So, continuing to stray a step away from card collecting, there are actually lots of old newspaper cuttings on-line. The ancestry.com archive (newspapers.com) is full of them! A 7-day free trial is available, but remember to cancel before 7 days are up (unless you get hooked) .....
Here's a couple of early ones that looked interesting..
1. 1886 September 30 - A 'baseball' article, for the purists....
1886 30 Sept.jpg
plus an example screenshot of some of these cards (not from the newspaper)
Blackstockings.jpg
2. 1890 June 8 - And the threat of the removal of cigarette cards, due to the disproportionate lithographic printing costs (including "base-ball players") …..
1890 8 June.jpg