All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) Trading Cards
From 1943 to 1954, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) operated as a professional women’s baseball league with teams based in cities across the Midwest. While the league only lasted 12 seasons, it helped popularize women’s baseball during World War II when many male baseball players were serving overseas. The league is best remembered today through the 1992 film A League of Their Own, which told the fictionalized story of two sisters who join the league.
Though the AAGPBL only had a short run, it left behind an important piece of sports card history – AAGPBL trading cards. Produced from 1948 to 1954 by Bowman Gum and Topps Chewing Gum, these cards helped promote the league and individual players while also preserving their legacies on card stock for future generations. Here is an overview of the AAGPBL trading card sets that were issued during the league’s existence:
1948 Bowman Gum Set
The first AAGPBL card set was released in 1948 by Bowman Gum, one of the early leaders in American baseball cards. The set featured 36 players from the AAGPBL presented in a simple black-and-white design on standard size gum cards. Some of the notable stars featured included Sophie Kurys, Joanne Winter, and Doris Sams. This set helped introduce female baseball players to card collectors for the first time. The 1948 cards are now highly sought after by both baseball card collectors and women’s sports memorabilia enthusiasts.
1950-1951 Bowman Gum Sets
Bowman followed up their pioneering 1948 set with new AAGPBL issues in 1950 and 1951. The 1950 set included 60 cards while the 1951 offering contained 72 cards, both showing color portraits of the league’s top players. Notable inclusions were Shirley Jameson, Kathryn Barr, and Jean Faut. These sets continued promoting the league during its peak years while documenting more of the talented women ballplayers. The cards from these sets also remain quite valuable today.
1953-1954 Topps Chewing Gum Sets
In the early 1950s, Topps began challenging Bowman’s dominance in the baseball card market. They gained the AAGPBL license and produced sets focused on the league in 1953 and 1954 – the final two years the league was in operation. The 1953 set included 66 cards while the 1954 set contained 60. Stars like Joanne Weaver, Betty Trezza, and Jean Geissinger received cardboard recognition from Topps. These were the last AAGPBL cards produced, capping over a half-decade of the league being featured on trading cards.
Legacy of the AAGPBL Card Sets
Though short-lived, the AAGPBL trading card sets released from 1948 to 1954 helped promote and commemorate a pioneering all-women’s professional baseball experience during a unique time in American sports history. At a time when few professional women’s sports leagues existed, the cards put the faces and achievements of real ballplayers in the hands of the public. They documented a slice of athletic history that may have otherwise been forgotten.
Today, complete sets of AAGPBL cards are highly prized by vintage sports memorabilia collectors. Prices for the rarer and higher-graded examples can reach thousands of dollars. Individual standout cards like a Sophie Kurys from the 1948 Bowman set in gem mint condition would command an even higher sum. The cards are a tangible link to an important era for women in baseball that still sparks interest decades later. They ensure the accomplishments of these pioneering athletes are preserved and remembered for generations to come.
While the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League may be a footnote in the history books, the trading card sets released during its existence left an indelible mark. They were among the earliest sports cards focused specifically on female athletes and helped promote women’s baseball. Most importantly, they documented the faces and stories of the talented players who took the field during an era when professional opportunities for women in sports were still quite limited. For these reasons, the AAGPBL trading card sets remain a cherished collectible for those fascinated by the unique story of women in American baseball history.
