Baseball cards have a long history in Napa, California dating back to the late 19th century. Some of the earliest baseball cards produced featured players from the California League, a minor league that had teams located throughout Northern California including in Napa. While the quality and production of these early cards varied greatly, they helped grow interest in the sport locally during baseball’s early years of popularity in the region.
In the early 20th century, tobacco companies like American Tobacco Company and cigarette manufacturer Piedmont began inserting baseball cards as incentives in cigarette and tobacco packs. These tobacco era cards from around 1909-1952 featured major league players and helped make collecting baseball cards a mainstream hobby for the first time. Kids in Napa eagerly collected and traded these early tobacco cards, many of which featured California natives and former minor leaguers that had played for one of the area’s previous minor league teams.
By the 1930s and 1940s, Napa had a vibrant baseball card collecting scene. Local drug stores and corner markets stocked packs of cards and served as weekend hangouts for kids to trade and track the statistics on their collections. In 1940, Napa even had its own minor league team, the Napa Solons who played in the Sunset League. Cards from sets like 1939 Play Ball and 1941 Play Ball featured Solons players and stoked local interest in the team. During World War 2, baseball card production was suspended for the duration of the war. But collecting picked back up once peace was restored and sets re-emerged in the late 1940s.
The 1950s brought new innovations to baseball cards. In 1951, the first modern multi-player card set was released by Bowman Gum and featured 36 future hall of famers. This ushered in the golden age of design and photography that has defined the iconic baseball card aesthetic ever since. In Napa, kids flocked to buy these colorful new cards at drugstores and would meet at local parks every weekend to trade. The decade also saw the rise of Napa’s most famous native son and future hall of famer, Harmon Killebrew. His rookie cards from 1954 Topps are highly sought after by Napa-area collectors today.
As the 1960s rolled around, the landscape of baseball cards in Napa began to change. The city’s minor league team had folded, ending the direct local connection to cards of hometown players. But collecting remained enormously popular, especially the 1963 Topps set which featured the first color photos on cards. In 1966, Topps gained exclusive rights to produce MLB player cards which it has held ever since. This ended the competition between brands that had defined the previous decades. It also concentrated the primary cards being collected around one manufacturer.
The 1970s were another boom time for baseball cards in Napa. As the city grew post-WWII, new card shops and hobby stores opened to meet collector demand. Kids flocked to these stores on their bikes to trade and purchase wax packs, and many stores even hosted weekend trading events. The rise of star players like Reggie Jackson also made collecting more exciting as every kid wanted cards of the game’s new sluggers. In the late 1970s, the arrival of high-number parallel and short print cards added another layer of chase and complexity to the hobby.
In the 1980s, several trends impacted baseball cards in Napa. The arrival of the modern sports card shows in the late 1970s saw the first big card conventions come to Northern California. This allowed Napa collectors to buy, sell and trade with collectors from around the region. The rise of speculators also began changing the nature of collecting as some pursued cards only as an investment. But kids in Napa continued enjoying the sport of collecting through the decade, chasing rookies of stars like Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire. The arrival of the internet in the late 1980s also started to connect collectors worldwide in new ways.
The 1990s were a time of great change for the baseball card industry. Overproduction led to a crash in collector values that caused many local card shops in Napa to close. The rise of memorabilia cards also appealed more to adult collectors than kids. But Napa collectors adapted, focusing more on collecting players they simply enjoyed versus strictly monetary value. In the new millennium, collecting has remained a popular hobby among both kids and adults in Napa. While the industry has evolved, the joy of collecting cards and memories made through the hobby over decades still resonate strongly with the city’s collectors today.
From the early tobacco cards collected in the 1900s to today’s ultra-modern digital and memorabilia cards, baseball cards have been a constant in Napa’s history. Multiple generations of locals have grown up enjoying the hobby, tracing the careers of stars and learning the game. And today, the rich history of cards in Napa lives on both in collections preserved and memories still shared among collectors of all ages throughout the city and region. Few hobbies so perfectly blend one’s passion for sport with nostalgia and connection to community as baseball cards have for over a century in Napa.