Cecil was on the 18U team in 2008, he had cards featured in 2008 SP Authentic, and the 2008 Team USA Box set that included Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper’s first cards. Cecil was a former Braves Draft pick in the 36th round in 2008. He was ranked 27th among prep prospects in 2008 by Baseball America.

He has one of the most live arms that I have seen in person, although much like Rick Vaughn, sometimes he didn’t know where it was going to go. I’ve always believed in his arm, and that he could be a dominant pitcher down the road. He just needs to calm down on the mound and have fun.

He had two great performances in the Cape League in 2010. He was the Falmouth Commodores Opening Day Starter and dominated the defending Champion Bourne Braves. He also was the pitcher on Falmouth who squared off with Anthony Renaudo in Brewster, he took the loss that day, but was solid through out.

But you can see the card posted above that was signed by Cecil. Well at least one of them was. The card on the left was signed by Cecil, the card on the right however was not. What I can gather is that the players all sat around and did their signing duty for their time with Team USA. You put a group of 18 and under year olds in a room for hours and players are going to end up goofing off over time. Well, it looks like a player on the team may have grabbed at least one of Cecil’s cards, faked Cecil’s name and Upper Deck missed this before inserting it in to the box sets.

I bought it on eBay for 1.30 plus shipping. I won’t be looking to sell it or anything. I have a nice collection of Cecil’s cards, and whether he is a hit at the pro level or not, I consider him a good friend and enjoy having this card that is a little bit off.

Leaf does not have ties to other sports at this point, so does not have quite as much to lose as Upper Deck did if they fight it. So this should be interesting to see how it developes. Brian Gray hinted in the thread that there will be an announcement on this in two to three weeks.

Why couldn’t these rumors have come up last weekend when I had Brian Gray on camera?

Regular Set:
Regular Cards (50)
Star Rookies (200)

Top Inserts:
Rookie Lettermen Signatures (Varied #)
Star Rookies Autographs (1:10)
Ultimate Collection Rookie Signatures (1:480)
1991 UD 20th Anniversary (1:2)
Star Rookies Stripe Redemptions

Break Summary: (on average)
Get three (3) Autographs in every box!
Including one (1) hard-signed Rookie Lettermen Signature Card!
Look for rare Ultimate Collection Rookie Signature Cards!
Ten (10) 1991 UD 20th Anniversary Inserts per box!
Collect the entire 200 card set!
One (1) Insert card per pack!

Chase:
Star Rookie Stripe Redemptions!
Pull one of these Rookie cards and redeem it for the specific number (printed on the card) of that player’s Rookie Card!

Key Subsets:
Conference Clashes – A dual player card pairing up 2 conference rivals
Class Of – Highlighting collegiate stars from recent years to decades past
Saturday In Action – Brilliant photography showcasing football stars ‘In Action’ on the gridiron
Historical Programs – Paying tribute to the top all-time college football programs
Dream Tandems – A dual player card featuring 2 superstars that would have made any offensive or defensive backfield a ‘dream’

Configuration:
6 cards per pack
20 packs per box

Product Arrival Date: April 12, 2011

Upper Deck Launches 2010 NCAA Sweet Spot Football Set;

New Video Showcases Top Collegiate Draft Picks Singing Their Respective School Fight Songs

Video shows 14 top college football draft picks battling for best rendition; winner earned a pair of autographed LeBron James shoes from Upper Deck!

Carlsbad, CA (Sept. 15, 2010) – With the 2010 NCAA football season now underway, the Upper Deck Company is proud to unveil it newest gridiron card set: 2010 NCAA Sweet Spot Football! A 100-card collection licensed by NFL PLAYERS and the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), the set features, for the first time ever, Upper Deck’s Sweet Spot brand using college logos! What’s more, autographed helmet cards of NFL legends, veterans and rookies – all sporting their college uniforms – are part of the mix with multiple logo variations of each player. Hard-signed autograph cards of Hall of Famers like Barry Sanders (Oklahoma State), Dan Marino (Pittsburgh) and Steve Young (BYU) are included alongside veterans such as Peyton Manning (Tennessee) and first-year standouts Sam Bradford (Oklahoma), Tim Tebow (Florida) and Jimmy Clausen (Notre Dame).

Inside the product, which hits store shelves today, collectors will be happy to find one hard-signed “Sweet Spot Signature” or “Sweet Swatch” memorabilia card in every pack. There are a total of eight cards per pack, six packs per box, and all autographed cards are hard-signed and foil-numbered. All 35 attendees of the 2010 NFL PLAYERS Rookie Premiere Photo Shoot, including Gerald McCoy (Oklahoma), Ndamukong Suh (Nebraska), Rob Gronkowski (Arizona) and Jahvid Best (California), have autographed cards inside 2010 NCAA Sweet Spot Football.

