Baseball cards have long been a staple of the pastime for fans of all ages to collect, trade, and enjoy. For many years the cards flew under the radar of mainstream popularity outside of diehard baseball and collecting communities. Beginning in the late 1980s and 1990s, baseball cards started gaining more exposure through product placements and mentions in television shows and movies, helping to bring the hobby to new audiences and generations.

One of the earliest and most prominent examples came in a 1988 episode of The Wonder Years titled “The Contest.” In a pivotal scene, main character Kevin Arnold is seen nervously waiting in the school hallway to find out if he has won the school spelling bee. To pass the time and ease his anxiety, he flips through and admires his baseball card collection, stopping to gaze longingly at a particularly rare and coveted card of his favorite player, Nolan Ryan.

This brief but impactful moment put the world of baseball cards on full display to the show’s large audience, many of whom were just the right age to be getting into collecting during the late 80s boom. It helped normalize the hobby and showed that card collecting was a universally relatable activity for any young fan anxious about a competition, test, or big event.

Around the same time, the 1989 film Major League featured several scenes where characters could be seen casually flipping through or trading cards in the dugout. While a more comedic take, it still helped showcase cards as a common pastime and currency among players, further exposing the hobby to mainstream audiences.

In the early 1990s, the hit sitcom Home Improvement featured main character Tim “The Toolman” Taylor as an avid collector, often seen perusing his collection or bragging about rare finds to neighbors. On one episode he even starts a baseball card business to make some extra cash. This cemented Tim Taylor as one of the first prominent TV dads to be portrayed as a collector and helped normalize the hobby for ’90s kids.

The ’90s also saw baseball cards start to make frequent appearances on Nickelodeon shows targeting younger audiences. On shows like Hey Dude, Salute Your Shorts, and Clarissa Explains It All, characters could often be seen swapping or discussing their latest card pickups between hijinks at summer camp or in the neighborhood. This was crucial exposure for capturing a new generation of potential collectors just as the sport card market was taking off.

One of the biggest boosts for baseball cards on television came from the sports-centric animated series King of the Hill, which ran from 1997-2010 on Fox. The show frequently featured main character Hank Hill and his neighbor Bill working baseball card side businesses or passionately debating the stats and players on their favorite teams.

In one memorable episode, Hank gets roped into joining a competitive adult baseball card collecting league where bragging rights and tournament championships are on the line. Scenes of the intense cardboard showdowns satirized the obsessive nature of some collectors while also glamorizing the hobby. King of the Hill hugely expanded card awareness among its wide audience of adults and children alike.

The early 2000s saw several movies directly feature baseball cards as a key plot device, further cementing their place in pop culture. In the 2003 comedy Bad Santa, Billy Bob Thornton’s character makes easy cash by stealing rare cards from homes during the holidays. The 2005 drama Fever Pitch features Jimmy Fallon’s character bonding with Drew Barrymore over their Red Sox fandom and shared card collecting past.

More recent TV shows have also paid homage to the enduring appeal of baseball cards. On the ABC family sitcom The Goldbergs, the father is often seen indulging his card hobby or schooling his kids on the history of the business. On Netflix’s Stranger Things, a young Mike Wheeler is shown proudly showing off his collection to his friends in one of the show’s most heartwarming ’80s-nostalgia moments.

Today, as card collecting has seen a resurgence among millennials and is now a multi-billion dollar industry, baseball cards continue to make frequent appearances in popular TV shows and movies. Their small but impactful roles have played a big part in normalizing and popularizing the hobby for new generations over the decades. From sitcom side plots to big screen features, cards have cemented themselves as a universally relatable symbol of fandom, nostalgia and childhood wonder on television and beyond.