For Jason Terry, winning an NBA title was the ultimate as far as personal team achievements are concerned. But what could happen next would be sheer euphoria.
“The bow was winning the championship, but the icing on the cake will be putting that jersey up in the rafters,’’ Terry told the Star-Telegram on Monday. “If it [...]
When it comes to this week in the hobby, I dont think I have been this excited in a long time. Topps Finest football comes out on Wednesday, and Topps Chrome Baseball has already started to show up. Ill save my reveling on Topps Finest for when it goes live tomorrow, but for now, Topps Chrome has me more interested than it has in years. Baseball Chrome is not what it is in Football, if not only because Bowman Chrome is king. This year, Topps has a few reasons to take a look at baseball, one of which has clamoring to find the first few examples.
Here are some of the cards already posted:
2012 Topps Chrome Yu Darvish Auto
2012 Topps Chrome Trevor Bauer Auto RC
2012 Topps Chrome Brett Lawrie Sepia Refractor Auto /75
2012 Topps Chrome Mike Trout Orange Refractor RC Logo
2012 Topps Chrome Bryce Harper RC Logo
First, I love that the autographs continue to be on card, even if they have all been on card for many of the sets prior to Topps Chrome. This product with stickers just doesnt have the same level of appeal. Additionally, there are a number of surprises we have yet to see in terms of redemptions and all kinds of other fun stuff.
I especially like that Topps has opted to keep more of the same refractor parallel structure as last year, especially on the new refractors like Sepia and Atomic. Making Topps Chrome more reflective of what makes Bowman Chrome so popular is a no brainer. The more rare refractor parallels there are, the better this product will do.
Although none have surfaced yet, Topps has already previewed the part of the set that has me salivating over possibilities. They are introducing Chrome buyback autos for the first time ever, and I could not be more excited. I also have heard there are redemptions for uncut sheets, and new die cuts that have not been used in a product like this before.
My biggest fear is that there are no autos we havent seen before, and the checklist of the autos is still pretty weak for the rookies outside of Trout, Harper, Darvish and a handful of others. The design wont be enough to counteract that fact, even though the cards do look awesome. Hopefully there is enough room for a set like this after one like Finest.
Chrome hasnt hit yet, but with a great design and a robust amount of reasons to buy in at the low end, it should be worth a few boxes.
Dominican righthander Simon Mercedes has received his visa from the U.S. Consulate, putting him one step closer to officially joining the Red Sox. Mercedes will still need official approval of his contract from Major League Baseball, but a visa is a major step toward the end of the process. Mercedes, 20, signed with the Red [...]
Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey announced today that the team has signed guard/forward Carlos Delfino. The unrestricted free agent recently competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, averaging 15.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists with Argentina.
Delfino (6-6, 230, Argentina) has played in seven NBA seasons, averaging 7.7 points (.362, 520-1435 3FG), 3.6 [...]
The Cardinals have signed 16-year-old righthander Ronald Medrano, one of the top Nicaraguan prospects for July 2. Medrano is 6 feet, 170 pounds and pitches to both sides of the plate with a fastball that sits around the high-80s and has touched 90-91. He has shown good pitchability for his age and feel for his [...]
Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut fully expects to be in the lineup for the season opener Oct. 31 at Phoenix after undergoing surgery this spring on his troublesome ankle.
How much he plays during the exhibition schedule, he’s still not sure. Bogut believes he will be nearly full strength by the start of training camp [...]
There will be a grand total of nine Sixers whose contracts will expire within the next two years.
Five of those contracts — Bynum, Jrue Holiday, Nick Young, Dorell Wright and Royal Ivey — are up at the end of next season. Four more — Evan Turner, Spencer Hawes, Kwame Brown and Lavoy Allen — expire [...]
The National Basketball Association selected Ticketmaster, a Live Nation Entertainment company (NYSE:LYV), to develop a comprehensive online ticketing destination for NBA fans. As the Official Ticketing Provider of the NBA, Ticketmaster will present buyers all of the available ticket options for upcoming games, including available tickets from the primary market, as well as tickets being [...]
Kevin Durant is going from representing the red, white and blue to walking the red carpet.
Adding to a resume that already includes being a three-time NBA scoring champion and Olympic gold medalist, Durant was the star as his movie ”Thunderstruck” premiered in Oklahoma City’s Bricktown entertainment district Sunday night. It opens in other theaters Friday.
Durant [...]
Bucks point guard Brandon Jennings is hoping to have a contract extension in his pocket by the time the regular season opens on Nov. 2 in Boston.
Jennings is entering his fourth NBA season and is in line for an extension that could keep him with Milwaukee for four additional seasons.
But the 23-year-old had more than [...]
The New Orleans Hornets announced today that they have signed head coach Monty Williams to a new multi-year contract extension. According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, it’s a four-year deal that will keep Williams with the team through 2016.
“We are proud to announce that Monty Williams will be the head coach of the New Orleans [...]