In conjunction with the company’s latest sports card release, Upper Deck is pleased to share a special video production that showcases 15 of this year’s top collegiate football draft picks competing in a “Fight Song” competition hosted by Upper Deck, the winner of which walked away with a pair of signed LeBron James shoes, courtesy of Upper Deck Authenticated. The competition, which took place on May 22 during the annual NFL PLAYERS Rookie Premiere Photo Shoot at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, featured the likes of Bradford, Tebow, Clausen, Colt McCoy (Texas), C.J. Spiller (Clemson) and Ryan Mathews (Fresno State) all giving it the old college try to see whose pipes were the most melodic and whose memory would serve them best. The contest, which included 31 entrants, boiled down to three stellar efforts turned in by McCoy, Clausen and Joe McKnight (USC), but in the end, it was the luck of the Irish (Clausen) that prevailed!

“I appreciate it,” said Notre Dame’s former signal-caller as he accepted his pair of autographed LeBron James shoes. “It was a great fight song, and it was great singing it. And I really appreciate receiving these shoes. Thanks Upper Deck for these LeBron shoes. I’m gonna put them in my house.”

To see the best efforts put forth by 14 of the more animated participants, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKC8srWDzJgs. Not only was Clausen’s effort selected as the best overall, but he was also one of the most persistent performers. He offered up four attempts at nailing Notre Dame’s fight song, mostly because his earlier efforts were drowned out by his own enthusiastic clapping.

Each month the company assigns members of the group a mission to accomplish and rewards individuals based on the quality of their efforts. Last month Upper Deck assigned members of the Volunteer Alliance to help promote their local hobby shops. Members helped shops create Facebook pages for their businesses, recorded YouTube commercials for shops and even volunteered to help out in the stores. This month the mission is to share the fun of collecting with people who do not currently collect or who used to collect.

“Word-of-mouth advertising is the most powerful form of advertising in the world so it is pretty awesome to have a group of hundreds of brand advocates in our Volunteer Alliance sharing their love of the hobby with others,” said Upper Deck’s Sports Marketing & Social Media Manager Chris Carlin. “Some will donate cards to children’s hospitals or Boys & Girls clubs while others may create an online community mentoring new collectors. Members of the Upper Deck Volunteer Alliance are very creative, so we are interested to see what they come up with and we are prepared to reward them for how inspired they get.”

It is free to become a member of the Upper Deck Volunteer Alliance. Fans simply need to have an online account with Upper Deck and e-mail the company at UpperDeckMarketing@upperdeck.com with the following information:

Upper Deck Online Account Username
Name
Email Address
Favorite Sports

Members have until Friday, September 17, to share with Upper Deck how they showed others the fun of collecting sports cards and memorabilia. Not a member of the Upper Deck Volunteer Alliance yet? Join today!

The biggest rumor, and what we may hear more about in the upcoming days is that Topps will be back in the NFL game soon. With Upper Deck losing their NFL deal, it’s either someone steps up to fill the void, or Panini has the exclusive. The NFL did not seem to one a sport card monopoly originally, or they would have given Panini it when they resigned with Upper Deck originially. This story should be developing shorty, and could be big news in the Sports Card industry.

Upper Deck Settles Lawsuit with Major League Baseball

Sports card leader can continue selling recently released baseball products as part of the mutually agreed-upon settlement

Carlsbad, CA (March 3, 2010) – Today, the Upper Deck Company is pleased to announce that Upper Deck and Major League Baseball have mutually agreed to settle the lawsuit brought by Major League Baseball against Upper Deck. Per the terms of the settlement agreement, Upper Deck has agreed not to use MLB trademarks including team names and/or logos on its trading cards going forward. However, as part of the settlement, Upper Deck can and will continue to sell three recently released baseball products currently on store shelves: 2009 Signature Stars, 2009 Ultimate Collection and 2010 Upper Deck Series One.

“Upper Deck is pleased with the settlement including the amount the company paid as it relates to the trading cards released in 2010,” said Jason Masherah, Upper Deck’s director of Sports Brands. “As a company, we are changing the direction of Upper Deck’s baseball products going forward. We are looking forward to creating fresh and innovative set content that will continue to get collectors excited.”

