The reporter gave a couple of weak socioeconomic reasons for the failure of baseball cards, but failed to mention a huge one. In 1994 there was a little thing called the pro baseball strike, which cancelled the season and World Series. It tainted the image of "America's pastime" and the league -- and really, professional sports in America -- has yet to fully recover to this day.
That same summer happened to see the World Cup arrive on this shores for the first time. Kids like me started reading 'Soccer International' on the magazine shelf instead of Beckett Baseball Card Monthly. I recall getting back in touch with one old classmate of mine from middle school, named Mike Barnes. This kid was all about the card trading, and an upcoming Little League player to boot. (He was a jackass too -- one time he stole a few of my cards.) By 1994 he had stopped trading cards and playing baseball, and was committed to soccer, playing varsity and so on. He told me the World Cup was the game-changer for him.
Barnes and I were those kids in the late-80s and early-90s robustly buying and selling baseball cards like stocks. Not for the money, of course, but there was real joy and love in the game of baseball. That's how they raised us in America. That if we build it, they will come. Fifth grade field trip to Wrigley Field, bleacher tickets to Comiskey Park for good attendance.Baseball card shows were everywhere. Hotel ballrooms and exhibition halls filled with vendors and appearances by overpaid pro players who got huge fees to show up and autograph fans' stuff for a hefty fee. As children we didn't care, and didn't realize at the time how foolish we really were being.
