The tradition of including baseball cards with bubble gum is an iconic part of American culture and history. While people may not realize it, this unique combination helped popularize both baseball cards and chewing gum in the late 19th/early 20th century.
In the 1880s, baseball was growing rapidly in popularity across the United States. It was still working to reach a truly national audience and fanbase. Around this same time, the relatively new gum chewing craze was taking off as well. Chewing gum was seen as a refreshing treat, but it had not yet reached widespread, mainstream popularity. Two brothers named Frank and William Wrigley Jr. saw an opportunity to help both baseball and gum expand their reach by combining them.
In 1892, the Wrigley brothers purchased the newly founded Chicago Cubs baseball team. This helped grow their existing gum business, as they were able to promote both the Cubs and their gum products together. They wanted an even more direct way to link the two. In the late 1880s/early 1890s, collectible cigarette cards featuring famous actors, leaders and athletes started becoming popular in America. These cards served as an early form of celebrity endorsement and helped promote the cigarette brands they came with.
Seeing the success of these cigarette cards, the Wrigley brothers decided to try including baseball cards in their gum in an effort to directly promote both the sport and their gum to children. In 1891, they began inserting plain white baseball cards with facts and photos of players into packs of their Wrigley’s Gum. These early baseball cards did not feature the modern glossy photo or colorful designs consumers know today. They were small and made of thinner stock paper or cardboard. Still, they were an innovative marketing tactic and helped introduce baseball to a new youth audience through the medium of chewable gum.
Over the next decade, baseball card gum became more popular and refined. Card designs evolved and featured bigger, higher quality photos on thicker stock. More stats and biographies were included on the backs. By the early 1900s, nearly every major chewing gum brand like Fleer, Topps and Bowman was including baseball cards in their packs. This helped turn baseball into a truly national pastime as cards exposed more children to the sport across different regions of America through the gum they enjoyed chewing. It also contributed to chewing gum’s rise as one of the most popular snacks in the country.
During World War I and World War II, the production of baseball cards declined due to rationing of supplies like paper, ink and gum base. The tradition was revived after each war ended. In the post-World War II era of the late 1940s and 1950s, the baseball card bubble gum craze truly took off. More kids than ever were enjoying baseball cards as a fun collectible item included free with their chewing gum. Iconic brands like Topps, Bowman and Fleer were pumping out new card sets on a much larger scale each year.
Kids started trading and collecting cards seriously, hoping to amass a complete set or obtain rare and valuable rookie cards of their favorite new players. The 1950s and 1960s are considered the “golden age” of baseball cards when production and collecting really boomed. More detailed stats, biographies and in-depth career histories appeared on the back of cards. Color photography was introduced in the 1960s, making cards even more vibrant and collectible. Meanwhile, the gum companies were selling more packs than ever before, as baseball cards had become a bona fide childhood hobby and pastime for millions of American kids.
In the late 1980s, the baseball card bubble began to burst. An overproduction of cards watered down the hobby and caused a crash in collector demand. Meanwhile, health and safety concerns were also being raised about the marketing of sugary snacks directly to children. In response, the card companies started offering other incentives and non-edible prizes in their packs instead of gum to comply with regulations. By the 1990s, the direct connection between baseball cards and bubble gum had largely dissolved, even if the memories of that classic combination remained an iconic part of 20th century Americana.
Today, while baseball cards no longer come with gum in packs, their legacy lives on. Cards remain one of the top sports collecting hobbies. Vintage gum-era cards from the 1950s and 1960s routinely fetch thousands of dollars online for rare and coveted rookie examples in pristine condition. Meanwhile, chewing gum itself is still one of the most popular snacks in America, even if its marketing has evolved. The Wrigley brothers’ innovative idea to link the pastimes of baseball and chewing gum in the late 19th century helped grow both into the national phenomena they remain today. Their combination of cards and gum left an indelible mark on both American culture and the business of sports marketing.
The tradition of including baseball cards with bubble gum packs was an iconic and innovative marketing tactic that helped popularize both baseball cards and chewing gum in America in the late 19th/early 20th century. This unique combination exposed more children to baseball as a sport and established chewing gum as one of the most popular snacks in the country. It sparked a “golden age” of baseball card collecting in the post-World War II era and remains an iconic symbol of American childhood nostalgia to this day, even after cards and gum parted promotional ways. The Wrigley brothers’ simple but brilliant idea left a profound impact on both baseball and the chewing gum industry for generations to come.
