In the second game of the 2024 season, Bobby Witt Jr. went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles. But unbeknownst to anyone watching (well, almost anyone), Witt was playing with something unusual in his uniform pocket.
His baseball cards.
“I grew up my whole life collecting cards,” Witt told The Athletic.
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A day earlier, reigning National League Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll led off for the Arizona Diamondbacks doing the same thing. He played in his team’s 7-3 win over the Colorado Rockies with his own baseball cards in his pocket.
Witt and Carroll thus became — according to trading card grading and autograph/memorabilia authentication company Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) — the first two athletes to experiment with “game-used cards.”
Game-used jerseys, balls and other equipment have long been highly coveted items in the sports memorabilia market (most recently, the “debut patch” feature from Topps was a giant hit), and pieces of these items have been put into trading cards by manufacturers for years. But flipping that around and putting the cards into the games? That’s a bit different.
“It was good to keep it a secret,” Witt says of his clandestine card caper. “I don’t think they [my teammates] knew that I did this. I didn’t want to be a distraction.”
The idea was a collaboration between the two players and PSA’s marketing team. Witt says he started talking more to PSA and developed a relationship with them as he renewed his card collecting love during the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown.
“We were thinking of how we could do something unique with the players,” said PSA President Ryan Hoge. “They had a selection [of cards] that they could choose from. We had reps at the game and witnessed it, so we were there for the entire process.”
Witt went with a 2022 Topps Update 35th Anniversary card and a 2022 Topps Heritage card among his selections. Carroll chose a 2023 Topps Heritage and a 2019 Bowman Draft card.
A card graded a 10 is defined as “a virtually perfect card.” That means four sharp corners, a well centered image, and blemish-free on the front and back. At the opposite end of the scale, a PSA 1 grade means, “the eye appeal of the card has nearly vanished in its entirety.”
It should come as no surprise that none of the cards Witt and Carroll carried on them through a Major League Baseball game earned a PSA 10. In fact, the game-worn cards are now among the lowest graded examples of each card in PSA’s database. For example, a 1965 card that was taped to a wall and ripped off some of the front when removed, with a thumbtack hole and maybe stained by some marker — that gets a PSA 1. For someone to get, say, a PSA 3 with any card made in the last 20 years — you have to really try to get it that bad. Witt, for instance, knocked down the grades on his cards by sliding into second base on one of his doubles and on a stolen base attempt.
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But it could have been worse.
“I put them in my left-back pocket, and I slide on my right. So they weren’t as banged up as they could have been,” Witt explained, adding that he didn’t check on them during the game.
Adding to the damage?
“I knew they had sweat marks on them, so they wouldn’t get good grades.”
But even with the wear and tear, Witt’s cards graded higher than Carroll’s did.
The final tally:
- Corbin Carroll 2019 Bowman Draft: 1
- Corbin Carroll 2023 Topps Heritage: 3
- Bobby Witt, Jr. 2022 Topps Heritage: 4
- Bobby Witt Jr. 2022 Topps Update: 2
Witt added that he and Carroll talk about cards, but they haven’t discussed the outcomes from the game-worn cards yet.
“If one of these had a scuff on it or a bent corner because Corbin was sliding into second, I think that has extra allure to it,” said Hoge. “Collectors will look at how used or how impactful it was for the game-worn aspect.”
As if the game-used element wasn’t unique enough, the cards also feature autographs and inscriptions from the players — some addressed to one person in particular.
Witt inscribed his Topps Update card with: “To: Longo! You’re the man!”
“Longo” is former Rookie of the Year and three-time All-Star Evan Longoria, who played with Carroll in Arizona last season. Longoria is one of the biggest card collectors among Major League players.
Carroll started getting back into collecting last year thanks to Longoria, who put Carroll on the hunt for a 1-of-1 rookie card of himself. But the community of big leaguers who collect is apparently a tight one, so Witt had his own connection to Longoria, even though they’ve never been teammates.
“I was just trying to change it up and do little things that a lot of cards didn’t have,” Witt said of his inscriptions. “I’ve talked to Longo about cards a lot. Him, Mike Trout, and some other guys. It’s cool seeing a lot of different players who are into it.”
While the concept of game-used cards is novel and unique for now, does it have staying power?
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“I think so, yeah. I think it’s pretty cool,” Witt said. “I think it’s something that more people will do, and you see the game-used bats and jersey cards, so why not?”
Hoge said that other athletes who are regular customers with PSA include Trout, Josh Jung, and Peyton Manning. He has a wish list of athletes he’d like to partner with, but wouldn’t disclose who they are. “There’s a lot of appeal to the athletes themselves to create these,” Hoge said. “The state of collecting and the growth of it reached a whole new level from 2018 to now, and we have seen exponential growth and a new floor.”
Would Witt, a big collector of Patrick Mahomes, suggest this to a player in a different sport?
“I collect a lot of football and basketball stuff,” Witt says. [But] I don’t know, because they don’t have pockets.”
(Photos and card scans via PSA)
Michael Waterloo is an award-winning fantasy baseball writer with published works at FantasyPros and the Associated Press, among other publications. Prior to launching his fantasy career in 2011, he covered the Pittsburgh Pirates as a traveling beat writer for two years at Pittsburgh Sporting News. He finished as the 17th most accurate fantasy baseball analyst in 2020, his fourth straight year rising in the rankings. Michael loves baseball analysis, analytics, his dogs and, of course, all things Anna Kendrick. Follow Michael on Twitter @MichaelWaterloo
