Roberto Clemente Postage Stamps Across the World
This article was written by Tony Oliver
This article was published in ¡Arriba! The Heroic Life of Roberto Clemente (2022)
Collage of Clemente Stamp Materials by Juan López-Bonilla. Background: Uncut panel of 20-cent 1984 United States Clemente stamp. Foreground, from left to right: Poster commemorating the 1984 stamp release, the Puerto Rican newspaper “El Mundo” article from 1982 denoting the design selection, the design sketch for landscape version of stamp, the signature of designer, and the original sketch submission for Clemente stamp.
What if postage stamps could talk? Would they be beholden to secrecy, sworn to maintain the integrity of the content of their envelopes? Would they be blind to their mission, knowing only they serve to accompany letters from origin to destination? Or would they be eager to tell stories of their voyage and the messages they carry?
One can only imagine the 1984 and 2000 Roberto Clemente US Postal Service stamps would beam with pride to carry monetary assistance, moral support, words of encouragement, and other acts of human kindness. There would be no better way to honor their subject.
Clemente is one of four baseball players (along with Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, and Lou Gehrig) to be depicted on more than one USPS stamp.1 Even the most diehard baseball fans are unaware of the process and the numerous steps to earn this honor. Like the sport itself, the methodology is independent of time and prone to managerial strategy.
The USPS Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC), established in 1957, evaluates stamp design topics. While anyone can submit suggestions, the meetings are confidential and the minutes are not released to the public. Current rules prevent living persons from consideration, and three years must pass after someone’s death before they can be considered. Over 40,000 proposals are received each year, so projects are carefully researched for several years.2 Once a theme is officially selected, external artists and design experts are tasked with bringing the concept to life.3
The 20-cent stamp was issued on August 17, 1984, on the eve of what would have been Clemente’s 50th birthday.4 The ceremony was held in his namesake sports city in Carolina, Puerto Rico. The limited color palette takes away all but the essential components: Clemente’s head is shown against a waving Puerto Rican flag, his brown skin popping against the white border. Clemente’s face is determined, much as it was between the foul lines, and reflective, as it was during interviews. The light blue background makes the stamp almost angelic; the absence of the traditional Pirates color and the “P” on the cap paints an almost ethereal reverence. More than 119 million units were printed by the American Bank Note Company, but its origin story dates back several years.5
The stamp was designed by Yale School of Art graduate Juan López-Bonilla, originally from Puerto Rico. In 1981 his professor and mentor Bradbury Thompson notified him about the dream opportunity, given that López-Bonilla idolized Clemente.
“I had a good relationship with my professors, especially Bradbury Thompson. He asked me about my baseball idols: Cepeda, Clemente, among others. I shared that on New Year’s Eve 1972 we were going to a party in Carolina.… As we passed the airport, I told my wife that the motor on a plane seemed to be backfiring. When we reached the party, it was like a funeral. I asked ‘did someone die?’ I hadn’t heard … and when my friend told me my hair stood on its end. Thompson told he served on the CSAC and asked whether I would be interested in submitting a design for the Clemente stamp.”6
There was a family connection as well, as López Bonilla’s uncle Héctor, an architect, had designed the Sports City. López-Bonilla submitted two designs: one with the Pirates star at bat, and the chosen one, which looks remarkably complete in a preliminary sketch he shared with the author. While few guidelines were given him, one stood out: “try to capture not just his sportsmanship, but also his sense of humanity.”7 Almost four decades later, López-Bonilla still receives mail about his work on the stamp, a source of immense pride: “The greatest honor, the greatest privilege, and the greatest gift, was not only that I was able to do the stamp … but that Bradbury Thompson went to Puerto Rico for the first day of issue. That was one of the most significant moments of my life.”8
The Postal Service sent 500,000 of the 20-cent Clemente stamps to Pittsburgh. Fans formed a line at the McKnight station, “decorated in black and gold against a backdrop of Pirate memorabilia,” and bought 22,506 Clemente stamps, or four times the typical figure for a first-day offering. “Customers got a taste of Clemente birthday cake” and popcorn, while former Pirate Frank Thomas signed autographs. The downtown office also did a booming business, with sales up by 25 percent.9
Sixteen years later, Clemente was selected as one of 20 Hall of Famers for the “Legends of Baseball” stamp series. The 33-cent piece highlights Clemente, regal in the classic 1950s/1960s sleeveless Pirate uniform, in a batting stance against an azure background.
