2021 Backyard Games

On August 12, 2021, the U.S. Postal Service issued the Backyard Games Forever stamps at the Great American Stamp Show in Rosemont, Illinois. Priced at 55 cents each when issued, the eight designs celebrated the informal outdoor games enjoyed by friends and families in backyards, parks, and neighborhood gathering places.

The baseball stamp features an oversized white ball above a neighborhood game, with a dotted line tracing the ball’s curved flight. Small figures play beside a house, placing baseball in a familiar residential setting. USPS described the subject as a variation on pickup baseball, highlighting the game’s place in everyday recreation.

Illustrator Mick Wiggins created the original digital artwork with vintage sporting posters in mind. Simplified figures, broad areas of color, and exaggerated views of the equipment give the designs a nostalgic character. Each stamp emphasizes movement, capturing the feeling of a game in progress.

The other seven designs feature badminton, bocce, cornhole, croquet, flying disc, horseshoes, and tetherball. Mike Ryan designed the stamps, and Greg Breeding served as art director. Banknote Corporation of America printed the self-adhesive stamps using offset lithography. Each pane contained sixteen stamps, with two of each design.

A total of 25,600,000 stamps were printed across the eight designs, representing an original face value of $14,080,000. Of these, 3,200,000 featured baseball, with a total original face value of $1,760,000 at 55 cents each. The baseball stamp is cataloged as Scott 5631.