⚾ Graded 2023 Topps Bowman Draft Paul Skenes #BDN7 Draft Night Rookie RC Baseball Card PSA 10 Gem Mint — A Perfect-Grade Bowman Draft Night Rookie Card for the Pittsburgh Pirates' First Overall Pick, the LSU National Champion Whose Debut Season in Professional Baseball in 2024 Was Among the Most Dominant Pitching Arrivals in the Modern Game's History, and Whose Card Captures the Night a Franchise Changed Its Trajectory With the Best Pick Available

⚾ The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Paul Skenes first overall in the 2023 MLB Draft — ahead of Dylan Crews, ahead of every position player and every pitcher in one of the deepest draft classes the sport had seen in years — and the evaluation that produced that selection was grounded in a case for Skenes that was as clear and well-supported as any first-overall argument in recent draft history. The combination of a mid-to-upper 90s fastball that touched triple digits, a slider that was already rated as a plus professional-caliber offering, a splitter that gave him a third true weapon, and the competition-tested experience of performing at the highest level of college baseball at LSU — the program that had won the 2023 College World Series, in which Skenes was a central force — made him the most complete pitching prospect available at the top of the draft.

⚾ He was born on May 29, 2002, in Peoria, Illinois, and developed a background that made him unusual even before he arrived at LSU: he attended the United States Air Force Academy for one year before transferring to Baton Rouge, a detour through one of the country's most demanding academic and military institutions that speaks to the character and discipline behind the right arm that evaluators spent the 2022-23 college season studying. At LSU, under the competition level of the SEC and in the spotlight of the College World Series, he was the pitcher that staff aces are supposed to be in the most important moments — the player who the coaching staff gave the ball to when the season's most significant game was being played.

⚾ What happened when Skenes reached the major leagues in 2024 exceeded even the most optimistic projections. His debut was immediate and dominant — a starting pitcher whose stuff and command at 21 years old matched what evaluators had projected for his late-20s peak, the kind of early-career performance that prompts the baseball world to recalibrate what the standard projections should be for a player of his physical ability and mental makeup. He earned 2024 NL All-Star recognition and the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year Award, becoming the most decorated debut season by a pitcher in the post-Astros-era baseball conversation.

⚾ 2023 Topps Bowman Draft #BDN7 Draft Night RC — PSA 10 Gem Mint

📋 The Draft Night subset within Topps Bowman Draft releases cards timed to the draft itself — the immediate documentation of the player's professional entry, the card that appeared on collector radars at the same moment that Skenes' name was called as the first pick in the 2023 MLB Draft. The #BDN7 designation places him within the Draft Night release, and PSA 10 Gem Mint confirms four perfectly sharp corners, surfaces without print defect, edges without fraying, and centering within the tight parameters that define the top grade on PSA's scale. Condition: NOS.

⚾ Paul Skenes. Pittsburgh Pirates. Peoria, Illinois. Air Force Academy. LSU Tigers. 2023 College World Series Champion. 2023 MLB Draft 1st Overall Pick. 2024 NL All-Star. 2024 NL Rookie of the Year. 2023 Topps Bowman Draft #BDN7 Draft Night Rookie RC. PSA 10 Gem Mint. Hall of Fame Sports Memorabilia. Condition: NOS.