Jackson Chourio, Christian Yelich shine as Brewers’ popular Police trading cards make comeback with cool, comic-style twist
When the Milwaukee Brewers started a collaboration with area law enforcement departments over four decades ago, Robin Yount and Paul Molitor were household names.
The Brewers and law enforcement produced a police trading card program that was popular into the early 1990s with some sporadic releases years later. Law enforcement officers would hand out team cards to kids across Wisconsin—fostering trust, connection, and joy through America’s pastime.
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The program became a staple throughout MLB with most of the organizations producing team police cards in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
For the most part, MLB police cards were dormant for a good 20 years before the Brewers became the first franchise to revive the program last year. Now in their second year back, the cards are as popular as ever thanks to custom, comic-style designs from Los Angeles-based artist Pop Fly. The cards are making a comeback with Jackson Chourio and Christian Yelich becoming household names and the 97-win Brewers producing the best record in baseball enroute to the NLCS.
The Brewers are believed to be the only MLB organization to actively be producing police cards.
“There was a long stretch where the program did not exist,” said Rick Schlesinger, the Brewers’ president business operations. “Then last year, in talking with representatives from the Milwaukee Police Department who provide security here at the ballpark, they asked us to revive the program because they also had fond memories of it. They were looking at trying to figure out how to have better interactions with neighborhoods and with kids and sort of break down barriers that police are to be feared or police interactions are all negative and create sort of a positive environment.”
2025 POLICE SET
This year’s Brewers police set features six position players: Chourio, Yelich, William Contreras, Sal Frelick, Brice Turang, and Joey Ortiz. The cards come in an old-school wax pack—as though it was the 1980s again. Every pack contains all six cards.
The Brewers set from 2024 was a basic design with a picture of the player, his name, position and city name. Pop Fly, whose real name is Daniel Jacob Horine, put his own twist on this year’s cards. The players are depicted as cartoon figures with a sort of 1960s style and Batman TV show look, noted Schlesinger. Using word bubbles, the players convey positive messages.
“Some of the players have said, ‘Hey, I want to be included,’” Schlesinger said. “So, we will also look at maybe not only expanding it beyond the Milwaukee Police Department, but expanding the number of cards and featuring more players because the players that are featured are loving the images and the players we didn’t feature want to get involved in the action, if you will.”
Schlesinger enjoys the design on all six cards, but the Frelick card is his favorite. The Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner is shown making a diving catch.
“Frelick helps embody what the Brewers are about, sort of a gritty, defense, hustle, uniform dirty kind of guy,” Schlesinger said.
Chourio, who took the league by storm as a rookie last year and had a solid second season, has a cool second-year police card. He is shown unleashing a powerful swing that creates a giant fireball. Two word bubbles state, “Legends aren’t made in the future … they’re made right now!!”
OVERWHELMING RESPONSE
Initially, the Brewers released this year’s cards to the Milwaukee Police Department. But there has been an overwhelming response statewide from law enforcement agencies in nearly all 72 counties and the biggest city departments around Wisconsin.
“We knew the cards looked nice and were popular, but we did not expect it to be such a hit from the other police departments around the state,” Schlesinger said. “We’re a regional team, so we are trying to do what we can to promote the Brewers statewide. From our perspective, this is great to expand the program beyond the city, because, again, it’s great for law enforcement communities around the state and it’s also great for Brewers branding. It promotes the Brewers, creates fandom, leads to positive interactions. It’s a win-win for everybody to expand it just beyond Milwaukee, so that’s our next step.”
With so much interest, 25,000 packs were distributed to law enforcement agencies in the largest cities in Wisconsin, including Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, La Crosse and Eau Claire.
Police officers generally keep the trading cards in their vehicle or have them tucked inside their uniform to hand out to kids.
“What we’re trying to do is figure out different ways to connect with our fans and the police are also trying to figure out ways to connect with the community, and it’s not that easy to find a vehicle that does both,” Schlesinger said. “We recognize that people have different opinions of interactions with police, but if it can be a positive interaction and we can get our brand out, it’s great. We’re thrilled that it’s gotten such attention.”