Wilkpex - Pittsburgh

1985 - Roberto Clemente

1987 - Pittsburgh Pirates 100 Anniversary

1991 - First Prime Time Series Game

Baltimore Orioles v Pittsburgh Pirates, Three Rivers Stadium

 1995 - Babe Ruth
hit his last three career home runs in 1935, in one game at old Forbes Field in Pittsburgh

2000 - Bill Mazeroski

remembered for his Series winning home run for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960

2001 - Three Rivers Stadium

The Home of Champions

2002 - Cal Hubbard

attended Geneva College, was the first man ever to be inducted into the Hall of Fame for both professional  football and baseball

2004 -  Dick Groat
A college All-American in basketball and baseball, he is well remembered as the Pirates MVP in 1960

2007 - Elroy Face
set many records as a relief pitcher for the Pirates from 1952 to 1968

2008 - Steve Blass
spent his entire major league career as a Pirate

2009 -  Harvey Haddix
the first pitcher in the major leagues to take a perfect game past nine innings and did so into the thirteenth

2010 - Vernon Law
played 16 seasons as a pro, all as a pitcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates

2013 - Bob Friend
right-handed starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1951 until 1965. He was the first to lead the national League in ERA while pitching for a last place team

2015 - Kent Tukulve

the Pirate pitcher saved 158 games, pitching 1,071 innings

2016 - Gene Baker

became the first African-American manager in organized baseball during a game in Los Angeles, 1963

The Wilkinsburg Stamp Club was founded as the Westinghouse Stamp Club in the early 1930s. The Club met in Wilknsburg at a Westinghouse building on Pennwood Ave. Shortly after World War II, the prominent members of the club formed the present organization.

Since 1951, an annual exhibition and bourse is held in the spring of each year, titled Wilkpex. the exhibition features exhibits,a youth area, members flea market, a USPS substation with an annual pictorial postmark focused on Pittsburgh related sports and dealers.

Besides baseball, the Wilkpex postmarks featured Arnold Palmer, college and professional football and basketball

Wild Horse hand painted cachet with the 2000 Wilkpex postmark

Spring Training

March 21, 1935 HMS Danae

St. Petersburg training quarters of the Braves & Yankees

(nice eBay find)

HMS Danae was a cruiser serving with the Royal Navy between the world wars and serving with the Polish Navy during World War II

1969 New York Yankees - Fort Lauderdale  Fl - *

1979 Boston Red Sox - Winter Haven Fl - *

Cleveland Indians

  

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* - Journal of Sports Philately - Norman Rushefsky Spring 2007

Frank Schulte

September 17, 2007 Choctaw, NY

Frank M "Wildfire" Schulte (1882-1949)
Right fielder for the Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Senators, playing from 1904-1918.
Won 2 National League Championships and 2 World Series with the Chicago Cubs.
1911 won the Chalmers Award.

The Chalmers award was the earliest version of the Most Valuable Players Award from 1911-1914, presented by Hugh Chalmers of Chalmers Automobile. A committee of baseball writers would convene following the season and determine the league's most valuable player

Inside the Park - New York Yankees

2017-Jul-30 Yankee Stadium, Bronx NY

 My wife, the boys and I had been to the new Yankee Stadium for Soccer matches and concerts, but had yet to go for a Yankee game. We finally made the plans and went to see the yankees play the Tampa Bay Rays. I brought along a Babe Ruth Celebrate the Century first day cover, place the passport stamp on the cover. I will attempt to get it signed by one of the Yankees at a later time.

The Rays defeated the Yankees 5-3, as Corey Dickerson of the Rays, drove in a pair of runs and the Rays bullpen held the Yankees scoreless in five innings to take the final game of a four-game series. The Yankees took the first three games.

Ronald Torreyes of the Yankees had the first 3-RBI game of his career, hitting a 2-run homer and a run scoring double.

Dennis the Menace - King Features Syndicate (2017.08.05)

FYI - The Yankees do not employ a T-shirt or hot dog cannon

Inside the Park - Hudson Valley Renegades

June 1994 Fishkill, NY

Inaugural game

The Hudson Valley Renegades are a minor league team affiliated with the Tampa Bay Rays, in the New York-Penn League, playing in Fishkill, NY

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Originally founded as the Erie Sailors a Texas Ranger affiliate, the team moved to Fishkill in 1994 becoming part of the Tampa Bay organization in 1996.

