# 4694a - 2012 First-Class Forever Stamp - Imperforate Major League Baseball All-Stars: Ted Williams

US #4694a
2012 Ted Williams – Major League Baseball All-Stars (Imperforate)

• One of four stamps commemorating MLB Hall of Famers and the impact they’ve had on baseball

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Set:  Major League Baseball All-Stars
Value:  45¢ First Class Mail Rate (Forever)
First Day of Issue:  July 21, 2012
First Day City:  Boston, Massachusetts
Quantity Issued:  20,000,000 (Includes die-cut AND imperforate stamps. The exact quantity of imperforate stamps is unknown, but it is only a tiny fraction of the total print quantity, making the imperforates much scarcer than traditional die-cut stamps.)
Printed by:  Avery Dennison (AVR)
Printing Method:  Photogravure
Format:  Panes of 20
Perforations:  Die Cut 11
Tagging:  Phosphored, Type II

Why the stamp was issued:  To celebrate MLB great Ted Williams.

About the stamp designs:  Pictures artwork of Ted Williams by painter and illustrator Kadir Nelson of Los Angeles, California. He based the stamp art on historic photographs of the four players.

First Day City:  The First Day of Issue Ceremony was held in Boston, Massachusetts, Ted Williams’s hometown.

About the Major League Baseball All-Stars set:  Issued as reminders of great moments in the history of America’s pastime. Each stamp pictures a different famous baseball player: Ted Williams, Larry Doby, Willie Stargell, and Joe DiMaggio. Artwork by painter and illustrator Kadir Nelson of Los Angeles, California. He based the stamp art on historic photographs of the four players.

The First Day of Issue Ceremony for the se-ten was held in Cooperstown, New York, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. There were additional First Day of Issue Ceremonies the following day in each of the pictured players’s hometowns: Boston, Massachusetts (Ted Williams); Cleveland, Ohio (Larry Doby); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Willie Stargell); and New York, New York (Joe DiMaggio).

History the stamp represents:  The greatest baseball players of the past and present gathered in Boston for the 1999 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Before the game, an old man in a golf cart rode out to the field. Superstars and Hall-of-Famers gathered around him, bouncing like puppies, asking for autographs, all seeking their personal moment with former Boston Red Sox great Ted Williams (1918-2002).

Williams ranks among the all-time great hitters – 521 home runs, 2,654 hits, a .344 batting average, 2,021 walks, and 1,839 runs batted in. The legendary numbers were all the more remarkable for the five seasons lost to military service in World War II and the Korean War. Even his wartime duty was the stuff of legends – as a fighter pilot, he was wingman for future astronaut John Glenn.

Williams had a difficult relationship with both fans and journalists, never acknowledging their cheers or boos. In 1960, in the last at bat of his final game, he hit a home run into the bullpen. The fans roared, urging him to come out. Author John Updike wrote: “Though we thumped, wept, and chanted… he did not come back. Gods do not answer letters.”

But in 1999, Ted Williams – Teddy Ballgame, the Splendid Splinter, The Kid – tipped his cap to the adoring crowd.