2001 34c Legendary Baseball Fields: Shibe Park

# 3518 - 2001 34c Legendary Baseball Fields: Shibe Park

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U.S. #3518
34¢ Shibe Park
Baseball’s Legendary Playing Fields
 
Issue Date: June 27, 2001
City: New York, NY, Boston, MA, Chicago, IL, or Detroit, MI
Quantity:
 125,000,000
Printed by: Avery Dennison
Printing Method:
Photogravure
Perforations:
Serpentine Die Cut 11.25 x 11.5
Color: Multicolor
Vintage postcards of ten famous baseball fields are displayed on the Baseball’s Legendary Playing Fields se-tenant. Descriptive text appears on the back of each stamp.
 
Three of the ball fields are 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.
 

Birth of “Lefty” Grove

2000 33¢ Legends of Baseball: Lefty Grove
US #3408k – from the 2000 Legends of Baseball issue

Robert Moses “Lefty” Grove was born on March 6, 1900, in Lonaconing, Maryland.  Considered one of the greatest pitchers in history, he was a six-time All-Star, American League MVP, nine-time ERA leader, four-time wins leader, and two-time Triple Crown winner.

2000 Legends of Baseball - Lefty Grove Commemorative First Day Picture Card (8x10)
Item #AC409 –Commemorative First Day Picture Card measuring 8×10

As a child, Grove reportedly strengthened his throwing arm by pitching rocks.  In his teens he was a sandlot star around Baltimore, and didn’t play organized baseball until he was 19.  Gove made his professional debut in 1920 with the Martinsburg Mountaineers in the class-D Blue Ridge League.  He played in six games, pitching 59 innings, allowing just 30 hits, with an earned run average (ERA) of 1.68.

2000 33¢ Lefty Grove Mystic First Day Cover
US #3408k – Mystic First Day Cover

Grove’s impressive performance with the Mountaineers grabbed the attention of Jack Dunn, owner and manager of the Baltimore Orioles minor league team.  Dunn offered the team money to replace their center field wall in exchange for Grove.  Grove joined the team partway through the 1920 season and had a 12-2 record.  Over the course of the next four seasons, he had 96 wins and 34 losses and led the league in strikeouts every year.

2000 33¢ Lefty Grove Classic First Day Cover
US #3408k – Classic First Day Cover

In 1925, the Philadelphia Athletics paid $100,600 for Grove – a record amount for a single player up to that time.  Grove’s first season was plagued with injuries and it would be his only losing record (10-12) during his 17-year major league career.  Despite a high ERA, he still led the league in strikeouts.  Grove’s record improved the following season, in which he won the first of a record nine ERA titles.  He had his first 20-win season in 1927 and tied for the most wins in 1928 with 24.

2001 34¢ Legendary Baseball Fields: Shibe Park
US #3518 – Shibe Park was home to the Philadelphia Athletics from 1909 to 1954.

Between 1929 and 1931, the Athletics won the American League pennant every year and the World Series between 1929 and 1930.  Grove was the league’s top pitcher, leading in wins, ERA, strikeouts, win percentage, complete games, and shutouts.  In 1931, he became one of just a few pitchers to be selected as the league Most Valuable Player (MVP).

2001 34¢ Legendary Baseball Fields: Fenway Park
US #3516 – Fenway park has hosted the Boston Red Sox since 1912.

The team failed to win the pennant in 1932 and 1933.  And in 1933, Grove became the first player in MLB history to strike out five times in a nine-inning game.  At the end of that season, he was traded to the Boston Red Sox.  Once again, an injury led to a poor record during his first season with the Red Sox.  But in 1935 he bounced back with a 20-12 record and the league’s best ERA.  Grove had several strong season with the Red Sox – he won his seventh and eight ERA titles and pitched over 200 innings for the 11th time in his career in 1937.  He also led the league in ERAs four times between 1935 and 1939.  During his final season, Grove won and lost seven games and made his final appearance on September 28, 1941.

Lefty Grove PC and PSA Stamp Combo FDC
US #UX347 – Grove First Day Postal Card

Grove ended his 17-year baseball career with 300 wins and 141 loses. When his minor league statistics are added, his record jumps to 411 wins and 190 losses, one of the best records in the history of organized baseball. Grove was the last to pitch 300 wins until 1963.  His career highlights include eight 20-win seasons; seven consecutive seasons as American League strikeout leader; and a record nine seasons with the league’s lowest ERA.  He also won the pitcher’s Triple Crown twice, leading the league in wins, strikeouts, and ERA.

2000 33¢ Youth Team Sports: Baseball
US #3402 – In retirement, Grove supported and donated supplies to local youth baseball teams.

After retiring, Grove served on the Lonaconing town council and as the police chief.  He also ran a bowling alley and donated jerseys and equipment to local youth baseball teams.  He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1947 and is often ranked among the best pitchers in major league history.  Grove died on May 22, 1975.  In 2019, a memorial was unveiled in his hometown of Lonaconing, Maryland.

