The Poca Post is pleased to announce a new issue commemorating the inventor of Baseball:  Abner Singleday. 

In 1832 Abner Singleday traveled from the Poca River Valley to England where he witnessed the game of Cricket.  Upon his return in 1834 to his hometown, Grimms Landing, he reconstructed the game according to both faulty memory and innovative ideas.  The game was an immediate success, and the first team, the Poca Dots of Grimms Landing was organized..   

There quickly followed the formation of a number of more teams in the vicinity of the Poca River.  Teams such as the Buffalo Chips, the Pliny Elders, the Marmet Mules, the Institute Toots, and the Ripley Splits soon formed.  

However, the game field that Abner designed had, instead of the modern diamond, a circle with the pitcher standing in the center and throwing to the home plate.  This design was inherently flawed since a circle has no points of unusual significance.  As a result, the players on the field would often and surreptitiously move their bases as the play suited them.   This resulted in many arguments and fights over the placement of the bases during any given play.  The effect was that no game was ever completed on Abner Singleday's playing field.

It was not until 1839 that someone in upstate New York changed the playing field to a diamond shape, thereby ending the arguments over the placement of the bases, thus allowing uninterruped play.  Nevertheless, Abner Singleday stands as the prime inventor of what became the national sport. 

The issue is a plate of 20 stamps in the denomination of 95 pu. Date of issue: 4 July, 2001