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MLB pitcher, hobby show host Matt Strahm loves ripping packs, building special baseball card collections
When Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz homered off Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Matt Strahm last July, he joined an exclusive group.
No, Cruz didn’t set any MLB or even any team records. But he entered Strahm’s one-of-a-kind collecting club.
A lifelong collector, Strahm has a box of cards dedicated to players who have hit home runs off him during his MLB career. Entering his 10th year, Strahm has surrendered 57 long balls to over 40 players.
“My brother made a little comment one time about, ‘Oh, it would be cool to have one of the binders filled with cards of guys you struck out.’ To me that’s kind of, I don’t know, narcissistic, I guess,” Strahm said. “I was like, ‘How about I collect who takes me deep and I make it a rookie card or a rarity short-print card or whatever?’ So I started doing that, and it’s been fun.”
Later last season after Cruz hit his home run, Strahm was ripping packs and he hit a numbered auto of Cruz. That card made its new home in Strahm’s “special” home run box.
“I rip so much that I usually have the guy’s card laying around,” Strahm said. “I have the list, and when I’m done playing, there will be a display in my house.”
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When a player launches a homer against Strahm, at that moment on the mound, he’s certainly not thinking about having to collect that player’s card.
“It goes through my mind when I’m opening cards,” he said. “I’ll be like, ‘Oh, this guy took me deep. I better put this one aside in case I don’t have him in the box already.’ It’s gotten to a point now where fans will send me cards of guys that have taken me deep. So, I’ve got plenty of everyone. Some of them are definitely poking fun, because I’ve gotten some from opposing fans. It’s kind of funny.”
Along with collecting opposing players, Strahm enjoys opening packs to find cards of his teammates.
“Most of these guys have taken care of me already signing cards,” Strahm said. “So, I’ve got to get some of the young guys, maybe [Max] Lazar when his rookie card comes out. I’ve got a lot of these guys. I’ve just got to wait for the new product to come to see which ones I need them to sign.”
HOBBY TV STAR
Strahm is in his 10th season in the major leagues and his third with the Phillies. A left-handed reliever, he started his career in 2016 with the Kansas City Royals and has also pitched for the Padres and Red Sox. He has a career record of 32-35 with a 3.44 ERA in 445 innings.
Being one of the biggest professional athletes who collects has paid dividends. In May, Strahm will be wrapping up his fourth season as the host of the successful hobby television show “The Card Life.” The show, which airs nationally, has been a great experience for Strahm.
When it came time for “The Card Life” producer/director Brandon Verzal to find a host for the show in 2020, Strahm was the logical choice. Verzal said having Strahm as the face, and voice, of the show has been incredible for exposure.
“You have a player who’s the most active player in the hobby and has been for the longest period of time,” Verzal said. “He’s always talking about it. He’s always engaged in it. He’s always excited about it. The second part of it is he’s just a good guy, and loves collecting and loves the hobby. It’s all genuine interest; it’s not manufactured. There’s nothing cooler than when we open cards with him every month, because he has a story about almost everyone in every pack that’s an active from somebody he roomed with in the minor leagues or he came up with this guy or he was traded for this guy. Just to be able to sit there and hear those stories as he goes through pack to pack, that alone is just worth it. He’s truly authentic.”
“The Card Life” has aired nearly 50 episodes. Strahm gets a chance to tell stories about passionate collectors and people in the hobby. There are a few stories over the years that really stand out to Strahm, who grew up in West Fargo, N.D.
“The one that we did up in Seattle, the guy that we interviewed ended up giving me a card of the first-ever North Dakota baseball player,” said Strahm, referring to former New York Yankees player Truck Hannah. “It’s definitely the oldest baseball card I have. What makes it unique is the player actually signed it on the back, which is kind of cool. That one stands out to me for sure.
“I always loved the Kansas City show we did with the little boy who has the Harrison Butker collection. I just thought that was cool that this Kansas City football fan went with the kicker and it was cool to see how his entire collection is all the kickers. All the cool little apps that we’ve seen. The hobby’s great and it’s evolving every day. It’s fun to see the new stuff come out.”
