Panini gets access to legendary names for 2012

Posted Dec 16, 2011 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Dec 16, 2011 at 03:09 PM

Panini America just added a Hall of Fame baseball lineup to its product.

Panini announced a trading card agreement with CMG Worldwide, which will give the card company the rights to use 12 legendary baseball names (well, 11 baseball and one all-around sports guy) in its newly licensed Major League Baseball Players Association products.

Roll these names off your tongue: Jackie Robinson, Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Mel Ott, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Jim Thorpe, Jimmie Foxx, Johnny Mize, Rogers Hornsby, Roy Campanella, Thurman Munson, and Walter Johnson. Eleven baseball greats and Thorpe, an Olympic champion who also spent time in the majors and in the NFL.

Some of the images and memorabilia of these players will be used in future Panini baseball products, starting with the Prime Cuts set that will be released in March.

CMG, by the way, is a multinational intellectual property rights management firm that represents the estates of famous deceased people, and not just in sports. Some big non-sports names under the CMG umbrella include Marilyn Monroe, Jean Harlow, Amelia Earhart, James Dean and Mark Twain. The biggest sports plum in CMG’s portfolio is Babe Ruth; it’s not clear yet whether Ruth will be part of this new agreement, but I have asked the folks at Panini for clarification.

The list of names Panini will use are intriguing, particularly Jackson, who was banned from baseball in the wake of the Black Sox scandal. Only a handful of his autographs exist, so don’t count on any Prime Cut autos of Shoeless Joe (although if they manage to swing one, it would be one heck of a valuable card).

In September, Panini America acquired a trading card license from the MLBPA. Getting the images of these big names on card sets next year is another nice feather in Panini’s growing cap of feathers.