Since its inception in 1989, Upper Deck has been the market leader for both its ability to create top-quality, super-premium products and for developing innovative programs that promoted baseball cards to kids.

“Great cards of great players have always been the cornerstone of Upper Deck products,” added Upper Deck Founder and CEO Richard McWilliam. “We’ll just have to see how innovative and creative we can become now.”

Honoring the start of the upcoming baseball season, Upper Deck will distribute FREE packs of baseball cards to fans around the country

Carlsbad, CA (January 19, 2010) – The Upper Deck Company is extremely excited to get the ball rolling with its recently inked partnership with the Major League Baseball Players Association to launch the first-of-its-kind “National Packtime” sampling promotion on Saturday, March 6. The one-day campaign is a special event that will provide fans with free packs of Upper Deck baseball cards. Exclusive packs of National Packtime baseball cards will be distributed via Upper Deck’s network of baseball card specialty shops. Any shop owners interested in participating should contact one of the authorized Upper Deck distributors listed below for more information on how to obtain their bundles of packs for the one-day giveaway.

“During these difficult economic times, we want to remind fans of the joy that comes with opening up their first pack of baseball cards, whether it was 10, 20 or 30 years ago,” said Chris Carlin, Upper Deck’s sports marketing manager. “We also want to share that fun with kids everywhere many of whom haven’t had the chance to experience the thrill of finding a cherished rookie card, or a card of their favorite star player. It’s a very cool, very unique experience that can’t be matched.”

The 10-card packs, produced exclusively for National Packtime, will feature the biggest superstars including Derek Jeter, David Ortiz and Albert Pujols, as well as a mix of other current standouts and rising stars. Key rookies include San Francisco’s future catching sensation Buster Posey alongside future ace Madison Bumgarner and Chicago’s Southside young slugger Tyler Flowers. All three of these prospects are rated by Baseball America at or near the top of their organizational prospect charts and have significant upside as impact players. What’s more, there is a very rare Derek Jeter “Career Commemorative” card issued as a chase element celebrating his 15 seasons in the Bronx. Although Upper Deck is not releasing print run info, suffice it to say that if collectors find this card in a pack, they will have beaten some very long odds.

Earlier this month, at a special hobby summit sponsored by Upper Deck that was held in conjunction with the annual Major League Baseball Players Trust golf tournament at Torrey Pines in San Diego, Upper Deck staff was able to corral several baseball standouts to take part in a special video touting the National Packtime event. Eddie Murray, Tim Salmon, Kenny Lofton, Reggie Sanders and Eddie Guardado all participated. Click on this link to see how they handled the pressure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrWdCuWKieg.

“I was just part of Upper Deck’s hobby summit, and the very first thing my customers asked me when I returned was whether or not there was going to a National Baseball Card Day this year,” said Dan Fox, owner of Fox Sports Cards in Marion, Illinois. “I told them, ‘Well, yes and no.’ I told them that there isn’t a designated National Baseball Card Day, but that Upper Deck – with its partnership with the Major League Baseball Players Association – is sponsoring an event called ‘National Packtime.’

“And let me be the first to say that events like this have been outrageously successful for us. We have collectors show up at our store that we haven’t seen in years. It reinvigorates their card-collecting pursuits. Does it make a difference in sales? Oh my gosh, yes. We’ll easily have another 100 customers show up that day. If you give people a reason to come down to your store, they’ll come down. So an event like National Packtime is a welcomed addition to this hobby.”

All hobby shop owners in the United States are encouraged to participate in Upper Deck’s 2010 National Packtime event. Packs are and will sell out so get your orders in today to partake. Direct Accounts can now order their packs online at www.upperdeckb2b.com. H

Sports Card Company Firmly Denies Topps’ Allegations of Any Wrong-Doing

North Las Vegas, NV (April 15, 2009) – The Upper Deck Company won a legal victory today when a New York judge denied a Temporary Restraining Order sought by Topps to prevent the release of 2009 Upper Deck Series Two and 2009 O-Pee-Chee baseball card products.

Yesterday, the Topps Company filed a lawsuit against Upper Deck claiming copyright infringement. Upper Deck strongly denies the allegations and did, in fact, do its due diligence when researching, clearing and securing approvals to use the card designs. Upper Deck received necessary legal approvals and proper protocol was followed to ensure there were no infringements.

“Based on the tactics utilized by Topps thus far, Upper Deck questions the validity of this claim,” said Bernd Becker, Upper Deck’s vice president of Trading Cards. “We strongly disagree with the allegations. In today’s challenging economic environment, it seems petty and counterproductive to file such a frivolous suit.”