In December, “The Card Life” filmed Strahm making an appearance at the Philly Show. Verzal really got to see Strahm’s impact on the hobby.
“That’s the first time we’ve done like a public thing where he was signing and trading and interacting with fans,” Verzal said. “I was blown away by the number of people that came up and said, ‘I came back to collecting because of watching you on the show.’ And, ‘I didn’t collect for 20 years, but I got my cards out after I saw you talking about cards on the show.’ It didn’t happen once or twice, it happened a dozen times in different locations throughout the day of people going up and saying that.”
Hosting the show has really expanded Strahm’s knowledge about cards in other sports as well as trading card games (TGC).
“As far as my collecting personally goes, I’m just a pack rat, so I like to open what I’m interested in,” Strahm said. “I enjoy opening baseball and football and I love the designs of the cards, I’m just not into football or basketball, so I don’t know the players as much. We went out to CGC last spring and I know nothing about Pokémon, but I got to sit down and open a box of the Japanese 151. It was fun to learn and to see. But cards to me are like a story. Baseball cards hold stories to me, and that’s what I like to stick to.”
COLLECTING HABITS
Strahm is pretty much a meat and potatoes type of baseball card collector. He enjoys ripping the traditional and popular brands: Topps flagship (Series One, Series Two and Update), Topps Chrome, Topps Sapphire, along with Bowman, Bowman Chrome, and Bowman Draft.
As a self-proclaimed “pack rat,” Strahm isn’t opening every product he can get his hands on; he’s very particular.
“We’ve had times that we’ve opened boxes that were $2,000 or $3,000 on the show. He’s more passionate about the hunt and opening a box and hoping you get that than just going out and buying whatever the semi-best card in that box would be for $2,000,” Verzal said. “He’d rather open the box and go through the enjoyment of that.”
During spring training, Strahm was able to get out to the local card shop in Clearwater, Fla., Wonder Water Sports Cards Comics & Games, and grab a jumbo case of Topps Series One Baseball.
“Series One always gets me excited, because Topps Chrome is my favorite of all, so you kind of know what Topps Chrome is going to look like,” Strahm said. “I’m pretty excited about this year and what the Chrome series is going to look like with the new release with Series One.”
But Strahm wasn’t too excited about what came out of his Series One case.
“Nothing to write home about,” he said. “I might need to stop at Wonder Water and pick up a couple more boxes.”
Strahm was able to pull some of his teammates, including a numbered card of fellow pitcher Zack Wheeler.
“We’ll heckle him for an auto on it soon,” Strahm said.
Strahm doesn’t have a base card himself in Series One. However, he does have a stretch card and a jumbo patch card in the product. Is he going to try to track those two cards down for his collection?
“As a pack rat, it’s kind of cynical to chase a 1-of-1,” Strahm joked.
During the season, it can be tough for Strahm to get the opportunity to rip packs. It’s all really dependent on release days of his favorite products.
“I usually get them whenever they release and then it just depends on if I’m home or not and what my brother Ben is doing,” Strahm said. “Sometimes it’s delivered to my house when I’m on the road and my brother will FaceTime me and we’ll open them over FaceTime. Or he’ll wait for me to get home, it just depends.”
The last two years, Strahm has really enjoyed the innovation by Topps of introducing the Rookie MLB Debut Patch Auto cards for players who make their major league debut. Those 1-of-1 cards appear in 2023 and ’24 Topps Chrome Update Series.
“I love them. I think they’re great,” Strahm said. “I’ve always had a gripe with Topps over missing guys and their rookie cards. Some guys make the big leagues and never get a card. So, I think it’s a good thing they did, because it’s going to be pretty hard to miss anyone.”
Strahm made his MLB debut with the Royals on July 31, 2016. He entered in the seventh inning and faced three batters, officially going 1/3 of an inning. What if those Rookie Debut Patch Cards were around in 2016 and Strahm had one?
“That would be sick,” he said.
