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When a friend from Oakwood texted former Illini great Darrin Fletcher a picture of Tom Brady’s baseball card that netted $158,600 in an online auction last weekend, his initial reaction was “I’ve seen that picture before.”
It showed Brady with a catcher’s mitt in a uniform of the Montreal Expos, who drafted the California multi-sport prep star in the 18th round in 1995. But, Fletcher thought to himself, “I’m pretty sure that’s my body.”
Yep, Fletcher found the picture of him with the Expos — he starred for the team from 1992-97 — and compared it to Brady’s: An almost-perfect match, with the NFL great’s face and No. 12 superimposed on Fletcher’s 20-something body.
“Everyone told me: Maybe you have a case to make,” said the good-natured Fletcher, impressed that a baseball card of someone who never played the sport beyond high school would net so much. “But I thought it was kind of cool. I think it’s funny.”
When the Expos drafted Brady, they invited him to meet the team’s big league catchers in the clubhouse before a game in San Francisco. Fletcher doesn’t remember much of his face-to-face with the legend, but was reminded of the encounter this week.
Nearly 30 years later, they share a baseball card — an expensive one at that. Don’t think friends and family haven’t given Fletcher the business about it, either.
“My wife said putting his face on top of mine was an improvement,” he said.
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