The popularity of baseball cards in Shorewood, Illinois can be traced back to the late 19th century when cigarette companies like American Tobacco Company began including cards with pictures of baseball players in their packs and rolls of cigarettes as a marketing gimmick. Collecting and trading these early baseball cards soon became a beloved pastime for many children living in Shorewood and surrounding communities in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Some of the earliest baseball cards produced included those featuring stars like Cy Young, Honus Wagner, and Nap Lajoie. While the images on these vintage cards were simple black and white illustrations, they ignited the passion for baseball memorabilia that still exists today in Shorewood. Throughout the early decades of the 20th century, the tradition of including baseball cards with tobacco products continued to grow the hobby.
By the 1950s, the modern era of baseball cards was in full swing. Companies like Topps, Bowman, and Fleer were mass producing colorful cards featuring the biggest names in the game on a annual basis. In Shorewood, it seemed like every child had a shoebox full of cards that they would swap, trade, and add to their collections. Local card shops and hobby stores also started to pop up to meet the rising demand.
Two such stores that gained popularity among Shorewood card collectors in the 1950s and 1960s were Shorewood Sportscards, located downtown on Main Street, and Bob’s Baseball Cards, which was situated further north along Joliet Road. Both shops became important weekend destinations for many kids to search through boxes organized by year, team, and player looking to find ones they needed to complete their sets.
The golden age of baseball cards was undoubtedly the late 1980s. Popular Shorewood players of the era like Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace, and Greg Maddux had their own rookie cards that local collectors feverishly pursued. But it was the arrival of the junk wax era that truly flooded the market. Companies overproduced cards, including oddball promotions that featured multiple parallel issues of the same player.
While this damaged scarcity and longterm value for many modern cards, it was pure paradise for Shorewood’s young collectors. They could acquire boxes upon boxes of the latest releases for just a few dollars. The basement and attic of many homes in town became makeshift card “museums” as collections grew well into the tens of thousands.
As the 1990s progressed, the bubble eventually burst on the junk wax era. But baseball cards remained a popular pastime in Shorewood. By this time, the internet had also begun to transform the hobby. Online communities, databases, and commerce sites gave collectors new ways to research, trade, and build their collections in the digital age.
Today, baseball cards are still a treasured link to America’s pastime for many residents of Shorewood. While the peak frenzy days of the late 80s and early 90s are in the rearview, local card shops like Bob’s (now in a new location) keep the flame alive. Diehard collectors continue to hunt vintage gems from the community’s attics and basements as well. And for a new generation, ripping open packs of cards remains one of life’s simple joys and a connection to the heritage of the national pastime.