Your Chance To Win Our 2011 Panini NFL Sticker Collection Contest

Back in June, when the fate of the 2011 NFL Season was undecided, when it looked like there would be no football because of the lockout, we made a promise.

“We have no idea if there will be an NFL season this year, but we will have Football here at the blog.   At a rate of about 4 pages a week we will do our best to fill an album and share our progress with you.   We might even give away a few homemade starter kits to get some of you on your way to filling an album.”

Things worked out for the best, the 2011 NFL season kicks off next Thursday with the Saints taking on the Packers in Green Bay.  Keeping true to our word, we will begin the journey to complete the 72 page 2011 Panini NFL Sticker Album with all 494 stickers.

The question is... who is joining us?

With that many sticker to collect, trades are inevitable, so speak up.  Leave a comment telling us if you’ve already started your own album and if you have any stickers to trade.  And for those of you that want to start, but haven’t, let us know too. 

Now for the contest. 

If you following All About Cards and decide to leave a comment, you will be in the running for one of our homemade starter kits which includes a 2011 Panini NFL Sticker album, the stickers that come with it and we will throw in some additional stickers on top of that.  And for those of you that have already begun your own albums, if you follow All About Cards and decide to leave a comment, you will be in the running for your choice of a homemade starter kit or a sticker prize package to help you with your needs based on availability.

Former New York Mets Star, Howard Johnson, To Play Minor League Baseball With His Son

It was one of the major themes of Field of Dreams, a father and son connecting through baseball, getting one last chance to simply toss a ball to each other.  Through the years, these father and son catches have been played out in backyards and public parks, but this weekend there will be one on display during a minor league baseball game.

At the age of 50, Howard Johnson, the former New York Mets third baseman, will come out of his 16-year retirement to play for the Rockland Boulders.  The Boulders have also signed HoJo’s 23 year old son, Glen Johnson.  Both Johnsons will be on the field for the last two games of the season, at home against the Newark Bears.

Howard Johnson, who will be playing on a bad knee in need of replacement surgery and Glen, who was selected in the 36th round of the 2007 MLB June Amateur Draft by the New York Mets but never signed, will probably only impact ticket sales.   But for most, watching a father and son living out the dream of playing together on the same team will definitely be worth the price of admission.

“This may be my last go ‘round so it’s a great opportunity to play in a professional game with my son,” said Howard Johnson. “How many fathers can do that?”

Topps Adds Nine More First Round Players Signing Autographs For Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects

Topps has added 9 more players who will be signing cards for their upcoming release of Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects.  That brings the current total to 30 confirmed signers. 29 of those players were selected in the 1st Round of the 2011 MLB Draft (including supplemental 1st Round).

Here are the nine newly announced players.

Tyler Anderson - Rockies                                  

Michael Fulmer - Mets

Kyle Crick - Giants

Larry Greene - Phillies

Travis Harrison - Twins

Taylor Jungmann - Brewers

Blake Snell - Rays

Robert Stephenson - Reds

Blake Swihart - Red Sox

They join the previously released list of autograph signers in Bowman Draft Picks:

                                    

Javier Baez - Cubs

Matt Barnes - Red Sox

Trevor Bauer - D’Backs

Jed Bradley - Bewers

CJ Cron - Angels

Jose Fernandez - Marlins

Tyler Goeddel - Rays

Sonny Gray - A’s

Jake Hager - Rays

James Harris -  Rays

Francisco Lindor - Indians

Brandon Martin - Rays

Kevin Matthews - Rangers

Brandon Nimmo - Mets

George Springer - Astros

Corey Spangenberg - Padres

Trevor Story - Rockies

Dan Vogelbach - Cubs

Keenyn Walker - White Sox

Kolten Wong - Cardinals

Joe Panik - Giants

Bowman Draft Picks, set to release November 23rd, guarantees a Chrome on-card autograph in every hobby box.  Bryce Harper will be featured on autograph cards.

Topps has 4 additional signers to announce next week.  Look here for an update post when the names are announced.

