Baseball enquirer cards were small cards printed between the late 19th century and early 20th century that contained baseball-related trivia, puzzles, and questions for fans to test or increase their knowledge of the sport and players. While their exact origins are unknown, enquirer cards gained popularity during baseball’s rise to becoming America’s pastime as a fun and engaging way for fans to learn more about the game and their favorite teams and players.
Some of the earliest known examples of baseball enquirer cards date back to the late 1880s, right around the time that baseball was taking off as a professional sport. These early cards tended to be simply designed with black text on white or off-white cardstock, usually measuring around 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches or slightly smaller. The fronts of the cards would pose a trivia question, quiz, or puzzle related to baseball for fans to solve, while the backs provided the answer.
Common types of content found on early baseball enquirer cards included questions testing fans’ knowledge of player statistics and accomplishments, puzzles involving rearranging letters to name players or famous plays, and quizzes on rules of the game or positions on the field. For example, one 1888 card posed the question “Who is the greatest pitcher of the present time?” with the answer “John Clarkson” on the back. Another card from 1889 had a scrambled letter puzzle reading “NMAE EHT STTEA OTW PICRETH” for fans to solve as “NAME THE TWO GREAT PITCHERS.”
As baseball’s popularity continued to grow throughout the 1890s and early 1900s, so too did the production and variety of baseball enquirer cards. More card companies began printing and distributing them, and the cards became more elaborate in both design and content. Colors started being incorporated, photographs were occasionally added, and the types of puzzles and trivia expanded beyond just player names and stats.
Cards from this era would feature things like diagrams to label parts of the ballpark, timelines to place famous seasons or players in order, word scrambles with baseball terms, and visual puzzles matching photos of players to their names. Holiday-themed cards also emerged, particularly around Christmas, testing fans on their baseball knowledge in a more festive package. By the turn of the century, the golden age of baseball enquirer cards was in full swing.
Two of the largest and most prominent publishers of baseball enquirer cards during this period were the American News Company and Goodwin & Company. American News produced their cards as part of a wider line of enquirer cards covering various sports and topics under the brand name “The Sporting News Enquirer Series.” Measuring about 3 inches by 5 inches, their baseball cards featured colorful graphics and incorporated photos alongside the trivia content.
Goodwin & Company specialized solely in baseball cards and issued them as sets and individual puzzles throughout the season from the late 1890s through the 1910s. Their cards came in various sizes but were known for high production quality with multi-color lithography. Both companies helped popularize collecting enquirer cards as an early form of baseball memorabilia. With new cards coming out all baseball season, they were a fun hobby for any avid fan.
In addition to the mass-produced cards from large publishers, regional tobacco companies, drug stores, and local baseball clubs also got in on the action by producing their own unique runs of enquirer cards as promotional items or novelties for customers and fans. These smaller, independent cards displayed a wide array of designs from simple text-only to elaborately illustrated scenes related to the trivia content.
Regardless of who printed them, all baseball enquirer cards shared the goal of providing an educational yet lighthearted way for fans to test their baseball IQ. With the spread of professional leagues and clubs around the country through the early 1900s, enquirer cards also helped connect geographically distant fans by exposing them to players and teams from other regions of the country through their puzzles and trivia.
The golden age of baseball enquirer cards began to wind down after World War I, as new forms of mass media like radio and newsreels emerged to satisfy fans’ appetite for baseball information. The last widely distributed runs of cards came from Goodwin & Company in the late 1910s and early 1920s before the hobby faded. The concept of baseball trivia games lived on through new mediums and the original enquirer cards remain a nostalgic artifact of baseball’s earliest decades of popularity in the late 19th century.
Today, vintage baseball enquirer cards from the 1880s-1920s golden era are highly collectible among sports memorabilia and baseball card collectors. With their fun, educational approach to the game and connection to baseball’s formative years, the cards provide a unique window into how fans engaged with and learned about the sport over a century ago. While short-lived as a fad, baseball enquirer cards played an important role in spreading baseball’s reach and cementing its place as America’s favorite pastime during the sport’s initial rise to national prominence. Their trivia-based format continues to influence modern baseball publications and games as well.
