Twins’ Mick Abel, Royals’ Carter Jensen bond over rare Abel rookie card – InForum

Carter Jensen clutched a pack of baseball cards in his hand, carefully picking up the top one, looking at it, placing it aside and then repeating the process.

When he neared the one with the shiny gold edge, he placed his thumb on the card in front of it and slowly slid it down, prolonging the reveal.

The top of a red cap appeared and then a logo signifying that it was a rookie card came into view. As he lowered his thumb, the card showed a picture of Mick Abel, then with the Philadelphia Phillies, complete with Abel’s signature inked in blue pen.

“That’s sweet,” Jensen, now a rookie catcher for the Kansas City Royals, said in a video that was posted to social media by Best Card Shop in Plainfield, Ind. “Holy smokes.”

The Royals took 3 of 4 in a series between the American League Central rivals at Target Field last weekend.

Jensen, then with the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate, had stopped in the shop after a minor league game against the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Indianapolis affiliate to open some packs of baseball cards. News of the find — Abel’s singular, literally, Topps Superfractor rookie autographed card — didn’t take long to get back to Abel.

Abel was relaxing late one night in August, days after the trade that sent him from the Phillies to the Twins, when his phone started lighting up with people informing him of Jensen’s discovery. Abel, with Triple-A St. Paul at the time, reached out immediately, connected to Jensen by a mutual friend.

Both avid card collectors, there was no doubt in Jensen’s mind where the rare, valuable find belonged. As luck would have it, the St. Paul Saints and Storm Chasers were facing each other the very next week, and the two facilitated a meet-up before a game in Omaha.

“It was pretty cool because I’m big into cards, and I’m looking for all my 1/1s,” Jensen said. “If another player would have drawn mine, I would have appreciated if they would have given it to me, so I try to do the same.”

The price in return?

“Some cash and a baseball,” Abel said.

Underneath his name, Abel wrote “1/1” on the baseball that he gave to Jensen.

“I’m guessing he hasn’t put 1/1 on a ball … so I got another 1/1 for his 1/1,” Jensen said.

It was a small price to pay to get for the most prized card in his collection.

Abel started collecting cards with his dad, Neil, and brother, Theron, as a young child. He stopped for a little while during middle school and high school, but once he was drafted he picked up the hobby again.

Since then, he and his father have been trying to do what they can to collect every one of his cards, starting with his first card from his time with Team USA.

“It was surreal,” he said of seeing himself on a card for the first time. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is the coolest thing ever. I’ve got to get back into this.’ ”

Abel has been at it since then, one of many within the Twins’ clubhouse who is invested in the hobby. Alongside Abel, reliever Justin Topa, who was designated for assignment last month, was a noted collector, and Twins team photographer Brace Hemmelgarn has gathered more than 3,000 baseball cards featuring pictures he has taken.

Abel’s focus now is securing his debut patch card, another 1/1 card, this one featuring the patch that was on his sleeve during his first major league start last May.

The card has been pulled — it was found during an event at a shop in Seattle last December — and Abel has been consistently reaching out to the collector who found it on social media with no success.

The hunt for that card continues, but when and if Abel does get it, it’ll be hard to top the story of how how he acquired his Superfractor rookie auto card.

“Out of everybody that could have pulled it, that was maybe the most perfect scenario of all time,” Abel said. “Cards are near and dear to my dad and I, and my family, and it’s something we’ve always done. So to have that card was pretty special.”