Mt. Sterling, Kentucky has a rich baseball history stretching back over a century. The small town of around 8000 people was once home to a minor league team and was deeply passionate about America’s pastime. While the organized pro teams have long since departed, baseball memories remain ingrained in the community. One way those memories have been preserved is through thousands of baseball cards collected by locals over the decades, many featuring players who once suited up in Mt. Sterling uniforms.
Some of the earliest baseball cards featuring Mt. Sterling players date back to the 1920s and 1930s when the town was home to the Mt. Sterling Browns minor league franchise. The Browns spent nine seasons in the Blue Grass League, Kentucky State League and Ohio State League from 1921 to 1929. Players like pitcher Oran Page, who made his major league debut in 1925 with the Washington Senators after two seasons in Mt. Sterling, had their accomplishments immortalized on tobacco era cards. Other Browns alumni with early cardboard collectibles include Bud Hillerich, Frank Baumholtz and Carl Sawyer.
The Browns disbanded in 1929 but baseball roots in Mt. Sterling ran deep. Through the 1930s and 1940s, the community rallied around various semi-pro and amateur town teams. Names like the Merchants, Elks and High School represented the city in regional tournaments and exhibition games. Dozens of the ballplayers from those squads ended up featured on sets from Bell Brand, Red Man, Burley and other tobacco companies of the time. Local card collectors amassed rosters highlighting the area’s top sandlot stars.
When minor league baseball returned to Mt. Sterling in the post-World War 2 era, a new generation of cards brought the players to life. In 1946, the town was awarded a franchise in the Kentucky State League called the Mt. Sterling Browns. For the next four seasons through 1949, many of the Brownies appearing at the local ballpark could also be found in wax packs, cello packs or on the front of bubblegum. Names like catcher Jack Lollis, first baseman Bob Crandall, pitcher Jimmy Ricketts and manager Al Bowman had their likenesses and stats memorialized for collectors in sets from Bowman, Topps and other nascent sports card firms.
By the late 1940s and 1950s, the tobacco industry’s long dominance over American baseball cards was waning. In their place rose pioneering companies like Topps, Bowman and Frankston who signed licensing deals with major and minor leagues. Their early modern sets from the 1950s captured the final years of professional baseball in Mt. Sterling as local town teams again filled the void when the Browns folded. Players like local legends Lou Brock, who played semi-pro ball before reaching the majors in 1961, and Larry Brown had their early athletic careers preserved on cardboard.
Collections amassed in Mt. Sterling over the following decades grew to include the many former minor leaguers and major leaguers who suited up for the amateur town squads in the post-war era before heading off to try their luck in organized ball. Names like Ted Kluszewski, Earl Weaver, Pedro Ramos, Jim Brosnan and Tom McDonald all spent time in a Mt. Sterling uniform and later found themselves in the collections of locals who snapped up their retro and vintage cards. One stunning 1945 Bowman Ted Kluszewski card pulled from a Mt. Sterling attic in the 1980s now draws offers of thousands of dollars online.
Into the 1960s and beyond, Mt. Sterling card collectors added stars whose paths crossed the town even briefly. Players stopping through for exhibition games or who enjoyed ties to the area through family and friends surfaced in their wax boxes and puzzle collections. Names including Hal Smith, John Lowenstein, Darrell Evans, Skeeter Barnes and Darrell Porter all spent time in Mt. Sterling and sport cardboard that wound up preserved locally. Even slugger Reggie Jackson has cards in Mt. Sterling collections, though his lone visit was to address a banquet crowd in the early 1970s.
As the decades passed, Mt. Sterling’s baseball card histories expanded to encompass the entire span of the hobby. Rarities from the vintage tobacco era commingle with stars of the 1970s, rookies of the 1980s and short prints from the modern era. Organized in binders and boxes, the collections serve as a living timeline paying tribute to the town’s rich baseball heritage. They also underscore how cardboard collections can pay dividends decades later, preserving memories and sometimes netting collectors quite a return. Now featuring cards dating back 100 years, Mt. Sterling’s baseball collectibles hold stories still being uncovered and retold by young fans new to the hobby.
