Baseball cards have long been a staple of the sport, allowing fans to collect pictures and statistics of their favorite players. Some of the earliest baseball cards actually originated not as standalone collectibles, but as inserts included in major sports magazines of the late 19th century. These magazine baseball cards helped grow the sport’s popularity nationwide by featuring players and keeping readers up to date on the latest baseball news and scores.
One of the first magazines to regularly publish baseball cards was The Sporting News, founded in 1886. Also known as TSN, The Sporting News quickly established itself as the premier publication covering baseball and other American sports. In its early years, TSN would include sets of baseball cards as enclosures or inserts packaged with issues sent to subscribers. These cards showed individual players in an illustrative style and listed basic stats from the previous season on the reverse.
As interest in collecting these one-of-a-kind cards from magazines grew, publications ramped up baseball card production. In the 1890s, magazines like The Base Ball Magazine and The National Pastime also began regularly printing and distributing sets of cards with issues. These sets ranged from 10-20 cards each time and helped drive new subscriptions. Fans knew subscribing meant a steady stream of new cards showing the latest stars straight to their mailboxes.
The early 20th century marked a golden age for magazine baseball cards that helped popularize the fledgling pastime nationally. Major magazines like The Sporting News, The National Pastime, and Baseball Magazine cranked out highly coveted card sets on a near-monthly basis throughout the season. Production quality advanced as well, with multipanel cards showing photos on the front and back as well as enhanced stats on the reverse. Variations in photos and background colors became important identifiers for collectors.
Spurred by rising collector demand, magazine baseball card sets grew substantially in size through the 1910s-20s. Sets from publications like The Baseball Magazine and Jefferson Burdick’s The Baseball Monthly now totaled 50+ cards and were mailed in protective sleeves or binders to subscribers. Multicolor lithograph printing techniques really highlighted the vivid illustrations of everyday ballplayers that fans across America were beginning to cherish. Magazine cards at this stage essentially served as the precursors for the modern trading card boom to come.
In the 1930s-40s, hobby magazine publishers like Calnov Publishing and The Gum, Inc. got into the baseball card business by partnering with chewing gum manufacturers. These magazines would include factory-fresh gum packs containing baseball card stickers along with the periodicals in mailings to subscribers. Powerhouse sets totaling 100s of cards featured the biggest stars of the day in vivid color portraits. Gum and magazine promotions were integral in sustaining baseball card collecting through WWII and the postwar boom years.
One of the most epic magazine baseball card projects was undertaken by The Milwaukee Braves Magazine in the 1950s. Their card issues depicted Braves players, managers, and even stadium vendors in dazzling color on high quality card stock. Multipart pictorial card layouts with novel stat graphics broke new creative ground. The Braves Magazine’s beautifully crafted offerings remain legendary among vintage card collectors to this day.
Into the 1960s and beyond, hobby magazines like Baseball Digest and The Sporting News continued to package cards/card sets for collectors, which were now approaching the modern large format standard size. These periodical insert cards provided an important connection between print publishing and the ascendant hobby industry powerhouses like Topps, Fleer, and Donruss. They complemented the flagship mass-produced brands, giving fans even more tangible relics from the golden age.
While magazine-inserted cards are no longer the dominant force they once were, their historic role in spreading baseball’s popularity nationwide and cultivating the collecting phenomenon cannot be overstated. From the 19th century pioneers at TSN to the landmark Braves Magazine issues, these periodical oddities remain some of the most iconic and sought-after vintage cards in the hobby. They put fandom in the hands of anyone with a subscription and helped bring baseball cards to the masses.
