Panini America Prepping Contenders Brand for a Return to Baseball (Preview Gallery)

August 14, 2015

Panini America 2015 Contenders Baseball Main

In early October, Panini America officials will return the venerable Contenders brand to the baseball diamond for the first time since 2011 and for just the third time ever. Due to hit hobby shops across North America on October 7, 2015 Contenders Baseball packs a distinct college feel and a checklist dotted with the game’s brightest future stars and greatest legends.

Each hobby box of 2015 Contenders Baseball (eight cards per pack, 24 packs per box) will deliver six autographs from a checklist that includes some of the first certified autograph cards of Cuban sensation Yoan Moncado. Each box also will deliver six Class Reunion, six Collegiate Connections, six Passports, six Game Day Tickets, 48 School Colors, 48 Old School Colors and one parallel.

Other highlights of 2015 Contenders Baseball include . . .

  • Look for hobby-exclusive Playoff Ticket, Championship Ticket and Cracked Ice Ticket parallels sequentially numbered to 23 or less. Also find signed Printing Plates.
  • Chase the top 2015 draft picks represented in College Tickets. Find No.1 draft pick Dansby Swanson, Carson Fulmer and Walker Buehler along with other SEC talent like Alex Bregman, Andrew Benintendi, Nathan Kirby and Richie Martin.
  • Find the most anticipated international players from down on the farm and the 2015 International Draft. Look for Julio Urias, Jarlin Garcia, Vladamir Guerrero Jr., Edmundo Sosa, Wei-Chieh Huang, Jairo Labourt, Domingo Leyba, Jose de Leon, Gleyber Torres, Gilbert Lara and Adrian Rondon.
  • New to 2015 Contenders Baseball are USA Baseball Tickets. Chase your favorite pro and amateur ball players through this unique new Ticket. Find Dansby Swanson, Corey Seager, D.J. Peterson, Kyle Schwarber, Matt Olson, Michael Conforto, Trea Turner, Alex Bregman and Brady Aiken.
  • Draft Tickets boast some of the best 2015 high school talent to enter the system in Brendan Rodgers, Daz Cameron, Garrett Whitley, Kyle Tucker, Brady Aiken,Tyler Stephenson and Kolby Allard. Look for hobby-exclusive tickets sequentially numbered to 99, 23, 15 and 1.
  • 2015 Contenders Baseball will be sure to revisit the good, old days with inserts such as Old School Colors and Alumni Ink that feature players like Deion Sanders, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Barry Larkin, Mike Schmidt, Tony Gwynn and Barry Bonds. Also find rare autographs of former college baseball players Russell Wilson, Jameis Winston and John Elway.
  • Hit it big with Collegiate Connections dual-signed cards of some of history’s greatest college ball players and recently drafted prospects. Find combos like Mississippi State’s Will Clark/Rafael Palmeiro, Auburn’s Bo Jackson/Frank Thomas, Minnesota’s Dave Winfield/Paul Molitor or unique pairings like NC State’s Russell Wilson/Trea Turner.
  • Hobby-exclusive chases in the College Cracked Ice Tickets, Prospect Playoff Tickets and Draft Championship Tickets.

We’ll have plenty more on the triumphantly returning 2015 Contenders Baseball in the coming weeks here on The Knight’s Lance. Until then, here’s your first extended sneak peek:

All information is accurate at the time of posting – content is subject to change. Card images are solely for the purpose of design display. Actual images used on cards to be determined.