Marshall Faulk Auto Cards Appear in Madden 12 HOF Edition Boxes for PS3 and Xbox

The highly anticipated release date of EA Sports Madden 12 has arrived.  Besides the new features found in this year’s release, card collectors are very interested in what comes packaged exclusively inside the Hall of Fame editions of the game, oversized autographed cards of Marshall Faulk.  Faulk signed his name 125,000 times so that every box of the Madden 12 Hall of Fame Edition, both PS3 and Xbox, would contain a auto card.  These cards, which measure approximately 4 inches by 5 inches, come in the  four versions pictured here.

The back of these cards include Faulk's Madden Ratings numbers and a small write up.  These are not numbered so it is unclear if any of these are a short print.  They are inserted with the manual on the left side of the case.  

New York Jets Legend, Joe Namath, Will Be Appearing On Late Show With David Letterman Tonight

Those who follow this blog know I am a New York Yankees fan.  Along with that comes plenty of chiding and condemnation about everything from the supposed “arrogance” of the players to the team ‘buying" championships with “endless” amounts of money.

I don’t get that kind of reaction at all for being a fan of my favorite football team, the New York Jets.  Perhaps it is because of their long-standing tradition of “close but no cigar” football.  For some reason the Jets usually have some good elements but can’t seem to pull it all together. 

Most of the time, over the past 42 years, the Jets have had problems at the Quarterback position, as I pointed out last year in my post Six... no, scratch that... Sixteen degrees of Joe Namath.  But Jets fans stay loyal, in large part, because of the true face of the franchise, “Broadway” Joe “Willie” Namath.

Because Joe Namath’s playing days were before my time, my father, who worked with Namath on his famous pantyhose commercial, would relate to me the importance of Namath to the Jets. For a long time, Namath has been the unofficial spokesman and motivational icon for the Jets.   A few years ago I met Namath on an airport security line.  He was quite gracious. 

No... I did not get his autograph that day.  I am hoping to unlock one now that the Topps Super Bowl Legends Giveaway site is up and running.  A signed Joe Namath card is the big prize on the site.

The site and his auto cards will probably be one of the topics of discussion on the Late Show with David Letterman tonight.  Namath is scheduled to appear tonight to talk about, amongst other things, his participation with Topps cards this year, much like Hank Aaron did earlier in the year for Topps Baseball. 

So make sure to tune in or set your DVR for the Late Show on CBS, 11:35 PM East and West Coast, 10:35PM Central.  Check your local listings for times in your area.

The Topps Prime 9 Redemption Card For Week 7 is Mickey Mantle!

This is week 7 of the Topps Prime 9 Redemption Program.  Using cards found in 2011 Topps Baseball Series 2 hobby and jumbo boxes, collectors have been able to obtain the following players. 

Week 1 was Johnny Bench. 

Week 2 was Albert Pujols. 

Week 3 was Jackie Robinson.

Week 4 was Derek Jeter. 

Week 5 was Mike Schmidt. 

Week 6 was Hank Aaron. 

Now for Week 7 if you have one of these...

...its time to go visit your HTA Local Hobby Shop and redeem those cards.  Here is what you will get.

A Mickey Mantle Prime 9 limited edition Chrome Refractor card.  In every Topps Baseball release this year card number 7 has been reserved for Mickey Mantle, so it makes complete sense that week 7 would belong to The Mick. Mantle’s “Prime 9 Moments” include taught to switch hit by his father at age five, began professional career as a shortstop and winner of three AL MVP Awards:1956, ’57 and ‘62.  So get to your participating LCS and redeem those cards.  And don’t forget to fill out the back of your redemption card to be entered into a sweepstakes.  You could win a trip to the 2012 World Series.

Check in next week to find out who is on the card for week 8.

Vin Scully Agrees To His 63rd Year With The Los Angeles Dodgers

The voice of the Dodgers, Vin Scully, has just announced his intention to return to the broadcast booth next year for his 63rd season with the organization.  In a year of turmoil for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Scully remains the calm within the tempest, solidly performing his duties at the age of 83.

