Addison Russell's Unique Autograph collection

**PackerBum9786** · 04-25-2017, 06:43 PM

I saw this story on yahoo and thought it was neat and being this is an autograph forum I thought I would share it.

Around baseball, players often build their own memorabilia collections. It’s not something you hear about all the time, but players often collect autographs from the teams they play against. Take Minnesota Twins pitcher Hector Santiago, he has a huge collection of jerseys and autographs from his peers.

Addison Russell, the 23-year-old Chicago Cubs shortstop, began his own autograph collection this past spring. It’s not baseball cards. Or jerseys. Or caps. Or even bats. It’s something you’d probably never guess — though it makes sense when you remember that he was born in 1994.
Pokémon cards. He’s getting his fellow MLB stars to sign Pokémon cards.
ESPN’s Jesse Rogers has the story about how Russell is collecting autographs from other clubhouses around baseball. It builds upon a story from Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic about Russell getting Pokémon autographs inside his own clubhouse. Russell told ESPN: “I started collecting this offseason because my cousins, nieces and nephews all started collecting, so I wanted to find a way to relate with them,” Russell said with a big smile. “Get on that level with them. I’ve signed a lot of baseball cards of myself, and I just thought it would be cool if professional athletes would sign Pokémon cards. I started collecting them more, and now I’m asking guys to sign them.”
There’s one big difference between getting baseball players to sign baseball cards and getting them to sign Pokémon cards — the Pokémon cards aren’t tied to specific players. Instead, Russell has to pick which players he wants to sign which Pokémon cards, which makes the whole thing a little more interesting.
For instance: He got Los Angeles Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen to sign a card with fireballs on it. Jose Altuve got a card with a flying dragon on it “because he’s aggressive and I like his style of play,” Russell said.
Kris Bryant was asked to sign a Charizard, which is one of the best cards you can get. Makes sense, right? And Anthony Rizzo got a Pikachu, Pokémon most popular character.
He’s gathered about 25 signatures so far. No one has turned him down, although some players on other teams did wonder if it was a joke. No, it wasn’t. Russell told ESPN:

“They say it’s a little different, but what do you expect from the youngest guy on the Cubs?” Russell asked rhetorically. “When I do play against them on the field, they’re like, ‘Really, Pokémon cards, man?’ And I just tell them I appreciate them signing it. Kind of sparks a conversation.”

A couple of Russell’s teammates wondered what he’s going to do with the signed cards. “What’s the endgame?” one asked, jokingly.

“My cousins are waiting to check out the collection after the year is over,” Russell said. “That’s the plan — maybe even give them to my son. I really don’t want to sell them, but I’m down to trade some Pokémon if people want.”

We have to imagine this might lead to fans bringing their own binders of Pokémon cards to Wrigley Field soon enough. Forget pace of play, that’s a good way to get young kids interested in baseball, right?