About This Stamp
With the issuance of this Classic Collection stamp pane, the U.S. Postal Service, in partnership with Major League Baseball, honored 20 legendary baseball stars. Taken from Major League Baseball’s 100 nominees for the All-Century Team, they occupy a unique and important place in the history of our national pastime. Ten players appearing on this pane went on to become members of the All-Century Team: Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Lefty Grove, Rogers Hornsby, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, and Cy Young.
All of the individuals pictured on the stamp pane are members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Two Negro Leagues greats are included: Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige, who had a brief Major League Baseball career. Also appearing on the stamp pane are Roberto Clemente, Mickey Cochrane, Eddie Collins, Dizzy Dean, Jimmie Foxx, George Sisler, Tris Speaker, and Pie Traynor. Four of the players — Jackie Robinson (1982, CTC 1940s), Babe Ruth (1983, CTC 1920s), Roberto Clemente (1984), and Lou Gehrig (1989) — have appeared on previous postage stamps.
MLB Trademarks and copyright used with permission of MLB.
Art Director
Phil Jordan
Phil Jordan grew up in New Bern, North Carolina, and attended East Carolina University. After Army service in Alaska, he graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in visual communications. He worked in advertising and in design at a trade association before joining Beveridge and Associates, Inc., where he provided art direction for corporate, institutional, and government design projects. A partner in the firm, he left after 18 years to establish his own design firm where he managed projects for USAir, NASA, McGraw-Hill, IBM, and Smithsonian Books, among others. He was Design Director of Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine for 15 years. His work appeared in numerous exhibitions and publications such as Graphis and Communications Arts. A past president of the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, he was an art director for the U.S. Postal Service from 1991 to 2014. A resident of Falls Church, Virginia, he is a retired glider pilot and a member of the Skyline Soaring Club.