It hasn't been an ideal start to the season for Phillies reliever Pat Neshek. The 37-year-old was placed on the disabled list at the end of March with a shoulder strain, delaying his return to Philadelphia's bullpen.
However, his luck turned around a bit this week.
While stuck inside during a snowstorm in New York this week, Neshek was keeping himself busy by opening some packs of baseball cards when he came across a magical find -- the first in a rare series of autographed Shohei Ohtani rookie cards from the 2018 Topps Heritage set.
Ripping open packs in ny, I found it!!!!!!! Ohtani #'d 1/69 pic.twitter.com/irUdhBOxvL
— Pat Neshek (@PatNeshek) April 2, 2018
Neshek, who is an avid autograph and card collector, seemed to be quite thrilled with the acquisition. He had good reason to be, as the Ohtani card is only one of 69, and it's classification as first in the series makes it even more valuable.
Neshek was so excited, in fact, that he accidentally placed it upside down while rushing to get it inside a protective case.
Im going to give this to my dad to put up on eBay later this week, buy some more cases! Noticed how excited I was and put this in upside down...brutal pic.twitter.com/190RJwiUac
— Pat Neshek (@PatNeshek) April 2, 2018
Apparently, Neshek isn't going to keep the rare find, but rather sell it on eBay, where he should make a pretty penny. Ohtani's autographed memorabilia is a hot seller on the market at the moment, with some of it going for over $5,000. The Angels' 23-year-old two-way rookie was a phenom in Japan before signing with Los Angeles this winter.
Neshek better hope he has as much luck on the bump this season as he's having with his collectibles.
