Dogs and Baseball Trading Cards? Yes, It’s a Thing
It’s officially baseball season, and lots of our visitors at the Good Dog Hotel and Spa in Broad Ripple are making plans to go see the Indianapolis Indians play in downtown Indy at Victory Field. Hot dogs, peanuts and a good home run sound like perfect ways to enjoy spring.
We love baseball too, which is why we were curious about the role dogs have played in baseball trading cards. It turns out that dogs have been depicted in baseball cards about as long as baseball cards have been printed. Take a look at some of the most well-known.
A Dog Named Midget. One the most popular trading cards in history featured a small dog named Midget, who was photographed putting his paw on the knee of Journeyman infielder Art Whitney. The card was issued in 1887 by Old Judge cigarettes. It’s been called “The Most Popular Card Ever.” An extremely rare version of the card sold at an auction in 2016 for $18,000.
Red Heart Dog Food. Dogs weren’t actually featured in the post-war 1954 Red Heart Dog Food Baseball Card Set, but we’re counting them since they were produced by a dog food company. The set included 11 unnumbered cards in three series, totaling 33 cards. Each set has one of three colors for the card background: blue, green or red (the rarest).
Milk Bone Card Set. The set was issued through a mail-in offer, and were still available by request as recently as the early 1970’s. Some of the most memorable (and valuable) include Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial and Duke Snider. The Mickey Mantle card was deemed the most valuable of the set. Copies in excellent condition sell for around $300.
A Milk Bone’s 1993 card set featured major league stars and their dogs. Although it might not be as well known, the set Hall-of-Famers like Cal Ripken Jr. with his dog Champagne, and an out-of-uniform Paul Molitor with his pooch Boomer. Here are more players and their dogs in the set:
- Brady Anderson with Daisy & Maggie
- Craig Briggio with Shelbee
- Brett Butler with Beenie & Cecil
- Ken Caminiti with Bailey
- Will Clark with Psycho
- Rob Dibble with Taylor
- Tom Foley with Annie
- Joe Girardi with Nikko
- Tom Glavine with Golden
- Wally Joyner with Chloe & Shadow
- Barry Larkin with Kino & Roscoe
- Ben McDonald with Ace & Max
- Mark McGwire with Ellis & Sam
- Rafael Palmeiro with Kirby & Wrigley
- Bill Swift with Zach
- Larry Walker with Shami
- Matt Young with Cy
- Todd Zeile with Tiffany