Beckett

First look: 2011 Bowman Platinum baseball cards

By Chris Olds | Editor

You might not have fully digested your first helping of Bowman Platinum, but the next helping is already here.

Topps released preview images and basic product information for 2011 Bowman Platinum on Thursday, a product that will arrive in late-June — just months after the product made its baseball debut.

There will be two prospect autographs as well as one autographed Relic in every 20-pack hobby box. Each 12-box case will include one multi-autograph card and redemptions for on-card autographs from the latest crop of USA Baseball players.

The product will mark a high-end (Chrome) arrival of Bryce Harper autographs as the 18-year-old No. 1 overall pick is slated to have a Chrome Refractor Prospect autograph in the product as well as appear on the triple-autograph card (top) also signed by Stephen Strasburg and Ryan Zimmerman.

There will be four Bowman Platinum cards per pack along with one Chrome prospect card — which is down from 2010. The Prospect set will include 100 cards. The base set (non-prospects) will include 100 players — a mix of veterans and rookies — and will have Gold, Emerald and Ruby parallels.

The Chrome prospect autographs include 1/1 SuperFractors and Printing Plates along with Red Refactors (/5), new Gold Refractors (/50), Blues (/99) and Greens (/399). The crop of prospect signers includes Harper, Jameson Taillon, Manny Machado, Christian Colon, Matt Harvey, Matt Lipka, Brandon Belt and many others.

For autographed Relics, new this year are SuperFractor patches, while there will be Red, Gold, Blue and Greens to be found. Among the signers for that set are Evan Longoria, Clay Buchholz, Rick Porcello, Logan Morrison, Jason Heyward, Starlin Castro, Carl Crawford, Mike Stanton, Aroldis Chapman, Pedro Alvarez, and many others.

The multiple-autograph cards will feature duals (two prospects), triples (prospects and veterans), Hexagraph booklet cards — six autographs — which also will be found in patch versions (new this year). And it’s here where the combinations really take shape. Among the preliminary checklist inclusions are:

– Dual auto Relics: Heyward-Freddie Freeman, Buchholz-Phil Hughes, Stanton-Domonic Brown, Madison Bumgarner-Buster Posey, Adrian Gonzalez-Crawford, Yovani Gallardo-Zack Greinke.

– Dual autos: Harper-Taillon, Machado-Colon, Mike Montgomery-Moustakas.

– Triple autos: Strasburg-Harper-Zimmerman, Heyward-Stanton-Brown, Posey-Brandon Belt-Gary Brown, Nick Markakis-Matt Hobgood-Machado, Taillon-Chapman-Shelby Miller, Machado-Colon-Grant Green.

– Hexagraphs: Longoria-Robinson Cano-Dustin Pedroia-Jeremy Hellickson-Jesus Montero-Jose Iglesias, Harper-Heyward-Stanton-Josh Hamilton-Justin Upton-Brown, Joey Votto-Justin Morneau-Kendry Morales-Miguel Cabrera-Ryan Howard-Gonzalez.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

Photo Gallery: Inside the NFL Experience

By Andrew Tolentino | Assistant Editor

Braving the second evening of a three-day North Texas ice apocalypse, I put on my warmest clothes and ventured to the Dallas Convention Center for the Super Bowl XLV NFL Experience.

Despite the freezing temperatures, I  arrived without incident and with childlike glee when I saw the epic Super Bowl XLV letters standing in the iced-over convention center lawn. As visitors – some locals, some tourists, some brandishing terrible towels, some sporting cheese heads – poured inside the building, I couldn’t help but momentarily absorb the spectacle from afar.

However, I have seen the movie “Alive,” and I know what prolonged exposure can do to a man.

After making my way inside the traveling NFL theme park and eating a protein bar (just to make sure),  I confirmed the glorious magnitude foreshadowed by that dramatic entrance. I was greeted with the hustle and bustle of show-goers, a light show and an enormous Drew Brees cut-out hanging from the ceiling. At the epicenter of the experience, the Topps and Panini-sponsored Memorabilia Show lured me in immediately. Bringing their best host-city wares and cream-of-the-crop football collectibles, dealers set up shop, hoping to make hobbyists out of every attendee. Offering reasonably-priced merchandise and promotions to a crowd of awestruck football fanatics, most of these merchants didn’t have to do much convincing. 

Beyond gridiron collectibles, the event was packed with engaging exhibits and photo ops. I watched as attendees posed with their heads atop life-sized mannequins from various teams, placed their hands in player-casted molds and stood in line for autographs from Will Witherspoon and Chinedum Ndukwe. Surrounded by locker room display cases, visitors could even use computers to search for and watch specific plays from the season.

Marked by interactive displays, free autograph sessions and other activities throughout, the event is more than just a sight to behold. Appropriately labeled, the spectacle is all about the experience.

With that being said, below are some of the visual highlights from my frigid, but rewarding night. Stay tuned for an upcoming NFL Experience video.

Sights and Sounds at the NFL Experience

By Andrew Tolentino |  Assistant Editor

As mentioned in the previous post, I countered a case of cabin fever by heading over to the Super Bowl XLV NFL Experience in downtown Dallas. Below is a video, featuring some of the sights and sounds from my stroll around the event.