There’s no baseball. Not yet, anyway. That isn’t stopping one team and one local police department from pushing out a set of baseball cards.
Pirates Charities, in partnership with Topps and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Officers, have launched the 2020 Pirates Charities Pittsburgh Police Baseball Card Program. The set features Pirates players and police officers on trading cards used to encourage positive youth behavior.
The cards are based on the 2020 Topps design and will be given to Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Officers to distribute to youth throughout the summer as a reward and incentive for positive actions and attitude.
The program dates back to 2012, with Pirates Charities providing the funding to print thousands of cards each year. This year, the Pirates’ philanthropic arm also worked with Topps on the project.
There are six baseball cards in all, each featuring a different Pirates player and a different officer. The front of the cards features an action shot of Pirates Chris Archer, Josh Bell, Adam Frazier, Keone Kela, Bryan Reynolds orTrevor Williams. The back of each card features one City of Pittsburgh Police officer with a quote from Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
The cards were in an online video conference call with Pirates President Travis Williams, members of law enforcement, Topps representatives, Kela, Pirates play-by-play broadcaster Joe Block and others.
The launch of the Baseball Card program takes place in coordination with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police’s “Need a Mask, Take a Mask” initiative, a program assisting Pittsburgh residents obtain free face masks if they do not have them.
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