The History of Baseball Cards in Idaho Falls
Baseball cards have been a beloved part of American culture for over 150 years, chronicling the players, teams, and eras of our national pastime. While cities like New York, Boston, and Los Angeles may be more synonymous with professional baseball, the history of baseball cards extends deep into communities across the country – including Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Idaho Falls has a rich heritage with baseball and collecting that goes back to the earliest decades of printed baseball cards in the late 1800s. Some of the first documented baseball cards to arrive in Idaho Falls came in the late 1880s, during the rise of tobacco companies like Goodwin & Company printing cards as promotional materials inside cigarette and chewing tobacco packs. Local general stores and corner shops would stock these tobacco products, exposing early Idaho Falls residents to the novelty of collecting pictures of their favorite ballplayers.
By the 1890s, the first regional amateur and semi-pro baseball leagues began popping up in southeast Idaho. Teams with names like the Idaho Falls Colonels gave local men the chance to play organized baseball and build community pride. Naturally, they and other Idaho Falls residents wanted to follow the professional game too. This helped create early demand for baseball cards, which provided a connection to major leaguers even in the remote Intermountain West.
The first decade of the 20th century marked baseball’s rise as the national pastime. More printed cards from companies like American Tobacco and Continental Tobacco flooded the market. General stores in Idaho Falls stocked higher volumes to meet growing local interest. Kids, especially, loved swapping and trading the colorful cards between schoolyard games. The cards also helped Idaho Falls baseball fans stay current on the latest major and minor league players and storylines unfolding across the growing sport.
In the 1910s, tobacco companies began including entire sets of teams in their card packages rather than just assorted players. This made collecting more organized and competitive. Kids in Idaho Falls formed some of the first informal baseball card clubs, meticulously arranging and showing off complete team sets. The more coveted and rare the cards, the higher esteem collectors gained among their peers. The dawn of modern baseball card collecting had begun, even in a small city like Idaho Falls.
The golden age of baseball cards arrived in the post-World War II 1940s and 1950s. Gum companies like Topps usurped tobacco’s dominance, inserting full-color cards amid sticks of chewing gum. Their vivid photographs, statistics, and biographies made the cards irresistible to a new generation. In Idaho Falls, card shops opened along main street, stocked with wax packs that could be purchased and ripped open with hopes of finding stars. Kids would ride their bikes for miles to trade duplicates with friends, continuing time-honored traditions.
At the same time, the rise of television brought major league games into living rooms across America for the first time. This helped spark new interest in Idaho Falls and raised the profile of local youth and amateur leagues. Scouts began regularly visiting games in hopes of discovering the next small-town star. And through it all, baseball cards chronicled the growing sport’s march toward the national pastime.
The 1960s saw the dawn of the modern memorabilia collecting boom. As players like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays neared retirement, their rookie cards took on an air of nostalgia. In Idaho Falls, card shows began popping up on weekends, with tables of collectors peddling wares and telling tales from baseball’s golden era. Meanwhile, the city’s youth teams grew increasingly competitive on a regional scale. Local players began getting featured in annual issues of Idaho Falls-based card and program sets that are now highly coveted collectors’ items.
The 1970s brought welcome innovation back to the card industry after Topps held a monopoly for decades. Companies like Fleer and Donruss brought competitive sets featuring multi-player photos instead of solo portraits. Their cardboard was also of higher quality. In Idaho Falls, dedicated hobby shops opened where collectors could peruse binders of available cards and memorabilia for sale, trade, or discussion. Some local players even gained their own cardboard fame after being featured in regional and national sets.
Through boom and bust card company cycles, baseball’s popularity remained strong in Idaho Falls through the 1980s and 1990s. The city’s American Legion team won multiple state championships and sent players to college ball. And collectors kept arranging, storing, and discussing their collections, passing the hobby to a new generation. In the card shops and local shows, you could still meet octogenarians who first collected in the tobacco era alongside teenagers enthralled by the modern inserts and parallels flooding the market.
Today, baseball card collecting remains a vibrant part of Idaho Falls culture. Local card shops like Frank’s Sportscards host bustling Friday Night Magic drafts and sell supplies to collectors around the region. Online groups facilitate constant local trades and discussions. And annual card shows draw hundreds looking to buy, sell, and admire the history contained in those little rectangles of cardboard. While the professional game may be far away, baseball cards ensure Idaho Falls remains deeply connected to America’s pastime for collectors of all ages.
The history of baseball cards in Idaho Falls mirrors the growth of the sport itself since the late 1800s. From general stores to dedicated hobby shops, cards chronicled players and allowed local fans to stay engaged from afar. Most importantly, they built community bonds between generations by facilitating swaps and competitions among collectors. Through booms and busts, cards remain a reminder that baseball’s influence and our connection to its history spans not just the largest cities, but communities across the country like Idaho Falls as well.