Phil Jordan served as the art director: “USPS manager Carl Burcham and I spent a couple of days at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. The director Bill Guilfoile consulted with us on how to manage a sheet of 20 subjects. The players were selected by the Baseball Hall of Fame.”10 Jordan, who retired in 2014, would also later work on the “Major League Baseball All-Stars” series released in 2012.11
The 20 players were among the hundred considered for the All-Century Team, announced during the 1999 season.12 Three designers were commissioned to produce concepts for consideration, with Don Truesdell’s submission being chosen. Truesdell, a noted baseball fan, partnered with illustrator Joe Saffold. This relationship is akin to the battery, as both must be in lockstep: “The designer manages, arranges, and organizes all aspects of the product – illustration, photography, typography and mechanics. The illustrator produces art for the subject.”13
Saffold’s submission for consideration had local connections. “They asked me to do a preliminary piece of artwork … from the state of Georgia, you have to do Ty Cobb.”14 His drawings used colored pencils, and oil and acrylic paints to bring his subjects to life, a task made harder by the black-and-white sources given the eras of many players: “When we got into the job, the Postal Service had a baseball committee of experts to help them choose the Hall of Fame players. They gave me reference photos, which was helpful, and they were very supportive about providing the best available photos I could use to work with. One of the most invaluable books was the bible of baseball uniforms through history … that became one of the stickiest points of everything since a lot were done from black-and-white photographs.”15
The finished product was released on July 6, 2000, in Atlanta, five days before Turner Field hosted the All-Star Game. A total of 225 million stamps were printed by Ashton-Potter, with each design appearing once in the 11.25 million sets.16
Other nations have also issued stamps honoring Clemente. Turks and Caicos, a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, was the first; a 1980 landscape design shows Clemente’s face and a batting scene. The words “human rights” adorn the left column while Clemente’s year of birth and death (1934-1972) are shown on the bottom. Nicaragua, forever linked to Clemente, paid its respects in 1984 as part of a “Famous Baseball Players” panel.
Grenada, capitalizing on the baseball-card fever that characterized the 1980s, partnered with Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. and the Major League Baseball Players’ Association on a nine-stamp panel showcasing Ruth, Bob Feller, Clemente, and six active players.17 While the USPS forbids honoring living persons with stamps, other countries have no such restrictions.18 The government was forthcoming in its rationale, noting an expected fiscal windfall, while competing camps of collectors – baseball card and philatelic – argued the merits of the 1988 product.19 Estimates ranged from $30 million to $50 million to be derived from the issue, a combination of the sales price being above the face value and the likelihood that collectors would not use them for mailing letters.20 In essence, the government was printing money.
Another Caribbean country, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, produced a stamp in 1992, as part of a series of sports figures. The year of Clemente’s Hall of Fame election, 1973, is shown on the left side. Nicaragua produced a stunning “starting nine” titled “Siglo XX Grandes Jugadores de Beisbol” (co-titled in English as “Baseball’s Hall of Fame Dream Team”) with one Cooperstown-enshrined player per position.21
St. Vincent seized on the 50th anniversary of Robinson breaking the sport’s color barrier by commemorating his feat. Sixteen other Black players, captured in photographs rather than drawings, accompany Robinson in the panel. Laos, a country with no baseball history, chose Clemente among other American sports figures in a 1999 collection titled “Great People of the 20th Century.” A 3×3 grid panel captures him in mid-swing in a black-and-white photograph; the bottom right corner is the stamp itself, while the remaining eight portions reproduce the image with a sepia tint.
Angola’s “Millennium 2001” series is perhaps the most puzzling. A collection of contemporary and retired baseball players adorns the offering with instantly recognizable drawings or photographs. However, Clemente’s shows a young boy with a bat and ball in hand, while a black-and-white insert captures an outfielder about to catch a fly ball. While both images can be interpreted as depicting Clemente, his name on the left side confirms the identity, as do the three different photographs on the borders of the panel. The same year, the Democratic Republic of the Congo became the third African nation to honor the Pittsburgh baseball star. This stamp is unique in juxtaposing Clemente’s baseball and family lives; a well-known picture with his wife, Vera, and their three children adorns the bottom the right corner.
