Excitement over baseball cards in a MLB clubhouse
 

My Washington Nationals are likely to endure another lousy season, and the players likely realize this, but this doesn't stop them from having card fun in the clubhouse! I think everyone will enjoy reading these first few paragraphs from a piece that appears in the Sports Section of today's Wash. Post:

The Nats’ clubhouse vibes? Electric. The reason? Baseball cards.

By Chelsea Janes
March 1, 2024 at 1:28 p.m. EST

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — After workouts late Friday morning, as players filtered back into the Washington Nationals’ clubhouse to bide the time before their spring training game, a circle formed around Riley Adams. The backup catcher was wearing purple latex gloves and holding a box of baseball cards. Closer Kyle Finnegan was holding a hat with small pieces of paper in it. And for some reason — one that was initially a mystery to players who arrived midway through the process — everyone was yelling.

“A Joey Votto!” Adams yelled as confused infielders Nasim Nuñez and Darren Baker, bags on their shoulder from the workouts, walked in on the commotion.

“Are they gambling?” Nuñez wondered aloud. Baker marched directly to an opening in the circle, bat still in hand, and tried to figure out what was happening. Somewhat surprisingly for a baseball clubhouse, where fantasy sports and golf wagers are a part of life, the answer to Nunez’s question was no. They were not gambling. They were collecting.

A group that included Adams, Finnegan, right-hander Cade Cavalli, outfielder Lane Thomas and catcher Drew Millas had chipped in money to buy a box of rare baseball cards. The players were pulling names out of a hat to see who got to keep which card.

Adams was the emcee, lifting each card out of the box with care, showing it carefully with his glove-clad fingers, then announcing just how rare the card claimed it was. An Edgar Martínez was one of five. A Ken Griffey Jr. was one of four. A David Ortiz autograph was highly coveted. Everyone was very polite when a Dansby Swanson rookie card ended up with Cavalli. But the biggest prize was undisputed.

“Shohei!” Adams said, holding up a shiny Shohei Ohtani card as the circle tightened slightly. It was Thomas’s turn to pick a name from the hat. He looked at the paper. The name written on it was his. The room erupted.

Cool story! It's nice to see the players enjoying cards as much as the fans do.

And it should be a fun battle between my Mets and your Nationals for 4th place in the NL East :p

Honestly that’s amazing


Just goes to show you, anyone can enjoy baseball cards!

I wonder if they got dibs on their own cards?

That's really cool, Val. Thanks for sharing.

Jase Bowen, who is a prospect for the Pirates, is a big collector of his own cards. He shares them on Twitter after each new card. He's been looking for rare versions of his own card from the 2023 Bowman Chrome set. It's been fun to follow

The downside to publicly collecting your own cards is that it seems like people on Ebay know that he's doing it and his cards are priced high. He got a nice little bonus for signing out of high school in 2019 (just under $400K), but he's been making minor league wages since then. They did bump up minor league salaries over the last two years, so they aren't as bad as they used to be, plus he made some extra playing winter/fall ball the last two years, but he's not some millionaire athlete. He can't be throwing thousands at cards he's chasing.

"“Are they gambling?” Nuñez wondered aloud."

Technically no, but very much yes...but technically no...technically...

Putting together a set from just breaking packs has been a hell of a financial adventure for quite a while. Some people straight up toss all base rather than bothering with it. "Hits" only.

I'm glad Topps is still producing something "for the kids and casuals" with a price point to match in Topps Big League. Hopefully it will stick around.

Very cool... would have been so much fun to watch that!

Fun story! What do we think they were opening?