Avid hobbyists Bobby Witt Jr. and Corbin Carroll have watched and bought into enough baseball card box breaks to know how to provide the proper suspense and ensuing hype when pulling a one-of-a-kind autographed rookie card.

Playing the roles of box breakers for a day during spring training in March, the Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder slowly revealed cards while opening boxes of Topps’ latest release of high-end sets like Diamond Icons, Definitive and Luminaries. Meanwhile, the Kansas City Royals infielder amplified the anticipation with a drumroll.

What did the duo pull? A one-of-one autographed rookie card of Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga from Diamond Icons.

Carroll and Witt, along with several fellow MLB players like Justin Turner, Brett Rooker, Logan Webb, Trevor Megill and others shared in the thrill of pulling valuable autographed cards of Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Cal Ripken Jr. and Ichiro during their pack ripping sessions. And now all of these cards will be up for auction as part of the inaugural MLB Players Collection.

All of the cards pulled by the MLB players have been graded through PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator). The PSA labels on each card will also include “MLB Players Collection” to show they have been pulled by MLB players. The auctions for about 60 MLB Players Collection cards will begin Sept. 30 through PSA’s eBay store. 

“As the sport that sparked the entire industry, baseball holds a unique place in the hearts of collectors,” said Ryan Greene, PSA’s director of athlete and artist partnerships. “We’re thrilled to work with MLB Players Inc. to bring this unique pedigree collection and a one-of-one auction to life. This is a project that, through PSA-graded cards, connects hobbyists to some of the top athletes in the world.”

Some of the more notable cards pulled by the players include:

Alex Goodman, MLBPA director of baseball cards, said the process of gathering so many stars to be involved in creating the set was no trouble at all because of the growing popularity of baseball cards among the players.

“The excitement level is almost indescribably high,” Goodman said. “I think those that are into it are getting more and more into it. Further, though, there are players that weren’t into it and see their teammates that are getting more and more excited. The energy I felt in the room while we were opening cards, it’s undeniable and it’s really awesome to see. These guys love it, and it makes sense. 

“I mean in the end, these cards, they’re the key factor. It’s about them. They’re the ones on the cards. It’s encouraging to see that those guys who play the game, they love their cards as much as everyone else.”

Witt and Carroll have been heavily involved in the baseball card hobby for much of their lives, and they’ve helped create some of their own unique cards, as well. Both of them stashed some of their cards in their pants pocket during a game last season. Those beat-up cards were then autographed and graded.

“It’s crazy just from the fact that you have your card collectors that have been there from the beginning and that are older now,” Witt said during an interview with The Athletic a couple of months ago about the popularity of cards. “Then you have the kids now and they collect with their parents and so just for the hobby, that’s how it grows. Then you’ve got professional athletes that collect. You see guys in the clubhouse opening packs. You see guys doing breaks with guys so there’s just so many different ways to kind of get involved in the hobby. 
It’s just really cool how much it’s growing. 

“I don’t see it ever really stopped growing just because of how in-tune guys are in cards and just the different variations of what a card could come in, whatever type it is. It’s just cool to see it’s not just one kind of genre of people that are collecting cards. There’s just so many.”

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(Photos: MLBPA)