1992 Olympic Baseball first day cover signed by Isaac Bernard and Matt Eureste

Inside the Park: Hudson Valley, affiliate of Tampa Bay, faced the Vermont Lake Monsters, affiliate of Oakland As. The Renegades would win in the 10th inning when Vidal Brujan doubled to right, he would then score on 2 wild pitches by Josh Reagan. Reliever Hector Lopez picked up the win.

I had planned on attending a Monday day game, but decided not to take the 90 minute drive because of the weather. The skies cleared and the game was played, I was bummed about missing the opportunity to see the game. I then decided I would have to go on the weekend. I wear a Dodgers jersey, because of my Brooklyn roots. An older gentleman walks up to me and says he had a ticket to the final Dodger game in Brooklyn, but did not go because it was raining in Fishkill, NY. He thought he would use the ticket the following day for the make-up game. However it was not raining in Brooklyn and the Dodgers played the game. The world is a lot smaller than we realize...

He still has the unused ticket, a welcomed souvenir, but he would have preferred to be at the game

Inside the Park - Somerset Patriots Fan Fest

Cory Domel, Glen Barker, Brett Jodie, Jon Hutton, Scott Kelly, Aharon Eggleston, Adam Donachie, Carlos Guzman

2017-Apr-08 Somerset Patriots Fan Fest, TD Bank Ballpark, Bridgewater, NJ

Bold = Majors

The Fan Fest offered free admission to kick off the spring and the upcoming baseball season. The Fest included a chance for fans to meet the players and obtain autographs.

I brought along an Olympic Baseball first day cover to obtain a few autographs... It's always a nice day at the park...

1999-Jun-07 Bridgewater NJ

The Somerset Patriots were one of the founding members of the Atlantic League in 1998. However, the team spent its inaugural season as a road team while TD Bank Park was being constructed. In the 1999 season, the Patriots opened their ballpark, where they quickly became one of the most successful franchises of the league in both the win and attendance columns

Inside the Park - Trenton Thunder Fan Fest

Whenever I visit a ballpark I carry a few first day covers to obtain autographs or the MLB Ballpark passport rubber stamp, as a souvenir of my visit.

Bobby Mitchell, Jose Rosado, Billy Fleming, Caleb Smith, Matt Marsh, Zack Zenner, Devyn Tolansky,

  Chance Adams, Mike Ford

Dante Bichette Jr, Caleb Frare, Gleyber Torres, Travis Hissong

Domingo German, Francisco Diaz, Billy McKinney, JP Feyereisen, Justus Sheffield, Yefrey Ramirez, Rashad Crawford

Bold = Majors

2017-Apr-04 Arm & Hammer Park, Trenton, NJ

Trenton Thunder Open House

It was a rainy afternoon, but the plan was batting practice from 3-5, with a 1 hour autograph session to follow with the team. However fans starting lining up at Gleyber Torres table at 3:00 ignoring the limited batting practice. The talk for 2 hours was basically how many autographs could they get from Torres. The limit was 1. They all had their book of cards hoping to get as many as possible, I was just  looking for 1. I enjoy the fact that I can obtain several players at the same time on a single cover, which also always a spot for the MLB passport stamp, to commemorate my visit...

At 5:00 the players and coaches sat at 4 tables, with the only line being at Torres table. Regardless of the staff trying to persuade fans to line up at the other tables, few people moved. The lines moved fairly quickly and everything went smoothly...

Rochester Red Wings - Rochester Philatelic

1987 Ropex souvenir card honoring the Rochester Red Wings

April 11, 1997 Rochester, NY

Opening of Frontier Field, home of the Rochester Red Wings. The Red Wings previously played their games at Silver Stadium (aka Red Wing Stadium) from 1929-1996

C.T. Art Colortone - Curteich & co Chicago postcard c.1938

Robert Panara (1920-2014) was an educator, the first deaf faculty member of the Rochester Institute of Technology's National Technical Institute for the Deaf. Panama was honored by the USPS with a commemorative stamp, the 16th in the Distinguished Americans series in 2017.

Panara was an influential professor and pioneer in the field of deaf studies and was one of the founders of the National Theatre of the Deaf. Panara was also an avid fan of the Rochester Red Wings.

The Rochester Red Wings and the Rochester Post Office honored Panara with a commemorative postmark on July 23, 2017

Screen save from a WHAM 13ABC news broadcast of the free postcard distributed at the Post Office table setup at Frontier Field.

John Panara, said Frontier Field was like his dad's second home.