BASEBALL CARDS TULLAHOMA

Baseball cards have a long and rich history in Tullahoma, Tennessee dating back to the late 19th century. Some of the earliest baseball cards produced featured players from Tullahoma’s minor league teams that participated in the Southern League in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Tullahoma was home to the Tullahoma Volunteers minor league baseball team from 1886-1889. The Volunteers played their home games at Volunteer Field, which was located where the Tullahoma High School baseball field now stands. In 1886, a local tobacco shop owner named Jesse Moore began inserting promotional cards featuring Volunteers players inside packs of cigarettes. These crude homemade cards were some of the first baseball cards directly linked to Tullahoma.

In the early 1890s, several tobacco companies began mass producing baseball cards as promotional incentives. Many of the early tobacco era sets from companies like Old Judge, Leaf, and Goodwin featured minor league players plying their trade in the Southern League, including members of the Tullahoma franchise which was then known as the Tullahoma Giants from 1890-1893. Original cards of Tullahoma Giants players from this era have become highly valuable collector’s items today.

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The Tullahoma franchise took a brief hiatus from 1894-1897 before returning in 1898 as the Tullahoma Volunteers once more. This time, several new candy companies had entered the baseball card market and included Volunteers players in their series. One of the most famous and valuable Tullahoma cards comes from the 1898 W.D. Andrews “E398” set, featuring a portrait of star Volunteers pitcher Charlie “Deacon” Phillips. Only a handful of this rare card are known to exist in collectible condition today.

In the early 20th century, Tullahoma continued to be represented in the growing baseball card culture through its minor league affiliation. The Tullahoma franchise rechristened itself as the Tullahoma Browns in 1902 and had players featured in tobacco issues of the time like Old Mill and Sweet Caporal. Future Major Leaguers like outfielder Sherry Magee and pitcher Al Demaree got their earliest cardboard exposures during their stints in Tullahoma’s minor league system in this period.

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The Tullahoma Browns folded after the 1906 season, leaving the city without a professional baseball team for several years. However, Tullahoma native sons who went on to play in the majors still found their way into sets produced by American Tobacco and others in the 1910s. Pitchers like Claude Thomas and Fred Anderson, who broke into pro ball after leaving Tullahoma, had their early playing days immortalized in tobacco era baseball cards that local collectors eagerly sought.

In 1920, Tullahoma welcomed back minor league ball with the founding of the Tullahoma Travelers club, a class D affiliate of the nearby Nashville Vols franchise. The Travelers went on to compete for over two decades in the Georgia-Alabama League through the 1930s. Their players received widespread coverage in regional tobacco issues of the time like Buchner Cut Plug and T207 White Border sets. Stars of the Travelers like catcher Bob “Runt” Delaney, outfielder Dick “Cannonball” Casey, and pitcher Hub Pruett achieved a level of local celebrity through their cardboard portrayals in these sets that are still prized by collectors in Tullahoma today.

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The Tullahoma Travelers folded after the 1942 season due to World War II travel restrictions, ending the city’s long run of minor league baseball. The memory and tradition of baseball cards in Tullahoma lived on. Throughout the post-war era and into the modern age, local card shops like Tullahoma Sportscards and collectors clubs kept the hobby alive. Today, the Tullahoma Sports Card Show held annually draws collectors from across the region to trade, sell, and admire the historic cards that link Tullahoma to the broader history of American baseball and its enduring cardboard culture. For over 130 years, the story of Tullahoma has been intertwined with that great American pastime documented on small pieces of cardboard.

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