Minneapolis – Enter any major-league clubhouse, and it’s not uncommon to find a card collector or two. The Minnesota Twins have had eight to nine players in their clubhouse at a given time this season who are big into card collecting, whether it’s sports or trading cards.
“We obviously are in the clubhouse together all the time and just focused around baseball on the field, how we prep and stuff like that,” said former Twins reliever Justin Topa early in May. “But to kind of get away and spend time with them to see what everyone’s hobbies are, it makes it fun to go through everybody’s collection.”
Card collecting hit a resurgence in 2020, when everyone was staying home to avoid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Six years later, the hobby resurgence hasn’t slowed down. Increasingly more people are diving into collecting sports cards from MLB, NBA, NFL, and even the WNBA and PWHL. When it comes to non-sports cards, Pokémon is king, with Magic: The Gathering and popular manga-turned-trading-card, One Piece, not far behind.
At the start of the 2025 season, Topa – whom the Twins designated for assignment on May 19 and released on May 23 – had been the primary baseball card collector in the Twins clubhouse. As the season continued last year, more players joined in on the hobby: Kody Clemens, Mick Abel, Kody Funderburk, and Travis Adams, to name a few.
Those five names, along with rookie Andrew Morris, make up the baseball card collectors in the clubhouse. Abel and Clemens, along with Anthony Banda and Bailey Ober, are the big Pokémon collectors on the Twins this season.
Almost all of these players, except Clemens, had their lockers on the same side of the Twins clubhouse this season, which has earned them their own nickname among the team.
“I think Topa called it Murder’s Row of Cards,” said Morris. “It’s kind of our row there because every day we come back from the road trip, and everybody has cards. And I had a bunch of stuff, he had a bunch of stuff, everybody. So yeah, it’s cool to be able to show it off together, it’s special for sure.”
While they may not be setting home run records as the 1927 Yankees did, the Twins ‘Murder’s Row’ of Cards can certainly make an argument as MLB’s leaders in packs ripped per day.
Not that long ago, card collecting was more of a private thing among MLB clubhouses, which was the case for Banda when he was first coming into the league in 2017. He had still been collecting sparingly on the side. However, while with the Dodgers in 2024 and 2025, he and a few teammates were big into Pokémon and made it much more open about it.
“It kind of breaks the ice, a conversation starter,” said Banda. “And getting to know your teammates a little bit deeper than what you know on the surface. So I think it’s very valuable, honestly, just connecting and growing relationships with your teammates and enjoying the little things you enjoyed as a kid.”
“It’s just been a nostalgia type thing, but it’s cool, there are some other guys that I didn’t even know they collected that stuff,” said Clemens. “But it’s been cool to see all the guys are coming and bringing in, whether it’s baseball or Pokémon cards, and ripping them in the clubhouse. You kind of see it around the league now. It’s gotten more traction.”
Getting back into the hobby
Each of these players did some form of card collecting or another when they were kids.
For the Pokémon collectors among the Twins, it was all a family affair. Ober started collecting with his younger brother, Drew. For Banda, it was his older brother, Matthew, and his younger brother, Roger. For Abel, it was his dad, Neil, who helped out. All four Clemens brothers – Koby, Kory, Kacey, and Kody – shared Pokémon as a bonding experience, while their dad, Roger, had been collecting baseball cards between his 707 career starts.
Everyone’s interest in Pokémon wasn’t limited to the cards, either. Almost all the Twins who collect now played popular games on Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Nintendo DS, GameCube, Wii, and other consoles. Whatever console carried them back in the day, there’s no question a current Twins pitcher has played it.
“I spent mostly the DS games like, I think I spent the most time on Pearl, Platinum, and then like Heart Gold,” Abel said. “Sometimes I’ll play on my phone, and there will be times I play on my Switch and played Fire Red in spring training because that released, and I ran through that one.”
“It was buying cards or playing the games on my Game Boy or SP,” said Ober. “So yeah, it’s been kind of fun. I’ve started getting my kids into it a few years ago, and they love it too. Watching the anime show, playing the games, or collecting cards, I started buying the packs a few years ago now.”
The main baseball card collectors in the clubhouse reinvigorated their interest through their teammates.
