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By now, it’s no secret that Evan Longoria just pulled off one of the most unexpected crossovers in trading card history—without even realizing it. When the veteran slugger shared a card he recently signed for Topps, collectors everywhere did a collective double take. Yes, it was a bat knob card. Yes, it had his signature. But no, that wasn’t just pine tar on the end of the bat—it was Charizard.

That’s right. One of the most beloved fire-breathing Pokémon of all time made a cameo on a Major League Baseball bat knob, and Topps embedded it straight into the 2025 Tier One set. The result? A sports-meets-nerd-nirvana moment that sent collectors, breakers, and Pokémon fanatics into a full-blown frenzy.

For Alan Narz, owner of Big League Cards in Casselberry, Florida, it wasn’t just cool—it was essential. Narz wasted no time putting out a bounty of $100,000 for the card. That’s right. Six figures for a bat knob.

“I think it belongs at Big League because our primary goal is to be the best sports and Pokémon store in the country,” Narz said. “All of a sudden the best sports and Pokémon card is right there. It’s just perfect. We have to have that card; whatever it takes.”

To be clear, Topps isn’t new to Pokémon—they’ve printed official cards before under the Pokémon brand. But this? This is a mash-up born from the fever dream of a collector who grew up on Game Boys and Topps Chrome. And Narz believes it’s the first MLB-licensed card to feature a Pokémon character—accidentally or otherwise.

For those not neck-deep in card collecting culture, bat knob cards are a niche with serious clout. They take the literal bottom of a game-used bat—yes, the knob—and embed it in a card. Topps has done it with legends like Ruth and Robinson, and with modern stars. But none of those had a fire-type Pokémon watching over their swings.

“When Topps puts that magic dust on a card, everything changes,” Narz added.

Apparently, the internet agreed.

Shortly after Longoria posted the card, a savvy X user spotted a game-used Longoria bat with the same Charizard knob listed on eBay for under $1,000. Enter Doug Caskey, co-founder of Mojobreak and a longtime Longoria devotee.

Caskey didn’t blink. He snapped it up for $700 and posted about the pickup, sparking a fresh wave of buzz.

“I didn't think it was going to get so many comments and likes,” Caskey said. “For us, we have a large Pokémon group, and we are from the Bay Area. That is a really cool piece.”

The Bay Area connection runs deep for Caskey, who is a San Francisco Giants fan—Longoria’s home for five seasons—and was among the many breakers chasing the legendary 2006 Bowman Chrome Longoria Superfractor. That card has never surfaced, turning it into modern hobby folklore. For Mojobreak, it was the original white whale.

“We were always like ‘The Longoria hasn't been pulled!’ We talked about it a lot. It still hasn't been pulled!” Caskey said.

So, does he still want the Charizard bat knob card?

Absolutely.

“It’s the hunt for the Tier One bat relic,” he said. “There's nothing like it. That is not as fun as hunting this card down.”

Only time will tell who ends up with the card—if it ever surfaces publicly at all. Until then, it’s clear that this fire-type relic has already burned its way into hobby history. And for collectors chasing it, it’s more than a card—it’s a quest.