With the 2011 NFL draft just three weeks away, here's our SPEED-break™ of 2011 Press Pass Football cards. Five minutes, five on-card autos, one hundred and forty cards shown.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Bye Bye Manny. Ramirez retires after being notified about an MLB drug policy issue.
Six games into his 19th season in the Major Leagues, Manny Ramirez has announced he is retiring. This is on the heels of his notification of an issue under the MLB's drug policy.
The commissioner's office issued a statement Friday stating that rather than go through MLB's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, Ramirez decided to retire. There was no announcement whether or not Ramirez tested positive for a banned substance, but Manny has previously served a 50-game suspension for violating the drug policy while he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
So Manny will end his career as a 12 time All-Star selection, 9 time Silver Slugger Award winner, 2 time Hank Aaron Award winner, 2 time World Series champion wining the World Series Most Valuable Player Award in 2004, and having led the AL in batting average in 2002, home runs in 2004 and RBI’s in 1999.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Short Print Cam Newton and Very Short Print Ryan Mallett to be found in 2011 SAGE HIT High Series Football
2011 is turning out to be the year of the SP and the SSP. We were one of the first to spot the Alex Rodriguez mirror image SSP’s and have kept you up to date on all the other 2011 Topps Heritage short prints and variations.
We just did a Box Break of 2011 SAGE HIT High Series Football and noticed something odd, almost another mirror card. Take a look.
It’s not a mirror, but definitely a variation of card number 100 as you can see from the back.
The Cameron Newton with the orange stripe on his sleeve, the one with him on the right side of the card is a short print. But why is does the SP of Cam Newton exist?
When SAGE was going to print, they were missing one image, one for a pre-rookie card. That left a blank space on the printing form. To make their deadline, instead of leaving the space blank, they filled it with a 2nd base card version of the Cam Newton. Kinda of a win-win situation, nothing gets wasted and collectors wind up being able to chase a short print of a player who is scheduled to be an early pick in the draft, if not the first pick.
The image was used on the opposite side (right side) of the card to allow the SP to be easily identified. So the base card SP should have about the same printing numbers as the Pre-Rookie cards.
But what about the Pre-Rookie card that wasn’t printed?
The missing image was of Ryan Mallett, another player who is scheduled to be an early pick in the draft. That image was eventually found but it was too late to put in the regular print. The Pre-Rookie Ryan Mallett card (#PR6) was printed digitally, which takes far less time than conventional printing. But it was printed at an even lesser number than the other Pre-Rookie cards, making it a very short print. Here is a look at the card.
The Mallett SSP was inserted in the boxes of 2011 SAGE HIT High Series Football randomly at the last minute.
So be on the look out for both of these cards.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
The Power of the Internet. When one Tweet leads to another, great things can happen.
When people talk about the power of the Internet, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the technology and forget that it really is just an access tool. A tool that enables one to reach vast numbers of people, but only as powerful as the character of those you reach.
You are reading this blog post, which has power in numbers. Some of you come by way of our Facebook page and even more of you follow us on Twitter. Through tweets of 140 characters or less, the mundane can be passed on or the seriousness of someone’s passing can be shared. While a constant IV drip of tweet updates like “I need to sneeze, no tissues” can be a waste, sometimes a tweet can lead to great things.
One of my Tweeps is @SportsCardNews and a recent tweet was a simple one ” Old school Giant Gaylord Perry signing autographs http://t.co/2RWThC”
That’s Baseball Hall of Fame inductee in 1991, Cy Young award winner in both the American & National Leagues, 300+ game winner and notorious spitball pitcher Gaylord Perry, a player who’s auto I’ve been chasing.
I tweeted @SportsCardNews “Is he charging for that? If not... I don't have him yet, sure would be nice... wink wink”
I got a reply back “let me see what I can do.”
Here is a result of that short exchange.
WOW!
I would have been happy with an auto on the back of a program. To have a ball arrive on my doorstep was above and beyond.
So while it's amazing that someone could be in another state and casually put out some information that was pertinent to me, a prime example of the power of the Internet is that a short, timely exchange could lead to this. But it’s not the technology that is the powerful element. It’s the person on the receiving end. The technology does not prompt a person to act, the spirit of the person does.
You can follow @SportsCardNews on Twitter and check out his blog at http://www.sportscardreport.info and, of course the other site he is associated with Sports Card Radio and the forum at http://www.sportscardradio.com and http://www.sportscardradio.com/forum/
Many thanks.
2011 SAGE HIT High Series Football Hobby Box Break, another All About Cards SPEED-break™
To complete the set of cards from our previous break of the low series, here comes 2011 SAGE HIT High Series Football Cards.
This box comes with 10 autographs on average per box. Check out our SPEED-break™ to see which ten prospect autos we pulled from this hobby box.
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