⚾ Graded 2023 Panini Stars & Stripes USA Paul Skenes #87 Rookie RC Baseball Card — PSA 10 GEM MINT — Pittsburgh Pirates — 1st Overall Pick, 2023 MLB Draft — Lake Forest, California — LSU Tigers

⚾ When Paul Skenes took the mound in Pittsburgh for his major league debut in May 2024, the expectations attached to him were the kind that follow only the rare combination of a 1st overall draft pick, an elite college pitching pedigree, and the kind of triple-digit velocity that scouts describe in terms of what they've seen across decades of professional evaluation. The 2023 Panini Stars & Stripes USA #87 Paul Skenes rookie card graded PSA 10 GEM MINT captures the moment immediately before that professional story began — a card from his USA Baseball chapter, from the period when Skenes was competing in international college-level competition wearing the red, white, and blue, before the Pittsburgh Pirates made him the first player taken in the 2023 MLB Draft. Condition: NOS.

🌟 Lake Forest, California — A Pitcher Built for This Moment

🌟 Paul Skenes was born on May 29, 2002, in Lake Forest — a city in Orange County, in the Saddleback Valley area of Southern California, in a region whose combination of year-round pitching weather, competitive travel baseball infrastructure, and proximity to high school and collegiate programs that have historically developed major league arms gave Skenes the development environment that elite starting pitchers require. From Lake Forest, Skenes developed the fastball velocity, the breaking ball depth, and the command profile that made him not just a top prospect but the consensus number-one overall player available in the 2023 MLB Draft. Condition: NOS.

🏆 LSU Tigers — The College Career That Made the Draft Case

🏆 Paul Skenes pitched for the LSU Tigers — a program in the Southeastern Conference, one of the most competitive college baseball environments in the country, where pitching against SEC lineups provides the best available preparation for professional-level opposing offenses. Skenes's performance at LSU placed him in the conversation as one of the most dominant college pitchers in the country, with velocity readings and strikeout rates that supported the argument that he was ready to project at the major league level with a timeline shorter than most pitching prospects. LSU's 2023 College World Series championship gave Skenes the team hardware to accompany his individual performance metrics when the MLB Draft evaluation finalized. Condition: NOS.

💎 PSA 10 GEM MINT — The Highest Grade on a Stars & Stripes Rookie

💎 The 2023 Panini Stars & Stripes USA product features players who represented USA Baseball in college-level international competition — the national program that bridges the gap between elite college prospects and the professional draft. Paul Skenes's #87 in this set is a documented rookie card from this product line, and the PSA 10 GEM MINT grade means that this specific example exhibits perfect centering, four pristine corners, clean edges, and a completely defect-free surface on both front and back — the complete condition package that the grading market assigns to the top tier of any card's condition spectrum. Condition: NOS.

⚾🌟 Paul Skenes. Lake Forest, California. LSU Tigers. 2023 College World Series champion. Pittsburgh Pirates, 1st overall pick, 2023 MLB Draft. 2023 Panini Stars & Stripes USA #87 Rookie RC. PSA 10 GEM MINT. Condition: NOS.