1939 Centennial Patches

The National Centennial Commission in the summer of 1938 held a design contest to develop an emblem for the centennial and a New York artist Marjori Bennet won. Her design was well accepted by the commission and used on stationary, booklets, stickers, patches and all types of advertising. However, with one exception her design featured Joe DiMaggio and Major League Players objected to singling out one player to represent the Centennial of Baseball and refused to wear the patch. A patch was redesigned and replaced DiMaggio with a caricature of a batter that was accepted by professional baseball. Only two teams used Bennet design patch the Philadelphia Athletics and the Baltimore Orioles as they ordered Spalding uniforms before the objection of professional baseball. The Spalding patch is very rare and embroidered on twill material a nicely made patch.