The Tampa Bay area has a rich history with baseball cards dating back over 100 years. Some of the earliest cards produced featured players who spent time with teams in the Tampa Bay region. While the area was not always home to major league franchises, it has seen affiliations with several organizations over the decades and been represented in some iconic old tobacco and candy card sets from the early 1900s.
One of the first Tampa Bay related baseball cards was produced in 1909 as part of the T206 tobacco card series. This set is among the most valuable in the history of the hobby. That year, the card featuring Baltimore Orioles third baseman Jimmy Walsh included information noting he began his professional career in 1903 with the Tampa Smokers minor league club. Walsh spent just one season in Tampa before joining Baltimore, but it was enough to earn him a mention on his legendary T206 card issued years later.
In the 1910s and 1920s, the St. Petersburg Pelicans minor league franchise and other lower level teams in the area occasionally had players featured in regional cigarette and candy cards. Most collectors at the time focused on major leaguers. It wasn’t until the 1930s that the first notable Tampa Bay team specific sets began to emerge.
In 1932, R.B. Davis & Company issued a 40-card set highlighting that year’s St. Petersburg Saints team from the Florida State League. Each colorful card featured a player photo on the front with stats and biographical information on the back. While production numbers were low and many have faded with age, this set represents one of the earliest locally focused baseball card productions centered around the Tampa Bay region.
During the same period, Goudy Gum Company issued sets focused on minor league teams across America. Their 1933 and 1934 offerings each included a card for Fred “Lefty” Sherfey, a pitcher who spent that season with the local St. Petersburg Saints. Sherfey’s minor league career stretched over parts of three decades, and these Goudy cards featuring his time in Tampa Bay connect him to the local history.
In the post-World War II era as the hobby boomed, tobacco companies began exploring ways to feature minor leaguers and track the development of prospects. In 1951, Leaf brand gums created the first notable set entirely devoted to a Tampa Bay team when they issued cards highlighting that year’s St. Petersburg Saints of the Class A Florida International League. Each of the team’s 24 players received colorful cardboard stock photos that offered lifelong memories for both players and young fans of that squad.
Through the 1950s and 1960s, regional Florida based sets from Topps, Fleer and other mainstream manufacturers helped grow interest in minor league squads across the state. This included the Class A Tampa Smokers, West Palm Beach Indians and later teams like the Miami Marlins and team namesakes for cities across Florida. For young collectors in the Tampa Bay area at this time, following local minor league stars in colorful cardboard was a rite of passage and helped foster a love for the game.
In the late 1960s, the city of St. Petersburg built nearby Al Lang Stadium and lured the New York Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate to the area. From 1969 through 1987, future major league standouts like Thurman Munson, Rich “Goose” Gossage, Dave Winfield, Don Mattingly and others had their development chronicled in regional Florida State League and International League sets issued each year by the likes of Topps. This elevated interest and connected the next generation of Tampa Bay youth to following future baseball legends during their formative minor league seasons.
Topps continued to trail prospects like Roberto Alomar, Fred McGriff and others who starred for the Triple-A Tampa Tarpons and other local affiliates through the 1980s and early 1990s in their yearly minor league releases before affiliates began shifting elsewhere. By that time interest in collecting was firmly entrenched locally. Independent sets also emerged during this period from producers like Score Board Jr. that spotlighted specific seasons of teams like the Tarpons and brought more options for following local squads.
In the 1990s, when the city of St. Petersburg built Tropicana Field and lured the MLB expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays franchise, interest grew exponentially. In addition to annual releases tracking the Rays from flagship manufacturers, the independent Tampa Bay Baseball Card Show emerged in 1996 and helped galvanize the local collecting community. Still held today, this massive annual January event is one of the longest running and best attended baseball card and memorabilia shows in America.
Since the turn of the 21st century, affiliated products from Donruss Elite, Leaf, Stadium Club and others as well as independent regional sets from companies like Down The Line Designs have continued to spotlight Rays stars like Evan Longoria, David Price, and Blake Snell for collectors in the Tampa Bay area eager to reminisce or fulfill childhood dreams of seeing favorite players immortalized in cardboard form.
From turn of the 20th century tobacco inserts to modern parallels and refractors, the telling of baseball’s history in the Tampa Bay area would not nearly be as vivid without the colorful cardboard contributions that connect both collectors and communities to the rich traditions of America’s pastime for over 100 years running in the Sunshine State.
