Sportswriter raises $57,000 for charity by auctioning off his signed baseball cards

Chris Cotillo's love of baseball is benefiting more than 35 nonprofits across the United States.

Cotillo writes about the Boston Red Sox for MassLive.com. Growing up, he used to go to card shows and games to have his favorite baseball players sign their cards and pictures. He has a substantial Twitter following, and on Easter, Cotillo decided to auction off a Mike Trout card for charity. It went for $1,310, which Cotillo donated to the Second Harvest Food Bank in Southern California.

Since then, Cotillo has sold more than 350 items, raising over $57,000 for dozens of organizations. While looking through his collection and deciding what to auction off, "a lot of cool memories" have been coming back, Cotillo told The Associated Press, but the items are still "better in the hands of people that are going to appreciate them." He has also received donations, including a signed Xander Bogaerts jersey from the Red Sox, and has inspired other sports reporters, like the NFL Network's Mike Giardi, to hold similar auctions; Giardi has raised more than $20,000 for charity.

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