Mazeroski's World Series winning home run, in what author Jim O'Brien writes is "one of the most unique expressions of a love of the game to be found in a major league city" Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Post Card, Playing Field, Baseball, Stadium, New York, Pittsburgh Pirates, Philately, First Day Cover, First Day of Issue, World Series, Professional Sports, Professional Athletes, Sports Venue, Postage
[Book #83559]
Price: $15.00