The city of Joliet, Illinois has a long history with baseball cards that stretches back over a century. Some of the earliest baseball cards produced in the late 19th century featured players from Joliet’s minor league teams. The tradition of baseball cards in Joliet continued to grow throughout the 20th century as the city became a hotbed for card collectors and traders.
One of the first Joliet players to be featured on a baseball card was Jack “Smoke” McAtee, an outfielder who played for the Joliet Babies minor league team in the late 1880s. McAtee appeared on an early tobacco card series produced by Goodwin & Company in 1888. While the Babies only lasted a few seasons, McAtee went on to have a successful career in the major leagues and his rare tobacco card is one of the most valuable from the late 19th century.
In the early 1900s, Joliet was home to multiple minor league teams that competed in the Three-I League and other lower minor circuits. Players like Gus Dottolo, Art Reinhart, and Frank Shugart all hailed from Joliet teams in the early 20th century and had their likenesses reproduced on regional baseball cards. Sets from Allen & Ginter, T206 White Border, and Sweet Caporal are some examples that featured Joliet minor leaguers from this era.
As baseball cards grew in popularity through the 1930s-1950s, Joliet developed a strong culture of avid collectors. Local drug stores and hobby shops stocked the latest cardboard and it wasn’t uncommon to see kids trading and discussing players on street corners or in neighborhood sandlots. Legendary players like Dizzy Dean, Joe DiMaggio, and Ted Williams all had their iconic cards show up in the collections of Joliet youth during this golden age of the hobby.
Two brothers from Joliet, Jim and Tom Collins, were particularly notable figures in the city’s early card collecting scene. Starting in the late 1940s, the Collins brothers amassed huge collections by trading with others and frequently scouring local shops. Their prized 1951 Bowman color set became the envy of other collectors in town. In the 1960s, Jim Collins went on to open Joliet’s first dedicated sports card shop called “Jim’s Baseball Cards.”
Located downtown on Collins Street, Jim’s Baseball Cards became the epicenter of the hobby for both casual collectors and serious investors throughout the region. In the 1970s, the rise of the Joliet JackHammers minor league team also helped fuel interest in cards locally. Players like Dave Kingman, Ron Cey, and Joe Charboneau had their rookie cards show up in collections around Joliet as fans followed their minor league careers.
During the boom years of the 1980s and 1990s, no city in Illinois had more avid collectors per capita than Joliet. Local card shows routinely drew hundreds of attendees and shops like Jim’s Baseball Cards were bustling on weekends. The rise of the internet also allowed Joliet collectors to connect with others worldwide through early message boards and auctions sites. Local stars like the famed “Cardboard Connection” website were launched by Joliet residents like Jeff Shepard.
In the 2000s, Joliet saw the opening of larger national chains like Sportscards Plus and Hall of Fame Cards & Collectibles that catered to both casual fans and serious investors. The growth of online sales also led to the decline of many smaller local shops. However, Joliet’s strong baseball card culture has remained an integral part of the city’s identity into the 21st century.
Major stars like Bryce Harper and Kris Bryant had legions of young Joliet fans chasing their rookie cards in recent decades. Meanwhile, the city’s long-standing collectors’ groups like the Joliet Sportscard Club continue to foster connections between enthusiasts of all ages. Vintage local shops like Jim’s Baseball Cards may be gone, but their legacy lives on through the countless collections started in Joliet that now span generations. Few midwestern cities can match Joliet’s rich baseball card history and culture that has developed over more than a century.
