One of KAT’s latest finds on the trading card circuit was up to scratch and then some.
Already making a hefty payday with the New York Knicks, Karl-Anthony Towns landed an extra $72,000 through his auction of a rare baseball card featuring Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. A report from Larry Holder of The Athletic stated that the five-figure price is the largest ever paid for a card depicting Yamamoto, the 2025 MLB All-Star and World Series MVP.
Having built a strong metropolitan following in his first year as a New Yorker, Towns has garnered another fanbase in the card-collecting community. His following has gotten to the point where Towns has started separate Instagram and YouTube accounts for his hobby, which features him opening packs of cards and more.
The page is known as “Big Bodega Cards,” partly referencing one of the nicknames he has obtained from his relatively short time as a Knick.
The Knicks All-Star recently came across a valuable find in a card depicting the Yamamoto, which contained a piece of a game-worn jersey. Towns was giddy over his find but opted to find a new home for it due to his devotion to the New York Yankees, who fell to Yamamoto’s Dodgers in the 2024 World Series.
“I’m just a Yankee fan; that’s really it,” Towns said as he prepared for a Saturday game against the Orlando Magic, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. “Sometimes, someone will appreciate the card more than I will, and I want to make sure that’s how the story went.”
Already renowned for his professional work in his native Japan, Yamamoto has earned a World Series with the Dodgers in each of his first two seasons in America. Yamamoto merchandise is expected to grow in demand following his fantastic fall, which culminated in his aforementioned MVP effort in the Fall Classic against the Toronto Blue Jays.
During the seven-game tilt with Toronto, Yamamoto pitched a complete game on the road to help Los Angeles knot up the series after the Blue Jays took the opener. He would return to get the win in the penultimate sixth game before pitching 2.2 scoreless innings with no days’ rest in the Game 7 finale. He became the first pitcher to win the World Series MVP title since Madison Bumgarner did so for the San Francisco Giants in 2014.
All that and more was enough to win the admiration of Towns, himself a former baseball player before committing himself to the hardwood.
“I think the world of him as a player,” Towns said in Bondy’s report. “I love watching him pitch, one of the best in the game. Especially as a pitcher growing up, it’s always great when you see the best go out there and play chess with some of the best hitters in the world.”
