Elly De La Cruz Collector Chases Cards for his Son

Discover Travis Streitenberger’s De La Cruz Collection

Date: Dec 3, 2025

Author: Greg Bates

Topics: Baseball, Cards and Culture, Collector Stories, Elly De La Cruz, MLB

Length: 1016 Words

Reading Time: ~6 Minutes

When his son, Nathaniel, was born in late 2022, Travis Streitenberger wanted to start collecting something that he could hand down. In early 2023, he heard about the spiking interest in collecting trading cards. Shortly thereafter, he joined a few card groups online.

“I collected when I was a kid, that was in the ’80s,” said Streitenberger, who grew up in Ohio as a Cincinnati Reds fan. “Then I started seeing the hype with The Hobby and what it was now.”

The topic of baseball cards came up one day when Streitenberger was chatting with a coworker, who mentioned Elly De La Cruz’s name. Streitenberger had heard of the Reds phenom, but he didn’t know anything about him.

“He’s like, ‘Where have you been?'” Streitenberger said. “I got on YouTube, started watching highlights and everything, and I was like, ‘Oh, man. Oh, man.'”

Once Streitenberger picked up his first De La Cruz card, he was hooked. For seven or eight months, all he purchased were cards of his new favorite athlete. Now two and a half years into collecting the Reds’ most electric player, Streitenberger has amassed 157 different De La Cruz cards.

“My goal was to have the biggest Elly collection in mankind, and I’m not even joking,” Streitenberger said. “I could look through like 200 Ellys and not even see my collection for six months and know exactly which ones I got — everywhere from a $300 card to a 50-cent card, it doesn’t matter. That’s how in tune I am with it.”

Collecting Elly De La Cruz

Streitenberger, who lives in Washington Court House, Ohio, isn’t worried about landing high-dollar De La Cruz cards. He just wants to pick up the one that are the coolest in his opinion.

“I’m on a budget and everything like that, but autos were my thing for a while,” Streitenberger said. “I did manage to pick up about five cards of them. Short prints, case hits, ones that were in my price range.”

His favorite De La Cruz card in his collection is the 2024 Topps Big League Gameday Drip in a PSA 9. Sporting the iconic Topps Rookie Card emblem, the card features De La Cruz holding a baseball bat while wearing a Viking helmet.

Another one of Streitenberger’s top De La Cruz cards is the 2024 Bowman Anime, which is a case hit. “That was really a big, big deal,” Streitenberger said. “It’s just a beautiful card. Every now and then, I’ll go in and pop it out, just to see the shimmer of it off the light.”

De La Cruz’s 2024 Topps Home Sweet Home Medallion Gold numbered to /75 and his 2023 Pro Debut Future Cornerstones numbered to /99 are also on Streitenberger’s list of top cards.

At 44, Streitenberger really enjoys collecting De La Cruz cards. In his opinion, the star player gives off a vibe humility and respect that makes him easy to root for.

“I think he’s got a bright future ahead of him, as long as nothing happens and everything,” Streitenberger said. “I look at Shohei, his rookie year in 2018, and here we are in 2025 and you can’t get an auto of his for less than $2,500.”

Displaying the Elly Card Collection

Streitenberger keeps his entire De La Cruz collection in a five-shelf display case. He made a sign and attached it to the top of the case that contains De La Cruz’s name, uniform number, a Reds logo, and the MLB logo.

“The top shelf I call the money shelf,” Streitenberger said. “The second shelf is pretty much all graded cards. Third shelf is cards and more memorabilia — I’ve got his first bobblehead open and sealed from last year, the sliding one. I’ve got a box of the 2024 Topps Chrome sealed just because it’s got Elly on it. The bottom two shelves are base cards.”

Streitenberger’s display case is something he admires every day.

“In my house, when you walk in the door, it’s like, bam,” Streitenberger said. “I have a separate room that I turned into a card room. I see it every day when I walk into the house. I would be lying if I said I didn’t come in here at least once a day and just look around.”

Looking at the collection he has put together makes Streitenberger feel proud. “I know it’s going to be valuable throughout the years,” he said. “I know that I will never sell it, I will never trade it. I don’t look at them as my cards. I look at them like they’re my son’s cards. So, I don’t have the power to trade or sell or anything.” Streitenberger even has a small display case in his son’s room, which houses all the duplicate De La Cruz cards.

“My son loves cards, too,” Streitenberger said. “I know he’s only two and a half, but I’ll give him a graded card — not of Elly, but I have a massive collection besides Elly as well — and he’ll take off running through the house, and he’ll sit up on a chair and try to put them in penny sleeves.”

Collecting as a Family

When Nathaniel gets older, his dad will be passing down the De La Cruz collection. Streitenberger is hoping his son will keep the cards and in turn give them to his son one day. He’d also love to collect alongside his son in the near future.

“I can definitely see that happening,” Streitenberger said. “He gets excited, and he’ll know that like, when I give him a slab, he’ll come sit on my lap and he’ll say, ‘Open, open.’ He wants me to pull it out, because I keep all the slabs in sleeves. He’ll say, ‘Open it.’ Then he’ll say, ‘Wow, wow.’ It melts my heart.”