And so, the Nuggets center is spending some of his summer at the home of Hakeem, which for McGee is, pun intended, a dream.
“It’s definitely an honor to be working with him,” McGee said.
McGee has spent a couple of weeks on Olajuwon’s ranch near Houston, where Denver teammate Kenneth Faried is expected to work out [...]
The Sixers may have just swung a deal for Andrew Bynum, but they’re still looking for a new general manager.
Boston Celtics assistant GM Mike Zarren has emerged as a candidate for the job, a source confirms to CSNPhilly.com’s John Finger.
Zarren’s involvement was first reported by Sports Illustrated’s Sam Amick, who described Zarren as “an intriguing [...]
News that Serge Ibaka reached agreement on a four-year contract with Oklahoma City should catch the attention of Suns fans.
The amount of the deal, $48 million, will make it trickier for the Thunder to secure James Harden, who could command a maximum contract as a restricted free agent after the 2012-13 season. That could open [...]
The Steelers activated Rashard Mendenhall and Casey Hampton from the PUP list on Friday, but Mendy may not be ready till a few weeks into the 2012 season.
The move with Mendenhall came as a surprise because as recently as last week, general manager Kevin Colbert said he thought he would open the season on the PUP. Obviously, things changed.
“The trainers felt that he had progressed as far as he could in doing what they were doing,” Colbert told Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “and the kid felt confident that he was ready to take the next step. Now, the next step is being able to practice, and where that leads to nobody knows at this point.”
It is unlikely he will be ready to play in September, but, by doing this, he could be ready to play much sooner than if he had to open on PUP.
“If you go on PUP, you’re out for six weeks, minimum,” Colbert explained. “You can still only continue that same work. So, he felt he was beyond that, the trainers felt he was beyond that, so it was time to take that next step.
“Now whether he plays in those first six weeks we don’t know, but, obviously, we feel there’s a chance that could happen. Be it Week 5 or Week 6, that could be a difference.”
The Steelers activated Rashard Mendenhall and Casey Hampton from the PUP list on Friday, but Mendy may not be ready till a few weeks into the 2012 season.
The move with Mendenhall came as a surprise because as recently as last week, general manager Kevin Colbert said he thought he would open the season on the PUP. Obviously, things changed.
“The trainers felt that he had progressed as far as he could in doing what they were doing,” Colbert told Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “and the kid felt confident that he was ready to take the next step. Now, the next step is being able to practice, and where that leads to nobody knows at this point.”
It is unlikely he will be ready to play in September, but, by doing this, he could be ready to play much sooner than if he had to open on PUP.
“If you go on PUP, you’re out for six weeks, minimum,” Colbert explained. “You can still only continue that same work. So, he felt he was beyond that, the trainers felt he was beyond that, so it was time to take that next step.
“Now whether he plays in those first six weeks we don’t know, but, obviously, we feel there’s a chance that could happen. Be it Week 5 or Week 6, that could be a difference.”
In 2012 Topps Football, there are a lot of different autograph cards, many of which have a pretty large checklist. The majority of the autos in a box are of the prolific playmakers variety, but when you pull a big hit out of the product, its going to be pretty cool. Topps even surprised me with on card autographs for HOF players in their QB immortals set program running throughout the release
. Outside of that, and of all the autos available in the set, I have been smitten with the design for the 2012 Rookie Auto Patches. I think the cards are incredibly well done – sticker or no sticker – and from some of the prices I have seen, im not the only one.
Check these out:
2012 Topps Andrew Luck Rookie Patch Auto /10
2012 Topps Robert Griffin III Rookie Patch Auto /10
2012 Topps Trent Richardson Rookie Patch Auto /10
2012 Topps Ryan Tannehill Rookie Patch Auto /10
Ever since the 2008 season, rookie patch autos have been included in Topps or Topps Chrome football, but for the most part they have been a ridiculous disaster. Topps always had enormous problems fitting the patch and sticker into their normal design, as most of the time, there just wasnt enough room to make it all look good
. Last year’s was the exception, which for the first time had their own design as a box hit.
They were cool, but the card still looked relatively packed in.
This year, as a sucker for the full bleed borderless design on the top 3/4s of the card, I think Topps has done an incredible job bringing this set to the masses. Although the cards are super rare in a huge production run, they look better than I ever expected them to be. So many times, we have seen vertical patch auto cards run into major issues with structure and composition, if not only because its so difficult to make it all fit. These just find a way to keep it vertical and not looking busy.
I assume these cards will be making their way into Topps Chrome as well, which should be pretty cool to see how they turn out on that stock. Although by that time there will have been a lot of cool cards released in other sets, they should continue to stand up as bigger hits. With Topps Finest on the horizon, its going to be interesting to see what kind of surprises they continue to employ.
All LeBron James has done so far this year is win the NBA’s MVP award for the third time, an NBA Finals MVP trophy to go along with that one, his elusive first championship and a second Olympic gold medal.
Dwyane Wade thinks his Miami Heat teammate is just getting started.
With the start of Heat training [...]