Young Fan Who Pulled Exclusive Paul Skenes Card Goes Viral For Incredible Journal Entry

An 11-year-old fan and collector pulled the 1/1 Paul Skenes card and turned down an incredible offer from the Pirates for it. Instead, he's putting the card up for auction, with some of the money going to relief for the Los Angeles wildfires.

Pittsburgh Pirates pitchers Mitch Keller (left) and Paul Skenes (right) look on from the dugout against the Milwaukee Brewers during the eighth inning at PNC Park. The Brewers won 7-2 in 2024. / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Earlier this offseason, we heard that baseball card maker, Topps, had put a special 1/1 autographed Paul Skenes rookie card in a pack, set to be found by a lucky fan.

Back in November, the Pittsburgh Pirates pre-emptively said they would offer an incredible package to the fan who pulled the card.

Baseball America chronicled that offer here;

The Pirates said Friday that they’d “love to bring this card back home to PNC Park to share with all Buccos fans,” and offered a laundry list of goodies in exchange for the card:

• A pair of season tickets behind home plate for the next 30 years
• A softball game for you and 29 of your closest friends at PNC Park, along with Pirates alumni to act as coaches
• A private tour at Pirates Spring Training next year, and a chance to take batting practice and warm up with the team
• A meet-and-greet with Paul Skenes himself, two autographed jerseys, plus other “unique experiences” yet to be determined.

Well, we now know that it was an 11-year-old fan who pulled the card, but he's rejected the offer. He's putting the card up for auction, with some of the money going to a great cause.

Also per Baseball America:

Fanatics Collect also announced that all of its proceeds from the auction will be donated to help wildfire relief in the Los Angeles area, where the young collector hails from...

So if, for example, the Skenes patch were to sell for $1 million, the actual final price could be $1.2 million, of which $1 million would go to the collector’s family, and $200,000 would be donated to wildfire relief.

That seems like a win-win across the board. The collector gets life-changing money (potentially) and a devastated area gets much-needed relief.

The fan is also going viral as Topps released a heartwarming journal entry from the fan who pulled the card, discussing how it came to be.

The 11-year-old collector who pulled the Paul Skenes 1/1 Debut Patch card just shared his journal entries…

It’s an absolute MUST-READ 🥹❤️ pic.twitter.com/PldkJMS06W

— Topps (@Topps) January 24, 2025

The Pirates have also invited the young fan to PNC Park for a special day in 2025.

Well…we’re bummed that we won’t be seeing you behind home plate for 30 seasons. But we’d still love to bring you to Pittsburgh for a special day at PNC Park this season 💛

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) January 24, 2025

Skenes finished his rookie season (2024) at 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA. He struck out 170 batters in just 133.0 innings and looked every bit the part of an ace moving into 2025. The former No. 1 pick in the draft (2023), Skenes made his major league debut in early May after just a handful of minor league starts. With Skenes and Jared Jones, the Pirates and their fans finally look to have some optimism moving forward.

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