Baseball cards have been an integral part of American culture for over a century, connecting generations of fans to their favorite players and teams. While the industry was dominated for many decades by the largest card manufacturers like Topps, Fleer and Donruss, some of the most interesting stories in the hobby come from smaller, regional producers. Westerly, Rhode Island was home to one such company that made a unique mark on the baseball card world.
Located along the southwestern coast of Rhode Island, Westerly had long been a manufacturing town since the early 19th century. Its close proximity to water power on the Pawcatuck River made it ideal for various mills and factories. In the late 1940s, two brothers from Westerly named Harry and Fred Chase decided to go into the fledgling baseball card business. With their father owning a small printing press, the Chase brothers saw an opportunity to produce low-cost regional sets highlighting local minor league and amateur teams.
Their first sets in the late 1940s and 1950s focused primarily on the Westerly Dodgers, a Class D minor league affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers who played in the Northern Rhode Island League. These early Chase Baseball Card Company productions were printed on low-quality paper stock and featured basic black and white photos with player names. They captured the excitement of minor league baseball fandom in a small New England town during the Golden Age of the sport. Sets typically included between 30-50 cards and sold for a few dollars at local variety and tobacco shops.
As the 1950s progressed, the Chase brothers expanded their scope beyond just the Westerly Dodgers. They produced multi-team sets highlighting other Northern Rhode Island League clubs like the Pawtucket Slaters and Woonsocket Rockies. Harry and Fred also began obtaining the rights to include players from colleges in the region like the University of Rhode Island and Providence College. This allowed them to significantly increase the card counts for their annual productions, which were still primarily sold within a few dozen miles of Westerly.
Aside from the standard baseball card format, the Chase brothers also produced novel promotional sets in the late 1950s to help drum up interest. One set distributed by a local diner featured cards with a blank back, encouraging kids to write a short bio of their favorite minor league player. Another gave away cards at a Westerly movie theater with trivia questions on the back to be answered for prizes. Through such creative marketing, the Chase Baseball Card Company developed a devoted local fanbase during their early years.
As the 1960s began, Harry and Fred Chase made their most ambitious project yet. In 1961, they obtained rights from Topps to produce a regional subset which would be inserted randomly in factory-sealed wax packs of the main Topps baseball card release. This “Northeastern Collegiate & Minor League” series featured over 100 cards highlighting the Chase brothers’ usual stable of New England amateur and minor league stars. Distributed across New England and parts of New York, it greatly expanded their company’s reach and recognition in the growing baseball card market.
Through the 1960s, the Chase Baseball Card Company continued putting out multi-team sets each year while also doing specialty runs like a 1963 tribute to retiring Brooklyn Dodgers manager Walter Alston. They worked to improve print quality and added color photos as technology advanced. Rising costs and increased competition made it difficult to survive solely as a small regional producer. In 1970, Harry and Fred made the difficult choice to cease independent baseball card production after over 20 years in the business. Their sets remain highly prized by collectors today as a unique window into the pastime at the local minor league level.
While no longer actively producing cards, the Chase name lived on through other ventures. In the 1970s, Fred Chase operated a baseball and sports memorabilia store on Westerly’s main street called Chase’s Sportscard Shop. There, he sold new releases from Topps, Fleer and others while also offering vintage Chase cards to fans. The shop became a popular gathering place for several generations of local baseball enthusiasts. Fred passed away in 2001, but his nephew John has continued selling vintage Chase cards and other memorabilia online to this day under the Chase Baseball Card Company name.
Through their multi-decade run producing affordable sets highlighting grassroots New England baseball, Harry and Fred Chase left an indelible mark on the hobby. Even as larger manufacturers came to dominate distribution channels, the Chase Baseball Card Company proved there was an enthusiastic audience for localized product celebrating minor league and amateur clubs. Their creative specialty promotions also showed an ahead-of-their-time direct marketing approach. While a small regional producer, the Chase brothers made an impact felt far beyond the borders of Westerly. Their legacy lives on in the memories of those who enjoyed Chase cards as kids and the collections of fans who still value this unique piece of baseball card history today.