Vin has called some historical games, enhancing the events instead of detracting.  He was there for perfect games like Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series, as well as Sandy Koufax’s perfect game in 1965. Scully has called historical home runs like Hank Aaron’s record breaking 715th homerun off Dodger pitcher Al Downing and Kirk Gibson’s pinch hit home run in the 1988 World Series.  He has also voiced iconic moments like Rick Monday grabbing an American Flag from two protesters who were trying to burn it and Bill Buckner’s fielding error off a Mookie Wilson ground ball that gave the New York Mets the win in game 6 of the 1986 World Series.

Scully has been honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame with the Ford Frick Award.  The Television Academy has presented him a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award.  He has been inducted into the American Sportscasters Association (ASA) and the National Sportscaster and Sportswriters Association (NSSA) Hall of Fame.  He even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

What is lacking from Vin Scully’s long list of achievements and accolades is a prominent appearance on cardboard.  There are only 7 Vin Scully cards, most of them obscure local releases and only 2 national releases.  One was a shared card with Steve Garvey on 2004 Fleer Greats of the Game, Announcing Greats #2 and one was just a cut auto, 2009 Upper Deck Prominent Cuts, Cut Signatures #PCVS which produced a limited run of only 3 cards. 

It is time for Vin Scully to have his own, individual, nationally released baseball card.

2011 Topps Football Box Break Recap and Review

2011 Topps Football NFL trading cards, the foundation set for all Topps Football releases, has enough content to appeal to all types of collectors.  Solid base design with excellent photography, great looking inserts, Bowman minis and strong hits make Topps Football an easy purchase.

2011 Topps Football falls under our classification of trading cards because of its reasonable price point and base/insert card foundation.  There are several configurations of retail and hobby exclusive packaging.  We opened a hobby box of 36 packs with 10 cards per pack which yields one autograph or relic card.

Here is a look at some of the cards we found in our box.

 Peyton Hillis base, front and back.  

If you collect Topps Baseball you will recognize this design which works just as well here.

Darrelle Revis, Arian Foster,  Michael Turner

Aaron Rodgers, Adrian Peterson, Mike Vick

Phillip Rivers, Peyton Manning, Hines Ward

This card with all of the Rookies who attended the Premiere is a nice touch.

Rookies from the Premiere Shoot and the Combine.

Kyle Rudolph, Akeem Ayers, Andy Dalton

Jeremy Kerley. A.J. Green, Blaine Gabbert

Jake Locker, Rahim Moore, Ryan Mallett

Gold Parallels of the base set - Joe Webb, A.J. Hawk, BenJarvus Green-Ellis #/2011

Black Parallel - LaMarr Woodley #/55

Now for a few cards with some outstanding photography.

 Larry Fitzgerald and Tom Brady

 Clay Matthews and Anthony Armstrong

 Troy Polamalu

 The Tennessee Titans Team Card

Brandon Lloyd

Kellen Winslow

The inserts

Faces of the Franchise

Game Day

Super Bowl Legends

Toppstown Codes

 1950 Bowman Minis

Super Bowl Legends Giveaway Codes

Our hit was a relic

Von Miller Game Day Relic

Overall Look

The design of the base set is attractive but it’s the photography that makes this set stand out.  Faces of the Franchise and Game Day insert look great and if you like minis, you will really appreciate the retro 1950 style Bowmans.

Quality and Variety of Players and Subsets.

The checklist is quite extensive, so unless there is an obscure lineman or kicker you crave, you should be happy.  Rookie Prospectors have plenty to chase, autos and photo variation SPs.

Do the hits hold up?

The big hits here are the on card autos from the Rookie Premiere and the autos and relics from the Faces of the Franchise and Super Bowl Legends.  Hard to go wrong when there are some of the best names in the game, both past and present.

Will you want to collect them all?

Definitely.  You’ll want the 440 base cards, 144 Bowman minis, the inserts, and probably the Rookie photo variations.

Rating

 4 1/2 out of 5

Both beginning and seasoned collectors will find 2011 Topps Football a great set to build.