SEATTLE — A baseball player’s locker in a clubhouse can often be a snapshot in their personality or hobbies.
For Seattle Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez, his locker is often littered with anime figurines, symbolizing his love for the television genre.
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In the locker room next to Rodriguez’s is Dominic Canzone‘s. And he has his own hobby that’s on full display.
When the Mariners returned home to T-Mobile Park ahead of a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, several Pokemon cards and boxes (some of them graded by Professional Sports Authenticator) were on full display.
True to any card collector, Canzone also had multiple cases to store his cards.
Card collecting, even Pokemon collecting, isn’t rare in the baseball world. Milwaukee Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski has created several headlines over the past several weeks for his hobby collecting Pokemon cards.
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For Canzone, the hobby started around the COVID-19 pandemic and his younger brother got him back involved in the hobby.
“My brother got me back into it during COVID,” Canzone said in an interview before the M’s 5-1 win against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday. “The 151 set was huge. Just the basic (Generation one) and getting back into that type of stuff. So that was definitely the first time I got into it. I wish I would have kept a little more (cards) sealed. But it was still fun to rip with him.”
Generation one refers to the Pokemon featured in the first generation of Pokemon games, and 151 refers to the number of Pokemon in the original video games, which came out in 1998 in the U.S.
Canzone, like many other “90s babies,” grew up with the Pokemon games. He grew up playing the Gameboy games. He grew up with games like Pokemon Red and Emerald, which featured two of his favorite Pokemon the cover art: Charizard and Rayquaza, respectively.
Seattle Mariners designated hitter Dominic Canzone celebrates at second after hitting a double against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. | Joe Nicholson/Imagn Images.
Outside of trading cards, Canzone also took part in the Pokemon Go craze, but his Pokemon-related activities have been almost exclusively tied to the cards.
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There’s been little crossover between Canzone’s hobby and Rodriguez’s, but the two have found a mutual interest.
One Piece, one of Rodriguez’s favorite animes, and one he frequently represents, has it’s own trading card game and Canzone has taken interest.
“I haven’t watched One Piece at all,” Canzone said. “But I have got into some Luffy cards. One of my buddies back home also is big into One Piece. So we’ve sent some One Piece cards into PSA for submission. So I got into that a little bit. I think the cards look cool. But yeah, a little bit of crossover.”
PSA is one of the top card authenticator’s in the world and graded the quality and condition of trading cards.
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Canzone’s Pokemon card hobby has also given him appreciation for those that collect baseball cards and an extra sense of enjoyment when he does participate in signings.
“Whenever I do some sort of signing or signing event or whatever, done one in (DJ’s Sports Cards in Renton, Wash.), that was pretty fun. Just getting the appreciation for the fans coming in and getting some autographs is always cool.”
One of his teammates on Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic, Jac Caglianone, is big into baseball cards, and Canzone has started to take part in that too.
Canzone said one of his best “pulls” recently came on the baseball side of things, and it featured several players Seattle will see in a series from July 28-30, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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“We went to a Topps Fanatics event, and I got a ‘Redemption to Five’ (Shohei Ohtani), (Yoshinobu Yamamoto) and (Roki Sasaki), so I’m still waiting on that. I think one of them still has to sign it. So we’re waiting for that to get redeemed. And I have no clue what to even do with it. I don’t collect baseball a ton, so I don’t even know where to begin with it, because I know it’s a pretty big card.”
In addition to finding great luck with the cards, Canzone also found success in his most recent game.
In the M’s’ 5-1 win against the D-backs on Saturday, Canzone went 2-for-4 with a home run, a double, an RBI and a run.
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