In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was nothing better than tuning into WGN News in Chicago to catch the daily baseball card segment. Each weekday evening, renowned WGN sportscaster Dan Roan would do a profile on a different baseball player and give away that player’s brand new baseball card to a lucky viewer.
The WGN baseball card giveaways became a highly anticipated daily tradition for many young baseball fans across Chicago and the Midwest. Kids would rush home from school everyday, hoping to see if their favorite player would be featured. While collecting baseball cards had been a pastime for decades, the WGN segments helped expose a whole new generation to the hobby and spark interest in card collecting.
The concept was simple yet ingenious. Each night, Roan would present an in-depth biography of a player, sharing career highlights and interesting personal facts. He promoted the human side of the athletes and allowed viewers to feel like they were getting to know them on a personal level. Along with discussing stats and accomplishments, Roan often shared little known details that brought the players to life as real people rather than just stats on a baseball card.
At the end of each profile, Roan would show off that day’s featured card and then conduct a random drawing to select one lucky caller as the winner. Excitement would build as the phone lines lit up with families hoping their number would be the one chosen. For the lucky viewer, it meant receiving a brand new, coveted baseball card straight from WGN and Dan Roan himself.
The segments lasted between 2-4 minutes each but had a huge impact. They drove traffic to the station and ratings as kids and parents tuned in daily hoping for a chance at the prize. For major card companies like Topps and Fleer, it was also a highly effective promotional tool, getting their newest baseball cards directly into the hands of young fans across the Midwest.
Over the years, Roan featured cards from almost every MLB team as he rotated through players on a daily basis. Iconic stars of the 80s and 90s like Eddie Murray, Keith Hernandez, Wade Boggs, and Nolan Ryan were all given the WGN treatment. But Roan also took time to shine the spotlight on lesser known role players and up-and-comers, helping expose viewers to the entire rosters.
Beyond simply giving away the cards, Roan’s engaging storytelling brought each ballplayer’s personality to life. Viewers learned intimate facts like Wade Boggs’ obsessive eating of chicken before every game or Ozzie Smith’s card tricks in the clubhouse. Rickey Henderson’s love of stealing bases was explained through highlight clips and colorful anecdotes from those who knew him best.
The segments had a multimedia approach. In addition to Roan’s narration, highlight videos were often shown to illustrate a player’s top moments. Photographs from their rookie cards or family photos offered a personal glimpse beyond just stats. It was masterful multimedia storytelling that made each ballplayer three-dimensional and kept viewers entertained and engaged for the short spot.
For kids glued to the TV hoping for that call, the anticipation built all segment long. When Roan finally read off the winning phone number, the excitement was palpable. Beyond simply receiving a baseball card, the lucky viewer was also mailed an autographed picture from that day’s featured ballplayer. Winners’ gleeful reactions were sometimes even played on air, adding to the thrill for other viewers at home.
The timing was also perfect, coinciding with the golden era of baseball card popularity in the late 80s/early 90s. Sports card values were soaring at this time as the speculation boom turned childhood hobby into serious adult collecting. Seeing daily highlights of the newest baseball cards being mailed out to lucky WGN viewers helped fuel further frenzy.
While the segments ended in the mid-90s along with Dan Roan’s broadcasting career, their impact continued echoing for years. A whole generation of Chicago baseball fans developed passions and collections sparked by those few minutes each night with WGN and Dan Roan. Even today, millennials reminisce nostalgically about rushing home to see who would win that day’s featured cardboard prize.
For any Chicago kid of the 80s/90s, the WGN baseball card giveaways are an indelible memory linked to their earliest baseball fandom. Between Dan Roan’s smooth storytelling and that excitement of waiting to hear if it was your phone number called live on TV, it was magical television that lit a spark. Though simple, the segments had an immeasurably powerful affect on growing the game by cultivating new collectors and fans, one player profile and cardboard prize at a time.
While baseball cards may now be collected mostly through online packs and breaks rather than at the local pharmacy, those three minutes with Dan Roan each night on WGN remain uniquely nostalgic and important for a generation of Chicago baseball fans. The segments left an indelible mark through a perfect multimedia storm that blended entertainment, nostalgia, contests and a platform to share baseball’s rich history. Even after all these years, it’s a time that Chicago baseball diehards look back on with utmost fondness.
