Brad Galli is a Man of the People
As the 6 p.m. newscast hit its final block of the show, sports director Brad Galli appeared on the WXYZ set with a surprise in hand.
It was MLB Opening Day, and the avid card collector wanted to share some trading cards with the two main anchors and a meteorologist. As the crew for the ABC affiliate in Detroit each ripped a pack of 2023 Topps Baseball Series 1, Galli pulled a Shohei Ohtani, and then a Mike Trout. He showed his colleagues, then the camera.
Galli, 35, loves to engage the audience. A true showman, Galli uses his local celebrity status as a platform to be an ambassador and pub the hobby he loves.
Galli makes it a routine a few times a month to open trading card products on Facebook Live from his popular work account. Occasionally, he’ll also implement cards into his sportscast, just like he did for Opening Day in 2023.
Galli celebrating 2021 Series 1 on-air (photo provided by Brad Galli)
“It’s so amazing to see collectors come out of the woodwork so quickly and interact with us,” Galli said. “But then also it makes people that haven’t opened up cards in a long time feel young again. Like, ‘Oh my gosh, I remember before Opening Day going to get a pack from my local card store.’ So, the interactions are so real. In the job I’m in and I’m working in my hometown, all I’m trying to do is be authentic. I feel like those interactions are as authentic as you can get. It draws on that nostalgia for so many people. But it also pushes the conversation forward about the next big crop of prospects, the rookie cards.”
In Detroit, Hockey was King
Galli’s collecting journey started at a young age. Growing up in metro Detroit in the 1990s, he couldn’t escape hockey cards and the Red Wings’ success.
Galli’s uncle and grandparents would take him to the local card shop.
“The incentive with my parents for my brother and me, if we wanted to get cards, was, ‘You get good grades, you go get cards,’” Galli said. “This went into high school, and I was shocking my parents getting straight A’s for the first time. I always got decent grades, but I got straight A’s.”
Galli vividly remembers picking up his first hobby box and pulling a triple authentic game-used jerseys relic card of Red Wing greats Gordie Howe, Steve Yzerman, and Henrik Zetterberg. Some of Galli’s favorite players to collect growing up were Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, and Brendan Shanahan.
“Those Red Wings teams captivated me,” Galli said. “Ken Griffey, too, on the baseball side of it. I tried to be like him in the backyard. I wanted to collect his stuff all the time.”
Man of the (Hobby) People
Going back to connecting with his on-air viewers, Galli enjoys conducting breaks. However, when work is busy during the winter months when the Lions are stringing together victories, and the Red Wings are heating up, Galli doesn’t have a lot of time to open packs on Facebook Live. But that doesn’t stop his dedicated audience from requesting content.
“Some people always tell me, ‘Why aren’t you doing it live? We head to these Facebook Lives.’ I’m not trying to go broke here. When I get my allowance this week, we’ll do a few more box breaks.” Galli, a man of the people, certainly has a way of connecting the Detroit community with The Hobby.
