Jimmy McGill, who later transforms into Saul Goodman, has always had a passion for scams, schemes, and quick money. This entrepreneurial spirit came from his upbringing in Cicero, Illinois where he learned the art of the hustle at a young age. While others his age were focusing on playing baseball or collecting baseball cards, Jimmy had his sights set on more unconventional pursuits.
Baseball was still very much part of his world growing up in the 1950s and 60s. He vividly remembers seeing other kids swapping and comparing their baseball cards on the playground, in the lunchroom, and at little league games. The colorful images of ballplayers past and present fascinated him even if collecting cards was not his main hobby. He admired the skill and statistics listed on the back of the cards but was more interested in what hustles the cards themselves could enable.
Jimmy started to take a keen interest in the trading aspect of baseball cards. He learned very quickly that certain cards were more valuable than others based on the ballplayer’s reputation and playing stats. Rookie cards or cards featuring star players consistently fetched the best trades. What intrigued Jimmy the most was how subjective value really was. With the right sales pitch, he figured even the most common cards could be traded up for something better.
His first experiment came at a little league game when he noticed two boys intensely swapping and arguing over their Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays rookie cards. Sensing an opportunity, Jimmy casually inserted himself into their negotiation. Playing the role of a neutral referee, he was able to cleverly overhype the value of more obscure cards in his own collection. Before they knew it, the two boys had unknowingly traded both their prized rookie cards to Jimmy in exchange for boxes of far more commonplace cards. He had just pulled off his first baseball card hustle at age 10.
From that point on, Jimmy refined his baseball card game. He learned every stat, story, and fun fact to enhance the perceived value of even the most meager cards. By the time he was in junior high, he had amassed an impressive collection not by luck of openings but by skill of bartering. Kids around school knew not to trade with “Slidey Jimmy” unless they got the better end of the deal. He embraced his reputation as the school’s baseball card shark.
While the other boys careers focused on actually playing baseball, Jimmy’s career remained in scamming off the pastime. After a knee injury sidelined his baseball dreams, he leaned even harder into his baseball card hustles. Rumors spread of his ability to flip literally any card for cash or high-value exchanges. Stories were shared of naive traders leaving happy, only to later realize they had been duped out of hidden gems. Jimmy was building his reputation as a master negotiator and salesman from the ground up.
In his early adult years after leaving Cicero, Jimmy’s love of quick schemes led him down a long path of small-time scams and cons. One constant thread through it all was his connection to baseball and obsession with high-profile trades. Even after his collection was long grown, he found ways to use baseball cards as props or bartering chips in various hustles. His natural gift for exaggeration and chipping away at people’s risk assessment served him well.
It’s no surprise then that when developing the character of Jimmy McGill into the smooth-talking criminal lawyer Saul Goodman, the writers cleverly incorporated baseball card references throughout. These nods to his childhood define pivotal moments that cement Saul as a man who has always been hustling. Whether flashbacks to young Jimmy or present-day moments as Saul, baseball cards highlight how far he has come from a small-time cardshark to a major league conman.
In one memorable scene, Jimmy uses a baseball card showing obscure 1950s player “Sherm” to persuade elderly clients that he genuinely cares about their case. It’s a ruse to guilt them into hiring him but demonstrates Jimmy still has baseball card tricks up his sleeve. In another flashback, teenage Jimmy trades a prized Hank Aaron rookie for a beat-up Volkswagen, cleverly playing on the car’s nostalgia rather than its condition. Even when practising law as Saul, he keeps a binder of baseball cards at hand, always staying sharp on an obscure stat to charm a potential client or dupe an opponent in court.
Perhaps the most poignant baseball card reference comes during a pivotal moment in the Breaking Bad timeline. While waiting to meet potential client Walter White, Saul spots a young boy and trades him a pristine Ken Griffey Jr. rookie for a dusty bottle rocket. It’s a microcosm of how far Saul/Jimmy has come from a small-time dealer to a criminal kingpin in a much bigger game. Baseball cards may have been Jimmy’s first hustle but they remain symbolic of who he truly is at his core – a salesman who will never stop making the deal.
From childhood card schemes to law career cons as Saul, baseball cards represent Jimmy McGill’s origin story and lifelong hustler ethos. They are woven into the fabric of his character transformation throughout Better Call Saul. Even as he climbs to more illicit dealings, the simple cardboard collecting of his youth maintains a nostalgic through-line. In a twisted way, Jimmy’s baseball card history humanizes the slippery criminal we love to root for in Saul Goodman. They highlight that no matter how far he has come, he will always be the same scrappy kid scraping together hustles on the playground. For Jimmy, it seems his passion was never truly the cards themselves – it was always the art of the deal.