 

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U.S. #3518
34¢ Shibe Park
Baseball’s Legendary Playing Fields
 
Issue Date: June 27, 2001
City: New York, NY, Boston, MA, Chicago, IL, or Detroit, MI
Quantity:
 125,000,000
Printed by: Avery Dennison
Printing Method:
Photogravure
Perforations:
Serpentine Die Cut 11.25 x 11.5
Color: Multicolor
Vintage postcards of ten famous baseball fields are displayed on the Baseball’s Legendary Playing Fields se-tenant. Descriptive text appears on the back of each stamp.
 
Three of the ball fields are 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.
 

Birth of “Lefty” Grove

2000 33¢ Legends of Baseball: Lefty Grove
US #3408k – from the 2000 Legends of Baseball issue

Robert Moses “Lefty” Grove was born on March 6, 1900, in Lonaconing, Maryland.  Considered one of the greatest pitchers in history, he was a six-time All-Star, American League MVP, nine-time ERA leader, four-time wins leader, and two-time Triple Crown winner.

2000 Legends of Baseball - Lefty Grove Commemorative First Day Picture Card (8x10)
Item #AC409 –Commemorative First Day Picture Card measuring 8×10

As a child, Grove reportedly strengthened his throwing arm by pitching rocks.  In his teens he was a sandlot star around Baltimore, and didn’t play organized baseball until he was 19.  Gove made his professional debut in 1920 with the Martinsburg Mountaineers in the class-D Blue Ridge League.  He played in six games, pitching 59 innings, allowing just 30 hits, with an earned run average (ERA) of 1.68.

2000 33¢ Lefty Grove Mystic First Day Cover
US #3408k – Mystic First Day Cover

Grove’s impressive performance with the Mountaineers grabbed the attention of Jack Dunn, owner and manager of the Baltimore Orioles minor league team.  Dunn offered the team money to replace their center field wall in exchange for Grove.  Grove joined the team partway through the 1920 season and had a 12-2 record.  Over the course of the next four seasons, he had 96 wins and 34 losses and led the league in strikeouts every year.

2000 33¢ Lefty Grove Classic First Day Cover
US #3408k – Classic First Day Cover

In 1925, the Philadelphia Athletics paid $100,600 for Grove – a record amount for a single player up to that time.  Grove’s first season was plagued with injuries and it would be his only losing record (10-12) during his 17-year major league career.  Despite a high ERA, he still led the league in strikeouts.  Grove’s record improved the following season, in which he won the first of a record nine ERA titles.  He had his first 20-win season in 1927 and tied for the most wins in 1928 with 24.

2001 34¢ Legendary Baseball Fields: Shibe Park
US #3518 – Shibe Park was home to the Philadelphia Athletics from 1909 to 1954.

Between 1929 and 1931, the Athletics won the American League pennant every year and the World Series between 1929 and 1930.  Grove was the league’s top pitcher, leading in wins, ERA, strikeouts, win percentage, complete games, and shutouts.  In 1931, he became one of just a few pitchers to be selected as the league Most Valuable Player (MVP).

2001 34¢ Legendary Baseball Fields: Fenway Park
US #3516 – Fenway park has hosted the Boston Red Sox since 1912.

The team failed to win the pennant in 1932 and 1933.  And in 1933, Grove became the first player in MLB history to strike out five times in a nine-inning game.  At the end of that season, he was traded to the Boston Red Sox.  Once again, an injury led to a poor record during his first season with the Red Sox.  But in 1935 he bounced back with a 20-12 record and the league’s best ERA.  Grove had several strong season with the Red Sox – he won his seventh and eight ERA titles and pitched over 200 innings for the 11th time in his career in 1937.  He also led the league in ERAs four times between 1935 and 1939.  During his final season, Grove won and lost seven games and made his final appearance on September 28, 1941.

Lefty Grove PC and PSA Stamp Combo FDC
US #UX347 – Grove First Day Postal Card

Grove ended his 17-year baseball career with 300 wins and 141 loses. When his minor league statistics are added, his record jumps to 411 wins and 190 losses, one of the best records in the history of organized baseball. Grove was the last to pitch 300 wins until 1963.  His career highlights include eight 20-win seasons; seven consecutive seasons as American League strikeout leader; and a record nine seasons with the league’s lowest ERA.  He also won the pitcher’s Triple Crown twice, leading the league in wins, strikeouts, and ERA.

2000 33¢ Youth Team Sports: Baseball
US #3402 – In retirement, Grove supported and donated supplies to local youth baseball teams.

After retiring, Grove served on the Lonaconing town council and as the police chief.  He also ran a bowling alley and donated jerseys and equipment to local youth baseball teams.  He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1947 and is often ranked among the best pitchers in major league history.  Grove died on May 22, 1975.  In 2019, a memorial was unveiled in his hometown of Lonaconing, Maryland.