The DU Lounge

jmowreader

(51,755 posts) Tue Jan 21, 2025, 03:07 PM Jan 21

An 11-year-old kid in Los Angeles is facing a dilemma over a baseball card

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2025/01/paul-skenes-patch-card-pirates-season-tickets-dont-do-it-kid

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a player on their roster named Paul Skenes. If you're a baseball fan, you know who he is.

To commemorate his first start, Topps made one card bearing Skenes' autograph and the MLB DEBUT patch he wore in his first outing. And like all other really special cards Topps makes, they put it in a random pack of trading cards and sold it like they do all their other trading cards. The value of the card is estimated to be in the high-six/low-seven figure range.

An 11-year-old, whose name is currently unknown, has found the card.

The Pirates really want it for their museum, so they've made this offer to anyone who found it:

Meet and Greet Paul Skenes, who is a great person
Two autographed Paul Skenes jerseys - the real deal, not the cheap-ass replicas but two of the $175 ones Skenes plays in
A softball game at PNC Park for the card-finder and 29 of his or her closest friends, complete with coaching from Pirates alumni
A private tour of the Pirates' spring training complex in Florida
Taking batting practice and warming up with the Pirates at an MLB game
Two season tickets behind home plate at PNC Park for the next 30 seasons

So you see what this poor kid is up against: sell the card and be set for life, or have to move with his family to Pittsburgh and watch the Pirates lose baseball games until he's 42. Then again, considering what's happening in Los Angeles right now Pittsburgh might sound pretty good to him.