The history of baseball cards in Long Beach, California spans over a century. Some of the earliest baseball cards produced featured players from teams that used to call Long Beach home. While the city no longer has a professional baseball franchise, it has played an important role in the development and collecting of these coveted pieces of memorabilia.
One of the first sets of baseball cards to feature players from Long Beach was produced in the late 1880s. Called the Old Judge tobacco cards, they included images of players from the Long Beach Infants minor league team that existed from 1885-1889. While the cards did not specifically say Long Beach, the uniforms and locations depicted confirmed they were of the Infants squad. Finding an intact Old Judge card featuring a Long Beach Infant from this early period is an extremely rare find for collectors today.
In the early 1900s, the Pacific Coast League (PCL) was one of the top minor leagues in baseball. The Long Beach Cubs called the city home from 1903-1904 before relocating. Topps, Bowman and other card manufacturers of the time included PCL players and Long Beach natives in their sets from this era. In the 1950s, Long Beach was granted a new PCL team called the Jets. Their stars like Jim Gentile and Jim Pagliaroni appeared in the most popular vintage card issues of that decade like Topps and Fleer.
The Long Beach Jets played at old Muldoon Field from 1951-1952 before moving to a new stadium in 1953. Called McAlister Field, it sat where Long Beach City College’s baseball field is now located. Many locals have fond memories collecting and trading cards of their hometown Jets during games at this ballpark as a kid. In the late 1950s, the team moved yet again and became the Hawaii Islanders, ending professional baseball in Long Beach for decades.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the city still had a strong connection to baseball through amateur and college programs. Future major leaguers like Dave Kingman of Long Beach State appeared in regional issues from this era like the Bay Area Pro-Line sets. Hobby shops in Long Beach also stocked the mainstream Topps, Fleer and Donruss releases that featured many SoCal natives. Places like Frank’s Sporting Goods and Long Beach Card Shop were hotspots for collectors to trade and buy packs.
When the Long Beach Armada independent professional team formed in the 1990s, they generated new card interest. Issues like Pacific Coast League Premier and Pacific Coast Baseball captured their players. In the 2000s, Long Beach State’s College World Series runs led to regional collegiate sets from companies like Leaf and Diamond Kings highlighting their stars. Independent baseball returned to Long Beach with the Dirtbags in 2015, continuing the city’s long tradition of baseball card subject matter.
Today, vintage Long Beach Jets, Infants and PCL cards remain some of the most sought after and valuable in the hobby for West Coast collectors. Many of the city’s card shops from the 1960s-80s like Frank’s are now just memories, but a few still stand. Places like A&J Sportscards have been in business since the 1970s and are destinations for both new releases and vintage Long Beach items. Shows hosted by the Long Beach Card Collectors Club also celebrate the city’s baseball card history with exhibits and forums several times a year.
While professional baseball has moved on from Long Beach, its impact on the baseball card collecting hobby lives on. The players, teams and venues that called the city home for over a century have been immortalized on thousands of different issues. For enthusiasts, tracking down these rare Long Beach cards from the past is a journey through memories of summers at the ballpark and youthful card swaps under the Southern California sun.
