Paul Skenes Was A Catcher?

Plus, what was TTMing like in the 1970s?

Author

Mike Junk Wax Hero
January 13, 2025

Happy Monday, collectors! Here is my latest for SI: 7 Vintage Baseball Cards Under $1,000 To Start A Collection

Paul Skenes, the pitcher everyone wants rookie cards of right now, used to be a catcher. This may not be news to you, but it was to me.

Here’s a Leaf 1/1 of him as a catcher:

When he was 19, he played catcher for the Air Force baseball team. He couldn’t have been a good hitter, though, right?

Wrong.

Dude batted .410 and hit 11 home runs in 48 games. He appeared in 18 games as a relief pitcher, too. While he was good, he wasn’t otherworldly. He had 30 strikeouts in 26.2 innings, with a 2.70 ERA.

Then, the next year he hit 13 in 52 games. He could rake!

He also started 15 games as a pitcher, with a 2.73 ERA and 96 strikeouts in 85 IP.

He transferred to LSU for his junior year, and he said he stopped hitting for one simple reason: they stopped putting him in batting practice groups. He didn’t have a single plate appearance as a hitter that season.

But his pitching? That was otherworldly now. He started 19 games, and almost struck out 2 per inning. He finished 13-2 with a 1.69 ERA.

Did he miss hitting? “I wasn't too broken up about it because we had the opportunity to win the national championship, and we ended up doing it. So I think it was worth it."

Skenes, of course, went on to be voted Rookie of the Year in 2024, finishing 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA. Dude could rake, but he can pitch too.

I have no idea what the value of the card in the photo above might be, but a PSA 10/10 Leaf 1/1 Skenes auto went for $6,400 via best offer recently. (Yes, I checked 130 Point.)

I couldn’t find any other cards portraying Skenes as a catcher. If you know of any, please reply and let me know.

PRESENTED BY THE PENNYSLEEVER

Here are the products that I use from The Pennysleever:

A Couple of Updates

From my Sunday Clearing the Bases video, here is the eBay sale that dude was complaining about. Not sure why I couldn’t find it, but thanks to Tom for sending it.

The seller has sold thousands of items, and is just now realizing the fees he’s paying?

No one is forcing you to sell on eBay.

Also from that video, another update:

And, as promised, Dan’s card “room”:

Don’t TTM Corbin Carroll In Florida

I heard from a couple of people last week that Corbin Carroll was signing cards TTM to an address in Florida.

Welp:

🗣️ YouTube Comment Of The Week

I love hearing about how collecting used to be. Plus, Dave is a great commenter. Maybe I should ask him for more details about TTMing in the 1970s and throw it in a newsletter.

🎬 Upcoming Videos

  • Eventually I’ll do another Attic Find Friday — I have a bunch of these again

  • #54-50 of my ACE 100 list

  • AMA answers from a week or two ago

  • A subscriber’s killer music card collection — I keep putting this one off because it’s big and intimidating

  • Amazing ticket collection

📩 Upcoming Newsletters

  • The greatest bobblehead collection I’ve ever seen

  • Swapped jersey patches

  • Missing Caitlin Clark card in Panini checklist?

  • A 25-year wait for a collectible comes to an end

I crossed 1,300 subscribers! Feels like I must be doing something right.

🎬 Channel Highlights From the Past Week

This was my second consecutive week doing “only” three videos. I’m executing my goal of reducing my YouTube footprint and not forcing videos. I’ll cover the things I want to cover, I’ll do Sunday’s Clearing the Bases, and I’ll do mail days. I won’t cover something just for the sake of putting out a video. I started this in 2024 and am taking it to the next level in 2025.

The highlight of the week was easily this video, which got way fewer views than I would have thought:

Links from the article are in the Links section at the bottom of the newsletter.

🎁 My Pickup Of The Week

That Brady from two weeks ago finally arrived, and I’ll probably do a mail day on Monday.

👻 Brief Horror Movie Review of the Week

I’ve always been fascinated by the movies that have opposite reviews between regular viewers and critics. By that I mean when viewers love the movies and critics hate it, or vice versa.

My usual assumption when viewers love it and critics don’t is that the movie is really entertaining but won’t win any awards. That’s my kind of movie.

The opposite is not. When critics love it and viewers don’t, it usually means it’s “deep” and “complex” and takes a lot of thought. I don’t like those movies.

So why did I watch Cuckoo? I don’t know. I got what I should have expected.

It was weird and semi-incomprehensible.

2.5 stars out of 5. And that may be generous.

Health Update

I started a weekly weight loss update in October, but stopped when my scale broke in November. It was perfect timing, because Thanksgiving and Christmas were right around the corner, and I didn’t hold back.

Now I’m ready to start it up again, after weighing myself on January 2nd:

Starting weight: 241.2

Current weight: 235.4

Weight lost: 5.8 pounds (2.4%)

Goal weight: 210

Loss required: 31.2 pounds, or 12.9%

Good first 10 days. I’m motivated and feeling good. Easy to forget, though, that the first few pounds are the easiest.

From my Saturday video:

He’s the N.F.L. Player. She Gets the Autograph Requests (I signed up for NYT Games to play with my 15-year-old and now we apparently have a NYT subscription? This is a gift link and I hope it works.)

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