Inside Bobby Witt Jr.’s Custom Baseball Card Invitations for His Wedding Party
There are many ways to describe Bobby Witt Jr. Athlete. All-Star. Batting Champ. Soon-to-be-husband.
But one way many of his friends think of him is: Baseball card collector.
Witt has been collecting cards since he was a kid, first looking for cards of his dad, Bobby Witt, who played Major League Baseball for 16 seasons.
All the while Witt has been playing baseball, cards have been a part of his life.
It’s why when the Royals shortstop used a baseball card to ask his friends and teammates to be groomsmen for his upcoming wedding, no one was surprised.
“It was probably one of the coolest things that I have ever gotten,” said his childhood friend Mason Greer, the son of former big leaguer Rusty Greer. “I was excited to see it was a picture of me and him in high school on the field. He always goes above and beyond for his friends. The fact that he gave us a personalized card is not surprising.”
The cards, which were made by Topps and put into PSA holders, drew attention when Witt’s Royals teammate MJ Melendez discussed his card in a video shared by the card shop and breaker PullWax.
But the process to get the 12 cards created started many months ago.
The Phone Call
As Witt considered a fun way to ask his friends to be groomsmen at his wedding, his mind immediately went to baseball cards.
Sure, the invite as a baseball card would be amazing, but was this something that could be done?
Witt’s agent, JB Greer (no relation to Mason), reached out to Topps with the idea before the All-Star break. Of course, the idea was loved, but Topps employees had to see if it could work.
With all the processes and products in place, it’s not just as easy as hitting print to get the card created. Would they be able to fit the project into its schedule?
"Bobby is very passionate about cards, so it was just a very authentic type of request and I thought it was cool and we wanted to bring it to life for him,” said Kevin Eger, Topps’ vice president of athlete relationships. “We went back and forth trading emails about the photos and what he wanted on the card backs. It was kind of a cool little project.”
The images used on the cards were personal to Witt. They mostly showed Witt and his future groomsmen together, mostly on the baseball diamond whether in high school, college or MLB.
From there, the images were put into the 2024 Topps Baseball flagship frame and, then once approved, Topps sent the images to the its printing facility in Florida where Topps Now cards are printed.
“Everyone knows Bobby's kind of the real deal in collecting,” Eger said. “It made it a fun special project. Even the folks internally that were tapped to help put it together were pretty excited about it.”
But the process didn’t end there.
Encapsulation
Witt also wanted to get the cards in holders. Since he is also a partner with PSA, it was the perfect opportunity to blend everything that he loves about collecting into one great moment.
Topps sent five of each card to PSA so its graders could review the cards and find the best two from each group in hopes there would be at least two PSA Gem Mint 10s in the mix.
There were.
“The cards were printed with 2024 flagship design, but printed on the Topps Now glossy card stock, which typically has very good quality control,” said Ryan Greene, Collectors’ director of communications.
PSA then added a pedigree to the label forever cementing the cards in its pop report as “2024 Topps Bobby Witt Jr.” with the designation as “Groomsman Card.”
Even though PSA graded and encapsulated the cards, Greene knew he had to take it a step further and hide the cards from appearing on the pop report and cert verification.
They didn’t want any eagle-eyed collectors to find the cards in the database before the groomsmen received the invitations and potentially ruin the surprise.
“Bobby has been a great partner for us,” Greene said. “A big part of what makes him a great partner is that he is a genuine collector. The fact that he came up with these ideas was not surprising at all; incorporating something personal and special was awesome.”
The Reveal
Each of the groomsmen received one of the Topps cards in a PSA slab as their official invitation to be a groomsman at Witt’s wedding. Witt kept the second card for himself.
The cards were the perfect brainchild of Witt’s, combining all the things he loves with friends and cards for his upcoming wedding.
“We're appreciative that our partners would step up and do something like this,” JB Greer said. “This was not a paid thing. This is the beauty of being true partners and providing value beyond what is contracted. It was appreciated and not expected.”
