E. Powell Miller's baseball card collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Just in time for opening day, a new art exhibition comprised of baseball memorabilia valued by its owner at more than $5 million opened this week at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

E. Powell Miller, a former partner at Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn who left Big Law more than two decades ago to start his own class action firm just outside the Motor City, donated almost all of the material being used in “Play Ball: Baseball at the DIA,” an exhibit that opened on March 29, the same day as the start of Major League Baseball's 2018 season.

Miller, who calls himself a “huge fan” of the Detroit Tigers, said that like many young boys he began collecting baseball cards as a kid. The habit waned during his teenage years, but about 20 years ago—right around the time he set out on his own to begin pursuing big class action cases—Miller set a goal to build “one of the best [baseball card] collections in the world.”

That process involved obtaining all 524 cards of the famed T206 set, a collection containing a rare card of Hall of Famer Honus Wagner that was placed into tobacco packages between 1909 and 1911. The cards are extremely valuable. In 2016, a T206 Wagner card sold for $3.12 million at auction. That card and the T206 set, as well as some other materials that Miller has acquired related to his beloved Tigers, have now made their way into the DIA exhibit.

Miller, whose firm is based in Rochester, Michigan, approached the DIA about potentially displaying his collection after reading about a similar exhibition of baseball cards at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Miller's collection, which has previously received accolades from professional memorabilia authenticators, has long sought a home outside his law office.

“It feels great that it is now in one of the best art museums in the U.S.,” said Miller about the DIA, whose own valuables were preserved by his former firm during Detroit's municipal bankruptcy a few years ago. “I was told they had to take down original Monet's to make room for the collection.”

As for the Tigers, a team looking at a rebuilding year in 2018, Miller is optimistic as the franchise takes the field Friday following a rainout the day before.

“Hope springs eternal!” he said.