Joe DiMaggio’s Stamp Shows Slugger Batting Left Handed … Or Does It?

Joe DiMaggio’s stamp was released by the United States Postal Service last month, but keen baseball followers have noticed something wrong with the commemorative stamp — Joltin’ Joe appears to be hitting with the wrong hand.

The Joe DiMaggio stamp made it appear as if the Yankee Clipper was completing a swing from the wrong side of the plate, and it created so much chatter among baseball fans that the Postal Service’s official blog stepped in to clear up the issue, wrote Kevin Kaduk of the Yahoo! Sports Blog Big League Stew.

Apparently, the Joe DiMaggio stamp was right all along. The blog stated:

The Yankee Clipper was a right-handed batter, and he is indeed following through on his right-handed swing. However, due to the size of the stamp, you can’t see that his lower torso and legs are twisted as they would be on his follow-through. The stamp artist, Kadir Nelson, also had to slightly change the position of the bat in order to show all of it. If this had been a photograph, you would’ve been able to see that when DiMaggio followed through, his bat was extended fully away from his body and nearly parallel to the ground.

Either way, the Joe DiMaggio stamp seems to be a pretty unnatural way to end a swing. DiMaggio’s 90-degree follow-through “makes it look like he’s either batting left-handed or admiring at a pretty approach shot on the golf course,” Kaduk wrote.

Anyone who studied the Joe DiMaggio stamp closely enough would have been able to avoid the confusion. His right hand is clearly above his left on the bat, showing that he is indeed batting right-handed.

The Joe DiMaggio stamp was part of a set honoring baseball legends like Ted Williams, Willie Stargell, and Larry Doby. The stamp collection set sales records even before they were released, Yahoo! reported.