One of the advantages of living in Southern California is
that you are close to so many different sports franchises, the Lakers,
Clippers, Kings, Ducks, various teams from UCLA and USC, Angels and Dodgers to
name a few. With that many
different sporting options you are bound to encounter some historical
moments. One of those happened
Saturday Night. For those of us
that thought we were just going to see a great pitching duel between
Billingsley and Strasburg, we got the added bonus of seeing an amazing extra
innings walk-off home run by Matt Kemp and perhaps the most significant, Bryce
Harper’s MLB debut. Harper did
well in front of a sold out Dodger Stadium crowd, hitting the ball hard,
getting his first hit, a double into deep center, on his third at bat and
throwing a strike from shallow left field to home that beat Jerry Hariston Jr.
to the plate and would have been an easy out if Wilson Ramos had held onto the
ball.
Harpermania has been hot in the collecting world and today
Topps announced their future plans for his cards including his exclusive
autograph cards and to get these cards in collector’s hands ASAP.
Here’s what card collectors can look forward to:
Bowman Baseball – In addition to having an Autographed
Prospect Card in retail and a Bowman Black Autograph in hobby, Bryce will be
Lucky Redemption # 2! The card,
which will be limited to 100, will feature Harper in the RC design and will
include his Autograph.
Topps Series 2 – Harper will be card # 661, but because of
limited timing the card will be short printed. In addition, there will be an autographed variation of this
Rookie Card in both hobby and retail.
Topps Archives – Collectors will find redemptions in both
hobby and retail for Bryce’s Fan Favorites autograph (on-card) and the young
star will be included as a short printed base card (# 241).
Topps Tier One – 25 redemption cards will be inserted into
packs for his “On the Rise” Autographed Rookie Card (on-card).
Allen & Ginter – A&G will include both Harper’s
standard and mini base Rookie Cards at the regular rate. The product will also include Harper’s
autograph. And for his Red
Autograph limited to 10…those can be had by tearing open Rip Cards and finding
the “Mystery Redemption” mini!
Complete Sets – Find Bryce’s 661 card, but with an all-new
image.
In addition Harper will have Autographed Rookie Cards in the
remainder of all Topps 2012 MLB products.