In 2002 Somaliland and the Falkland Islands paid tribute to the Queen Mother, King George VI’s widow and mother to Queen Elizabeth II, with a “woman of the century” series. Male historical figures, among them Clemente, were shown on the sheet, but they were not part of the actual stamps.
A typical eBay search reveals dozens of specimens for sale, ranging from individual items to commemorative first-day-of-issue cachets. The pieces, at the intersection of baseball and stamp memorabilia, are cherished by rabid Clemente collectors. While there is no way to measure how many were used in circulation, it is likely those who affixed Clemente’s visage to the letters and packages did so with an extra sense of pride and satisfaction.
TONY S. OLIVER is a native of Puerto Rico currently living in Sacramento, California, with his wife and daughter. While he works as a Six Sigma professional and teaches at several University of California extension campuses, his true love is baseball and he cheers for both the Red Sox and whoever happens to be playing the Yankees. He is fascinated by baseball cards and is currently researching the evolution of baseball tickets. He believes there is no prettier color than the vibrant green of freshly mown grass on a baseball field.
Acknowledgments
Phil Jordan for graciously answering my questions via email.
Alicia Leathers, library assistant for the American Philatelic Society and its Research Library, for graciously answering my philatelic questions via email.
Juan López-Bonilla for his time and knowledge discussing his role in the 1984 Roberto Clemente USPS stamp via a telephone interview.
Joe Saffold for his time and knowledge discussing his role in the 2000 Roberto Clemente USPS stamp via a telephone interview.
The curators of the “Baseball Is My Life” blog for their thorough checklist on baseball postage stamps.
Notes
1 “The Black Experience: African-Americans on Postage Stamps,” Smithsonian National Postal Museum, https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/the-black-experience-sports-baseball/roberto-clemente.
2 Paulette Bee, “Put a Stamp on It: How Art Director Greg Breeding Helps the USPS Create New Stamps,” National Endowment for the Arts, July 15, 2020, https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2020/put-stamp-it-how-art-director-greg-breeding-helps-usps-create-new-stamps.
3 Paulette Bee.
4 “1984 Roberto Clemente,” Baseball Is My Life, https://baseballismy.life/baseball-stamps/1984-roberto-clemente/.
5 1984 Roberto Clemente.
6 Phone interview and subsequent email exchange between Juan López-Bonilla and the author, July 20, 2021.
7 López-Bonilla interview.
8 López-Bonilla interview.
9 Alvin Rosensweet, “Clemente Stamp Draws Crowds,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 21, 1984.
10 Email interview of Phil Jordan by the author, July 29, 2021.
11 “Saluting Art Director Phil Jordan,” http://www.photoassist.com/saluting-art-director-phil-jordan/.
12 Baseball All-Century Team, Baseball Almanac, https://www.baseball-almanac.com/legendary/limc100.shtml.
13 Jordan interview.
14 Phone interview with Joe Saffold, July 22, 2021.
15 Saffold interview. Jordan references the book by Marc Okkonen, Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century (Sterling Publications, 1991).
16 “2000 Legends of Baseball,” Baseball Is My Life, https://baseballismy.life/baseball-stamps/2000-legends-of-baseball/.
17 These are the first stamps to have the team names and logos. The uncut panels have the Major League Baseball® logo (white batter silhouette with red and blue background) and the Major League Baseball Players® logo (shield-format, with hitter making contact with the ball and red and blue background).
18 Ed Stephan, “Baseball on Stamps,” http://www.edstephan.org/webstuff/bbstamps/as.html.
19 Tom Palmer, “The Bambino from Grenada: Ruth and Other U.S. Stars Appear on Foreign Stamps,” Sports Illustrated, November 26, 1990, https://vault.si.com/vault/1990/11/26/the-bambino-from-grenada-ruth-and-other-us-stars-appear-on-foreign-stamps.
20 Bill McAllister, “Play Ball, Grenada Style,” Washington Post, February 24, 1989, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/02/24/play-ball-grenada-style/c902722c-4113-4d0f-86ee-290ef3109479/.
21 Like the 1988 Grenada issue, this set shows the team logos, although not the team names. The panel shows the Major League Baseball® logo and states that “Major League Baseball trademarks and copyrights are used with the permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc.”