World first postage stamp featuring the game baseball

World first postage stamp featuring the game baseball

Baseball, the quintessential American game. Believed to be invented by Abner Doubleday in 1839 in Cooperstown, New York. As American as hotdogs, yellow school buses and degrees Fahrenheit. A game loved by millions of proud and enthusiastic spectators and supporters – each with his/her own detailed theory on who the greatest players of all time are.

It would be natural to assume that the USA was the first country to pay homage to this great sport by immortalizing it on a postage stamp. However the world’s first postage stamp featuring the game of baseball was released in 1934 by the Philippines. The Philippines was a territory of the United States at the time, so some might wrongly try to argue that the U.S. owns the bragging rights.

The stamp was printed in the Philippines by the Philippine Bureau of Printing, it is Scott #: PH 380. It was for sale in the Philippines and used for local postage. The stamp didn’t just pay homage to the game of baseball as it was commemorating the 10th Far Eastern Championship Games of 1934. The 10th Far Eastern Championship Games was a regional event between The Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, China and Japan. The honor of baseball’s first postage stamp clearly goes to the Philippines.