Hobby Shop Gets Gift of a Lifetime
Bobby Witt Jr. has made Kansas City his home in his third full season with the Royals.
After signing a 14-year contract extension this past offseason, it’s looking like this young face of MLB could be spending his entire playing career in the sports-crazy Midwestern city.
The Art of Sports card shop quickly became Witt’s home away from Kauffman Stadium. Witt makes frequent stops at the Leawood, Kansas-based store.
“Over the course of two years, we’ve built a pretty good relationship with him,” said Tyler Gratwick, who, with his dad, Trey, co-owns The Art of Sports.
Trey noted that Witt generally has time to stop into the shop when the Royals have an off day between homestands. The store owners think it’s pretty cool an MVP candidate is associated with their card shop.
“Obviously, he was on the radar for us and for Kansas City long before he was with the major league team,” Tyler said. “But, seeing his growth over last year into this year and becoming an MVP candidate, it’s super cool to have a guy like that into the hobby. It’s fascinating to see what he likes to collect and the things that he’s interested in. Just the nicest guy, too. He’s been great to us.”
Game-Worn Giveaway
Collecting cards is an important part of Witt’s life. He’s constantly picking up cards of himself as well as cards of some of baseball’s best players.
Witt was presented with a unique opportunity earlier this season. He and fellow collector Corbin Carroll, outfielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks, were asked by hobby giant PSA to play a game with some of their rookie cards tucked in the back pocket of their uniform pants. Unbeknownst to anyone, Witt played the second game of the season with seven unprotected cards. Following his experience with his “game-worn” items, Witt signed and added special inscriptions on each piece of cardboard. The cards were then shipped to PSA, where they received an average grade of 2.64.
PSA kept one of the cards for a giveaway, while the remaining six went back to Witt to do with them how he pleased. The 24-year-old gave cards away to teammate collector Nick Loftin and former MLBer Evan Longoria, who is also a big collector.
A Nice Gift
In early August, Witt contacted The Art of Sports regarding some cards he was interested in that he saw on the shop’s social media accounts. Tyler worked out a trade with the All-Star shortstop. To complete the transaction, Witt visited the shop with his fiancé.
Before Witt left The Art of Sports, he presented the Gratwicks with a gift: one of his seven “game-worn” rookie cards.
“I knew what it was right away and just sort of taken back,” Tyler said. “I knew they were circulating, but I didn’t expect that at all.”
The Gratwicks received one of two 1st Bowman Witt rookies from the 2020 Bowman product. Witt inscribed that card, “3/30/24,” for the date he carried it, “5/7,” as he numbered each of the seven cards, and he autographed it. It earned a PSA 2 grade with a 10 autograph.
“It looks alright,” Tyler said. “It’s got some paper loss on it.”
The front of the card is in good condition, but the back took a beating while Witt was on the base paths. In that game, he collected two doubles and a dirt-stained uniform.
“You could tell it was in his pocket with those other six cards,” Trey said.
The Gratwicks are currently getting the card framed to make a nice centerpiece display for their shop.
“We got high-resolution copies of all the other six cards from PSA, so (the framer’s) going to put pictures of each one of those inside of a frame along with a little snippet of an article that The Athletic wrote about the whole thing,” Tyler said. “We’re going to get that framed and then post it in the shop just for people to look at.”
Hobby Rip Night
The Gratwicks will celebrate Topps Hobby Rip Night on Sept. 14 with a large tent outside their store and provide collectors with plenty of food and products.
“We’re going to mix it up. People can rip cards at the shop, and then if they pull something that they like and they want it graded, PSA will be right there to accept submissions,” said Tyler, who will have the store open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., with PSA on site from noon to 5 p.m. “We’ll have a whole area sectioned off in the parking lot, along with the entire shop, so it should be pretty cool.”
There will be giveaways for hobby boxes and memorabilia, including a Witt-signed bat and other Royals items.
When The Art of Sports participated in the last Hobby Rip Night, they gave away gift bags filled with assorted packs to the roughly 150 people who attended. “I think this Rip Night will be the biggest day that we’ve ever had in the shop, just in terms of people coming in,” Tyler said. “I’ve talked to three people who are booking hotels for it. They’re coming into town to do it. I think it will be an awesome event, and people are super excited about it.”