Kansas City Royals reliever Matt Strahm had been a big name nationally in baseball card collecting. His collecting sparked interest in his former Philadelphia Phillies teammates, who are now with the Twins – Abel and Clemens – and got him back into the hobby. For Morris, it was former Saints reliever Ryan Jensen in 2024 on a road trip to Columbus at a card shop just over half a mile from Huntington Field. Card collecting has even helped fellow Twins rookie Connor Prielipp come out of his shell.
“I think my first hobby box I ever bought, I pulled an Elly De La Cruz out of 50 gold rookie, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is sick,’” said Morris. “So then I was hooked, and then I was just deleting money into that, just doing that. That was awesome. Now I’ve kind of matured, and it’s like now I like to buy singles and some packs, not just packs because you just run through money with those.”
“I was just like, why wouldn’t we use the resource to have a cool card collection when we play all these really good players and have really cool teammates, and stuff like that,” said Clemens. “You might as well get a nice card of [Byron] Buxton that’s a rare card or whatever, and have him sign it. You can keep it forever or give it down to your kids.”
Card shopping on road trips
Players need to find things to do whenever they’re on the road. The Twins Murders Row of Card Collecting have been on the lookout for local shops in every road city.
The group’s first big trip was to New York City, when the Twins were in Flushing to face the New York Mets. The group hit a sports card shop first, then a trading card shop filled with Pokémon. The collectors lucked out in Cleveland, where there was a collect-o-con not too far from Progressive Field to check out before games.
“It was cool like to go to the sports card shop and those guys there recognized us, and were like ‘Whoa, what are ya’ll doing here,’” said Clemans, “and we’re like, ‘We’re just wanting to look.’ Topa was just trying to find his own cards, so it was pretty cool in that aspect for sure.”
“I geek out when I’m in those types of environments,” said Banda. “I enjoy them. I feel like a little kid, really, all the time. I get excited seeing vintage cards, cards that bring back memories from my childhood, stuff like that. That’s what really brings that excitement.”
What’s everyone after?
It’s a fairly common sight whenever the Twins play their first game back at Target Field after a road trip to see the Murder’s Row of card collectors opening up boxes filled with cards they ordered off eBay or directly from Topps. After a player opens those boxes, a few others walk over to that player’s locker to see what they have.
Cards are flowing into the Twins clubhouse nearly every week, so what are some of the hot purchases these players are after?
The Pokémon collectors are after their favorites from when they were kids. Banda loves Gengar the most, and even has a tattoo of the Pokémon on one of his heels.
“I like Gengar, for whatever reason,” he said. “I like his backstory, the cards, the illustrations of the cards are pretty sick, so I like him.”
Ober is primarily a Scizor or Charizard collector and will also go after whichever shiny cards catch his kids’ attention whenever they are looking for cards together.
“Right now, it’s a little up in the air,” he said. “I feel like it changes every week. But my oldest son likes Charizard and then some of my other, the other kids, whatever catches their eye, I guess something that looks maybe a little purple, pink on the card, or something that has cool art on it.”
Clemens sticks with the popular ones like Charizard and Pikachu as he rebuilds the collection he and his brothers grew out of as kids. And for Abel, it’s also Gengar or Lugia, and Lucario.
On the baseball card side, most of the players are looking for their own stuff. Morris recently found his one-of-one Bowman SuperFractor auto, and Clemens has slowly been finding his own cards. Still, he’s on the lookout for his dad’s top rookie card from the 1984 Fleer Update set.
“I have a bunch of the other best ones,” said Clemens. “There’s like a top 10 list, and I think I have them all, except for that one in particular. It’s hard to find, honestly.”
And for Abel, his dad, Neil, has been collecting his limited print rainbow cards from Topps and Bowman. However, he’s always on the lookout for Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom, his two favorite pitchers growing up.
While everyone has plenty of work to get done each pre-game, card collecting has been a way to fill the downtime between stretches, bullpens, and BP.
“It definitely keeps the flow going,” said Abel. “I think it’s really important here because if we’re not, pitchers are mostly the ones who collect. We’ve got five days off between every start, or if you’re a reliever, you can be hot any day.
“If you’re really not trying to think about baseball, you’re really just trying to take your mind off of things, it’s a good way of releasing and staying out of the monotony the game can provide sometimes.”
