'The Card Life'
Growing up in Fargo, N.D., Matt Strahm collected trading cards of Minnesota Twins greats Kirby Puckett and Torii Hunter as well as North Dakota legend Darin Erstad.
It wasn’t until after the 2018 Major League Baseball season that Strahm, a pitcher for the San Diego Padres, started opening hobby boxes with his brother.
“He brought one of those Mega Boxes (Topps Chrome Update) home from Target, and that’s all it took,” Strahm said. “I felt 12 years old again. I’ve been opening cards probably every three days since.”
Strahm never imagined his love for collecting would turn into a side job.
With his passion for cards, Strahm was chosen as the host of the new broadcast television show “The Card Life,” which debuted on Sinclair Regional Sports Networks (mostly Bally Sports stations) on June 25.
“The Card Life” producer/director Brandon Verzal reached out to Strahm in February to ask him if he was interested in hosting the show.
“It was literally, ‘Hey, do you want to get paid to travel around the country and look at cards?’” Strahm said. “Who wouldn’t want that?”
“The Card Life” is the brainchild of Verzal, who has produced and directed similar television shows in the past for regional sports networks. Verzal, the co-founder of V2 Content with his wife, Tiffany, concocted the idea for the show about two years ago. He waited until the optimal time to pitch it to executives at Sinclair Regional Sports Networks.
“I felt like there was momentum
