Pennants
Made of felt in various sizes, pennants graced the bedroom walls of many a young baseball fan throughout the 20th century. There's no better depiction of this than in "The Natural" movie, when lightning lights up a young Roy Hobb's bedroom, and illuminates his pennant collection, moments before it
strikes a big oak tree.
The first group of pennants pictured here are known to collectors today as BF3s, and were part of a large set of mini pennants that came out in late 1936 and were available through early 1938. They were primarily distributed by the Red Ball Sales Co. of Chicago — there were others, too — and came with gum. Both teams and individual players were featured, and made in 11 different styles, along with endless color variations. Besides big league teams, all the teams in the American Association, International League and Southern League are included, but no Pacific Coast League teams are represented.
Next up are individual player and team mini pennants made in 1950 by the American Nut Company. They were distributed with small pinbacks, one representing each big league team.
Pictured below are classic full-sized "stadium" pennants from the 1950s. My understand is that these were produced in Buffalo, NY. For reasons I've never heard explained, there are no stadium pennants of the Philadelphia Phillies or Washington Senators, two teams that also feature a shortage of stadium postcards. These measure roughly 30 inches long.
In 1959 — the same year it started putting cards on Bazooka Gum boxes — Topps came out with Bazooka pennants, which kids could receive by mail if they sent in enough wrappers.
Here is an assortment of pennants in varying sizes, including one of the Philadelphia Athletics, and another of the St. Louis Browns. Within a couple years, both teams found new homes in Kansas City and Baltimore, respectively. Also displayed is a pennant for the 1960 Spokane Indians, a Dodgers farm club with a lineup that included Frank Howard, Willie Davis and Ron Fairly.
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