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Old 05-22-2017, 06:38 AM
da-bullman da-bullman is offline
Steve Kennedy
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Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 118
Default 1939 Baseball Centennial Emblem "Is That You Joe"

The National Centennial Commission officially formed and introduced to Major League leaders in Chicago in October 1938. Earlier in the summer of 1938 Ford Frick hired public relations professionals Steve Hannagan and Al Stoughton to lead this Centennial effort.
The first item up for consideration was the creation of an emblem. In the summer of 1938 Marjori Bennet, a young artist from New York City, won a contest for the design of the emblem. Her design featured a background of four red stripes representing balls, and three white stripes representing strikes. Overlaying the stripes was a baseball diamond. A batter at the end of his swing was in the center. The dates "1839-1939" were written on the top and "Baseball Centennial" was written on the bottom of the design. The Commission approved the design at its fall meeting and agreed to unveil it at the winter meeting in New Orleans that December.

It seems Miss Bennets' emblem contained one major flaw: Did her batter depict Joe DiMaggio? Major League Baseball did object to the singling out of one player and the original design was altered by inserting a caricature of a batter. The alterative design was accepted and uniform patches were manufactured for Professional Baseball including the Minor Leagues. With two exceptions the Philadelphia Athletics and the Baltimore Orioles who wore the Bennet design patch for the 1939 season. Manufactured for the Spalding Sporting Goods Company this rare uniform patch was embroidered on twill and measured 4.5 x 4.5. Please visit my web site www.1939baseball.com for more information.
Say It's Not So Joe 1b- Is That you Joe.jpg

The Spalding Twill Patch worn by the Athletics and Orioles 1939 Embroidered on Twill 4.5 x 4.5 worn by Athletics and Orioles VERY RARE.jpg

This patch design was the only one accepted for use by professional baseball 1939 Marvin Owen Centennial Patch from his scrap book.jpg
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