⚾ Autographed/Signed Paul Skenes Rawlings Official Major League ROML Baseball JSA & MLB COA — The Dual-Authenticated Hand-Signed Official Game Ball of the Pittsburgh Pirates Pitcher Who Arrived in the Major Leagues in 2024 as the Most Anticipated Starting Pitcher Debut in a Generation, the Louisiana State University Ace Drafted First Overall in 2023 Who Made the All-Star Game in His First Big League Season and Immediately Established Himself as One of the Transformative Pitching Talents of His Era

✨ The Paul Skenes signed Rawlings Official Major League Baseball comes with not one but two Certificates of Authenticity — from the James Spence Authentication organization and from Major League Baseball Authentication itself — a dual-COA combination that represents the highest level of authentication documentation available for signed baseball memorabilia. JSA's examination process involves direct comparison of the submitted signature against their database of verified exemplars; the MLB Authentication hologram is applied at the signing event and tied to a specific trackable certificate that connects the signature to the authentication record permanently. The Rawlings ROML baseball that carries Skenes's signature is the actual official game ball that Major League Baseball uses in every game — the full-grain leather cover, raised red cotton stitching, and cork-and-rubber center that the Rawlings brand has manufactured to league specifications across decades. Paul Skenes's signature on the sweet spot of a Rawlings ROML ball is the autograph of a pitcher on the baseball that is the primary instrument of his craft.

⚾ Paul Robert Skenes was born May 29, 2002, in Lake Forest, California — the affluent North Shore suburb of Chicago? Actually, Lake Forest, California — the city in Orange County in the Saddleback Valley. Wait, I should be careful here. Let me stick to what I know with confidence: Skenes is from California and attended Air Force Academy for one year before transferring to Louisiana State University, where he became one of the most dominant college pitchers in recent history.

⚾ At Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Paul Skenes pitched for the Tigers in 2022 and 2023 — joining after a year at the Air Force Academy — and proceeded to produce one of the most statistically dominant two-year pitching performances in the history of college baseball. His fastball velocity, which touched triple digits and maintained elite velocity across multiple innings, combined with a breaking ball that generated swing-and-miss rates that made opposing lineups look overmatched, earned him recognition not just as the best pitcher in college baseball but as one of the most coveted pitching prospects to enter the draft process in a generation. The LSU Tigers won the 2023 College World Series championship in Omaha with Skenes as their ace, the culmination of a college career that had already established him as a likely first overall pick.

⚾ The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Skenes first overall in the 2023 MLB Draft — one of the most consensus first overall picks in recent memory, a player whose skill level was so clearly superior to the rest of the draft class that debate centered not on whether he was the right choice but on how quickly he would reach the major leagues and what his ceiling looked like when he got there. The answer to the first question was less than a year: Skenes debuted for Pittsburgh in May 2024, making his first major league start in front of a crowd that had circled the date on their calendars, and the performance confirmed what the scouting reports had been building toward. His 2024 season included selection to the NL All-Star team — the first appearance of a rookie starter in the All-Star Game in years — and earned him the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year Award, the unanimous recognition of what the baseball world had witnessed across his first big league campaign. Condition: NOS.

⚾ Paul Skenes. California. Air Force Academy. Louisiana State University. 2023 College World Series Champion. 2023 MLB Draft, 1st Overall Pick. Pittsburgh Pirates. Starting Pitcher. 2024 NL All-Star. 2024 NL Rookie of the Year. Rawlings ROML. JSA & MLB COA. Hall of Fame Sports Memorabilia. Condition: NOS.