We’re itching for spring…to play some ‘backyard games’

One of the featured groupings of forever postage stamps currently being offered by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is labeled “Backyard Games.” These stamps whet the appetite of all who are itching for spring weather and the opportunity to “play outdoors.” 

This sheet of stamps contains eight scenes, depicting activities played on green grass. They are badminton, bocce, croquet, horseshoes, tetherball, frisbee, cornhole and…baseball. With a hard ball? Isn’t backyard baseball a sure-fire recipe for broken windows?

 

Don’t blame illustrator Mick Wiggins. His original sketch depicted a white wiffle ball and a yellow plastic bat. That image, however, presented trademark concerns for the USPS legal department. Wiffle Ball balls and bats “belong to” Wiffle Ball, a company headquartered in Shelton, Ct.

 

Wiggins explained that his plastic ball’s holes were round and not Wiffle Ball oblong. The USPS lawyers feared Wiggins’ drawing still could be troublesome to JUGS Sports of Tualatin, Ore., manufacturer of baseball pitching machines and plastic, practice baseballs with round holes.

 

The conundrum caught the attention of Brett Rudy, whose blog is titled “Baseball Is My Life.” He interviewed Wiggins at his studio in Little Rock, Ark. 

Wiggins said he was honored to have been selected by Journey Group, a graphic design agency in Charlottesville, Va., to create the artwork for new postage stamps. He said revisions are expected; it just “comes with the territory” when working on postage stamp projects. 

To accommodate the agency executives, Wiggins next gave them a baseball with authentic red stitching. Someone at the agency made the stitches white…perhaps to infer the ball had been altered from having a hard cover to become plastic again.

 

Wiggins said it looks odd for the players in the frame to be playing “real baseball without mitts.” He pointed out that the loopy flight of the original ball shown in the stamp did not change. It’s a quirk that philatelists (stamp collectors) will notice and value. 

Wiggins’ Backyard Games’ scenes key in on the dominant element of each game, which is positioned in the foreground. Players are rather small and serve as supporting characters. He described his colors as “dusty and warm…creating a nostalgic glow.” 

Most of the games depicted have been around for many years. The newest game is cornhole, which is a modern bean bag toss game that is portable, capable of being transported from the backyard to the beach or a tailgate party parking lot.

 

Sports historian Peter Jensen Brown gives credit to Heyliger Adams de Windt of Fishkill, N.Y., as the primary inventor of cornhole in 1883. He was Harvard-educated and a descendant of U.S. president John Adams and John Quincy Adams. 

In the late 1880s, a wooden toy manufacturing firm named Morton E. Converse & Co. of Winchedon, Mass., obtained the rights from de Windt and began producing “Faba Baga” games. (“Faba” is Italian for “bean,” while “baga” just sort of sounds Italian.)

 

Over the years, the game evolved to become cornhole, with the 6-inch by 6-inch fabric bags filled with a pound of field corn. Today’s boards have a single hole that’s 9 inches in diameter. The front edges of the boards are located 27 feet apart. It’s pretty simple. Just toss your bag into the hole.

 

Jamie Graham of Hamlet, N.C., was 15 years old when he first tried cornhole at a family reunion in 2014. It was fun, and he was a “natural.” Graham “turned pro” the following year. He won the world cornhole tournament championship in 2020…and a big wad of money.

 

From the backyard to the bank.