“Bobby Witt Jr. and Corbin Carroll were the first to do it” - Phillies All-Star Matt Strahm on players keeping their own baseball cards during games
Matt Strahm is known to be an avid baseball card collector. The Phillies pitcher often collects cards of the opposing batter every time he is hit for a home run. But there is something even more extraordinary that he has done that included his own cards.
In an exclusive with MLB, the Phillies pitcher sat down his love for baseball cards. Strahm shared his passion for collecting cards began as a child as his family was into collecting the prized items. That evolved into him collecting over a million cards.
One of the bizarre things related to his card collection is Strahm keeping his own cards in his pocket while on the field. Inspired by Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. and Diamondbacks' Corbin Carroll, Strahm carried two cards each in his backpockets during the 2024 All-Star Game. After the showcase fixture, he got it authenticated.
"Yeah, actually, Bobby Witt Jr. and Corbin Carol were the first to do it in a regular season game. I thought the idea was cool, um, I'm too routine to do that in a normal game, but the All-Star game kind of felt like... not that I took it lighter or anything, but it's like an exhibition game. I'm not going to affect the team that's paying me if I do something out of the blue."
"After I came out, I walked up to the authenticator, took them out of my pocket, and asked him to authenticate them as game-worn. He kind of looked at me, I was like, 'I wore them in my pocket,' and he just smirked and authenticated them for me. So it was kind of cool."
Bobby Witt Jr. had predicted the game-used cards success
Kansas City Royas shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. who seems to be Matt Strahm's inspiration had called it early on that others would also join the bandwagon of getting their own game-used cards authenticated. After the second game of the season against the Minnesota Twins, Witt opened up about keeping his cards in his backpocket.
“I think so, yeah. I think it’s pretty cool,” Witthad said. “I think it’s something that more people will do, and you see the game-used bats and jersey cards, so why not?”
The experiment is a more innovative take at how baseball cards are used. They bring in a lot of business as the baseball community is fascinated with keeping their prized possessions.