Baseball cards have a long history in Rochester, Minnesota dating back to the late 1800s. Rochester has a rich baseball tradition as the home of the Rochester Honkers minor league baseball team who have played in the city since 1902. Some of the earliest known baseball cards featuring Rochester players and teams were produced in the late 1800s and early 1900s as the amateur and semi-pro game grew in popularity locally.
One of the first nationally produced sets of baseball cards was issued in 1887 by the American Tobacco Company and included cards of stars from major league teams. It’s possible some local printers in Rochester may have produced baseball cards earlier featuring Rochester ballplayers before mass produced sets became widely available. No examples of these hypothesized early Rochester printed cards are known to still exist today.
The earliest documented baseball cards from Rochester appeared in the 1890s as local cigarette companies began issuing sets that sometimes included images of Rochester ballplayers. The Mayo Cigarette Company is believed to have produced some of the first Rochester area baseball cards in the mid-1890s. Their colorful tobacco cards promoted Mayo cigarettes and occasionally featured images of stars from the Rochester amateur teams of the time. Only a small number of these rare Mayo Baseball cards are known to survive in collectors hands today.
Into the early 1900s, other local Rochester businesses also joined in producing baseball cards as promotional prizes or add-ins for their products. The H.C. Snavely Cigar Company issued sets around 1900-1905 that could include Rochester players. And the Red Devil Glycerine Co. issued a set around 1910 that is one of the most significant early Rochester baseball card releases still in existence with dozens of quality images ofHonkers players from that era.
The early 1920s saw two landmark releases that greatly expanded Rochester’s place in the history of baseball cards. In 1922, the American Caramel Company issued their famous T206 set which included the first card of legendary pitcher and Rochester native Sad Sam Jones. This rare “Rochester Praying Colonels” back variation of the Jones T206 is one of the most coveted regional cards in existence today.
Even more substantial was the 1923 Rochester Bread Company set which may be the largest and most significant early baseball card issue devoted solely to a single minor league team and city. Over 250 unique cards were produced across multiple series showcasing not just the 1923 Rochester team but many historic past Honkers players and teams from the previous two decades. This unprecedented large scale local team issue put Rochester squarely on the baseball card map.
Through the rest of the 1920s and into the 1930s, several other Rochester area companies also took part in the booming baseball card market. The Rochester Cracker Jack Company inserted cards into boxes of their popular snacks depicting local baseball heroes like Gene Delmont. And the Becker Bakeries included baseball cards as premiums inside their bread wrappers.
Topps Chewing Gum most notably featured the Rochester Red Wings on many of their 1951 and 1952 baseball cards as the parent Brooklyn Dodgers AAA affiliate. Ted Kluzewski, Junior Gilliam and others received Topps rookie cards as Red Wings. Topps also continued to spotlight Rochester players on subsequent minor league and rookie star sets into the 1970s.
In 1956, Fleer issued one of their earliest post-World War 2 sets devoted entirely to minor league baseball which included over a dozen cards highlighting stars from that year’s Memorial Day Rochester Red Wings squad like Don Zimmer and Woodie Held. Then in 1960, Post Cereals produced one of the all-time rarest regional baseball card issues focused exclusively on that season’s Red Wings roster. Only about 50 of the Post Red Wings cards are estimated to still even exist today.
From the 1970s onward, smaller independent regional sets also helped preserve Rochester’s legacy in baseball cards. The 1977 RIT Tigers Issue was one of the earliest known college baseball card releases. While issues like the 1980s Rochester Aces/Red Wings commemorative sets kept interest locally alive through reprint and original vintage-style designs involving former Honkers greats.
Today, while major national companies no longer focus production specifically on Rochester’s teams, ardent collectors still seek out those classic vintage tobacco, candy, and food issues spotlighting the city’s rich baseball roots. Sites of early 20th century businesses like Mayo Cigarette or the bread companies are now long vanished, but their contributions to document Rochester baseball history live on through the surviving cards they produced over a century ago. The legacy of Rochester in America’s pastime continues to be preserved through countless cards chronicling the stories and careers of the many hometown stars who donned an Honkers or Red Wings uniform over the decades.
