The Cincinnati Red Stockings were professional baseball’s first fully paid team when they began play in 1869. They dominated the nascent sport during their time as a pro franchise from 1869-1870 and established several traditions that still resonate in baseball today, including uniforms with colored stockings that gave the team their nickname. While the Red Stockings disbanded after just two seasons as the first pro team, their pioneering legacy continued to influence the growing sport for decades.
Red Stockings cards were some of the earliest baseball cards ever produced, though they were created long after the team ceased play. Tobacco cards depicting Cincinnati Red Stockings players first emerged in the late 1880s as the cigarette card craze took off. Some of the earliest surviving examples date back to 1887 issues from Goodwin & Company and Allen & Ginter. These vintage red stockings cards provided a look back at the stars and innovations of the team that helped popularize America’s pastime during its formative years.
The Goodwin & Company 1887 Red Stockings set is considered the earliest known complete set devoted solely to a single team. It features 16 cards picturing each member of the 1869 Red Stockings squad that went 57-0, establishing the first undefeated season in pro baseball history. Some of the stars featured included franchise founder and dominant pitcher Asa Brainard, catcher Douglas Allison, and Harry Wright, who later went on to manage several other major league teams. The simple Goodwin cards were printed using a basic lithographic process and provided basic stats and descriptions of each player underneath their portrait image.
While red stockings cards from Goodwin are prized by collectors today due to their status as the earliest known complete team set, Allen & Ginter also issued cards of the 1869 Red Stockings squad that same year. Their cards were a bit more elaborately designed with decorative borders and backgrounds compared to Goodwin’s plain style. In addition, Allen & Ginter featured both the 1869 and 1870 Red Stockings rosters, depicting a total of 32 players from the two undefeated championship seasons in Cincinnati. They provided one of the earliest significant photographic archives of a specific team’s history prior to the modern baseball card era that began in the late 1880s.
Some other significant early red stockings card issues include an 1888 Mayo Cut Plug Tobacco set with portraits of 10 Red Stockings stars and career highlights. There was also a small series of Cincinnati Red Stockings postcards printed and distributed locally by team supporter and businessman E.D. Green in the late 1890s to early 1900s. Green’s cards helped further promote remembrance of the pioneering Red Stockings franchise years after they disbanded.
By the early 20th century, memorabilia focused specifically on the 1869 Red Stockings squad had developed into a niche collecting segment within the growing baseball card and memorabilia hobby. In the 1910s, several smaller regional tobacco companies issued new Red Stockings cards as part of their baseball sets, such as a 5-card series from Bison Tobacco and another 5-card insert in a set produced by Piedmont Cigarettes. These helped keep Red Stockings history in the spotlight at a time when fewer and fewer fans remained who had witnessed their earliest success in person.
As time passed into the middle decades of the 1900s, Red Stockings cards became even more difficult to find in high grade condition. Most of the original 19th century cigarette issues had not been well cared for over many ownerships. But the pioneering club and their contribution remained highly prized by dedicated baseball historians. In the post-World War II collector boom, red stockings cards experienced a surge of interest along with the growing nostalgia for baseball’s earliest years. Reproductions were issued by manufacturers like Dan Dee Potato Chips and Lang-Endo Company sets to satisfy demand as originals became quite rare.
Nowadays, any authentic vintage Red Stockings card that still survives is of tremendous value to dedicated 19th century baseball collectors and Cincinnati fans. Highlights like a PSA NM-MT 8 Goodwin & Company 1887 card of Asa Brainard were selling for over $25,000 at auction in the 2010s. Meanwhile, complete sets in lower grades often trade hands for five figures or more depending on condition. While the team existed for just two seasons over 150 years ago, Red Stockings cards remain a fascinating connection to the pioneering figures and innovations that helped establish America’s pastime as the national pastime. They serve as a treasured reminder of baseball’s earliest stars and the origins of the professional game.
