As If Cards Were Not Enough

Baseball card collecting is by definition an obsession. The pursuit of a 2 1/2" by 3 1/2" piece of cardboard for the purpose of filing it away with others of the like becomes a full blown necessity for some and a life-long quest for others. When you begin to add other items into the mix of this pursuit things start to get crazy.

On February 1st of this year Canada Post, in honour of Black History month, released two stamps commemorating the achieves of two outstanding members of the 'Order of Canada'. Carrie Best was a poet, author, journalist and activist amongst black Canadians who worked together with Viola Desmond to lobby the Canadian Government to repeal segregation laws in 1954.

The other honoree featured on stamp is the only Canadian to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Ferguson Jenkins was born in Chatham, Ontario (about 2 hours from here) and his achievements as a Chicago Cub, Philadelphia Phillie, Texas Ranger and Boston Red Sock should come as no surprise to anyone.

I have managed to find only two First Day Covers in the three Postal Outlets that I have checked in the last week. The front of these are nicely designed with a picture of Ferguson in his Chicago Cubs uniform, a facsimile autograph and a very cool special postage cancellation from his hometown.

The stamp bears a more updated image of Ferguson along with his 'Order of Canada' medal. The back of the FDC features a brief write-up on not only his achievements in baseball but his achievements beyond the game as well. Also pictured on the back are his 1967, 1971 and 1975 Topps baseball cards.


I have purchased several books of these stamps and will be using them for the next little while when sending out packages to fellow bloggers and a the few eBay sales I have. I will continue to search for the FDCs because I plan to send them out to a few Cubs collectors that I have traded with in the past.

I have always been interested in stamps and First Day Covers that deal with Baseball. In fact, there was a stamp released last July by the USPS that I will be looking for a FDC at The National this year featuring Rube Foster.

Collecting FDCs is something that I had always tried to avoid because they are a complete genre unto themselves. Today may just be the beginning of a whole new obsession for me.

YAY!!!


Cheers,