Man Gives His Whole 25,000 Baseball Card Collection To 9-Year Old Who Lost Hers In A Fire

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A 9-year old girl was heartbroken after she lost her beloved baseball card collection in a fire that ravaged her house and many other homes in her neighborhood. Reese Osterberg had been collecting her cards since she was just 6-years old, and over three years she was able to amass at least 100 cards in total. It was a number that she was incredibly proud of too.


According to her mom, whenever Reese was watching a game on television, especially if it was a game where her favorite baseball team, the SF Giants, were playing, she would pull out her cards and put the corresponding players in position alongside the game. And even when there’s no game showing, Reese spends her time sharing her baseball love with her good friends and fellow baseball lovers Grayson and Emmett, or with her sister Rylee.

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Her mom Amy even shared, “She loves learning about the players. She loves talking about the players.” Even Reese herself said, “I like baseball cards because they are pictures of people doing happy stuff. Doing what they love. And what I love.”

So when the California’s forest fires reached her hometown of County Creek in Fresno, and moreover the Osterberg home in Pine Ridge, the family was forced to evacuate their home, leaving most of their possessions behind. Reese only managed to bring her baseball mitt with her, probably not believing that they would lose their house. But when that went up in flames, so did her precious card collection, and along with it, a piece of little Reese’s heart.

After hearing about the devastation to their home, Reese asked her mother, “Mom, did Dad get my baseball cards?” When Amy told her “no,” she was devastated. Her uncle, knowing how much those cards meant to Reese, headed straight to the hobby store to pick her up a new pack of cards and a binder to put them in, a little something to help soothe the pain of losing her prized collection for the time being.

Reese even shared with media, “I was sad because I’m a huge fan. My favorite was Buster Posey. I like him because he’s the catcher.”

Unfortunately for the young athlete, she was helpless to the loss of her collection. She even decided to write Posey a letter, telling him what had happened to her cards in the Creek fire, as well as sharing with him that she’s his biggest fan.

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Her mom didn’t know how to get the letter to either Posey or the Giants, so she decided to send it to a friend in law enforcement, and this is when the story went viral. The CAL FIRE / Fresno County Fire Facebook page put out a post sharing that Reese and her two friends Grayson and Emmett had lost all of her baseball cards in the fires when her dad forgot to save them, calling it the “Step Up To The Plate” Baseball Card Drive.

In fact, the post even wrote, “We can’t wait to see who will ‘step up to the plate’ and donate baseball cards to these fantastic children.” And after word reached the radio stations, soon enough, donations began pouring in, but one was going to be way more generous than the others.

When Kevin Ashford from San Jose heard about what had happened, and the drive to collect baseball cards for the kids, he knew exactly how he could help. Incredibly, Ashford had over 25,000 cards that he had stored and organized in his home garage. And it wasn’t just any baseball card collection, it was one that he had been collecting since the 90s. He also claimed that his collection is probably worth somewhere between $35,000 to $50,000.

Ashford told the media, “I got to thinking about what I have out here in the garage. I thought, you know what, rather than sell these on eBay, I’m just going to donate them. I’m gonna donate with all and put a smile on a little girl’s face.”

When the Osterberg family found out about the donation, they couldn’t’ believe it! They also didn’t know how to give their thanks either. When Amy told Reese about Mr. Ashford’s stunning donation, she said “Mom, my mind just exploded.” To which Ashford eventually explained, “My intention is just to make a little girl happy,” which he obviously did. And to make matters even sweeter, Reese even got to speak to her baseball hero Posey via Zoom.

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By the time Mr. Ashton and Reese finally spoke on the phone, Reese told him something that made him feel like his decision to give her all his cards was the right one. He shared, “When she told me that she used to sit with her binder of baseball cards in front of the TV watching baseball, I knew I had made the right decision. Because that’s exactly what I used to do as a kid.”

Considering that 25,000 is a crazy amount of cards to keep, Reese and her mom Amy decided to give away some of them to Reese’s friends and teammates. They also decided to use some of them to send with notes of encouragement to kids in the Children’s Hospital of Central California. Reese explained, “When someone does something nice for you, it’s important to do nice things for other people, too.”

Also, Reese and Mr. Ashford have already made plans to attend a Giants game together after the pandemic when things are safer in order to watch Reese’s favorite player, Posey.


Amy also shares that the family is hoping to share more of their happiness with the other families in the community that have lost their jobs and worse, their homes, in the Creek Fire. They intend to have a socially distanced pizza and baseball card party at the Sierra Junior and Senior High School where Reese’s dad, Sean, happens to be the principal.

Amy shared, “It would be fun for them to do after everything that’s happened. I know for Reese, she’s super excited about sharing all of them.”

Meanwhile, the Osterbergs are currently living in the grandparents’ home in Clovis, attempting to build their lives again after losing almost all of their belongings. But what this extensive baseball card collection has brought their family is more than a compilation of cards, it’s a sense of normalcy for a family that has been so devastated from the fires.

According to Amy, seeing Reese checking out her cards means so much more though. In fact she shares, “that’s just her way to say, ‘Doesn’t matter what’s happening – this is normal for me to sit and study my cards.” And it’s really a way to help her know that her family is going to be alright.

 

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