Pirates ace Paul Skenes meets young fans at baseball card event in North Hills

When you have an opportunity to meet Paul Skenes, you take it.

That was the collective mindset of the 145 children who attended a Skenes-hosted trading card event at Dick’s House of Sport on Friday morning in Ross Township.

Before Skenes arrived, the preselected kids played on the outside turf field connected to the store. Although the children played cornhole, basketball, soccer and other games while waiting for Skenes to appear, it was tough for them to pass the time because of their excitement to meet the Pirates ace.

Skenes was glad to help host the event at the site where his 1-of-1 autographed rookie debut patch card, which Dick’s bought at auction for $1.11 million in March, is displayed. Friday marked the first time Skenes saw the card in person.

“It’s really cool to keep it in the city of Pittsburgh (to) kind of keep it in the family, if you will. I really like that they’re sharing it with the public and allowing everybody to see it and come look at it,” Skenes said. “Because there are a lot of people that are really into cards. And so this is a big one, I guess. So being able to share it with them is, I think, a really cool, classy move.”

Many of the 6- to 13-year-olds at the event were eager to meet Skenes, including Brett Buskey, 10, of Hampton. Buskey’s favorite MLB player is Skenes, a common choice among the attendees.

“I kind of want to trade cards with Skenes because I have this card of Nolan Ryan,” Buskey said. “He’s a really good pitcher, so I’m thinking that I might be able to get something good.”

Fortunately for Buskey, he did not have to give up that card. Every kid received a Skenes-signed card and a drawstring bag containing a foam hand, a baseball and three packs of Topps trading cards.

Once Skenes got outside, he held a short question-and-answer session, then the kids opened their card packs and competed in a game.

Skenes announced a category like lightest weight or tallest player. Whoever had the most fitting Topps card received a ticket, which allowed the winners to potentially take home an assortment of other prizes.

“When Dick’s Sporting Goods purchased his debut card, that was one of the things that we were really interested in is getting him here to have an event with members of the community and celebrate all the awesome things that he’s been doing,” Dick’s field marketing manager Maureen Lawrence said.

Skenes briefly collected cards as a 6- to 8-year-old Angels fan in Lake Forest, Calif., his hometown.

“The one (card) for me would have been Mike Trout, but I stopped collecting (when Trout debuted). … I wasn’t looking for names or anything like that,” Skenes said. “I think I still have them somewhere, but it’s been a while since I opened a pack.”

“One reason that I don’t collect cards is because I’m playing with these people,” he added. “I’ve played against them, and for me, that’s the coolest part about it. … So I think I have a different view on cards than most other people.”

Skenes looked forward to the trip to Ross Park Mall because it allowed him to be a presence in the community. It reminded him that he is grateful young fans look up to him.

“Our job is to play baseball and go to the field and, you know, pitch well and hit well in games and all that. This is something that, obviously, is not on the field, but it’s because of what we do on the field, and stuff like this is cool. … Obviously, the debut card is here. So it’s kind of different than anything I’ve done before,” Skenes said. “And I think this makes it more personal for a lot of people. So being able to do that and experience that, and hopefully, give 100 or so kids an experience is cool.”