The Hall of Fame - and the Panini Card Company's loophole

I've decided to mix it up as my first run of posts have all been about Topps cards. Today I'm going to show some much more recent cards that have been released by Panini, in conjunction with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

An ulterior motive for doing this is so that I can include this photo from outside the Hall of Fame when I visited Cooperstown in 2016.

I've blogged about visiting the Hall on my personal blog, but there are a couple of appropriate photos to include here.

I remember feeling quite emotional when I saw Tony's plaque in the Hall.

Tony was elected to the Hall of Fame the first year he was eligible, five years after he retired. He shared his induction with one other player, Cal Ripken Jr, with a record-breaking crowd of fans turning up to witness it.  The Padres posted a video last year of Tony getting the call from the head of the Museum in 2007 to welcome him to the Hall of Fame, and he is overcome with emotion. According to Tony's university team-mate, and longtime friend, Steve Sayles, Tony didn't think he would be a "first ballot selection"*.

Anyway, some baseball cards. Understanding the cards in this post means understanding a bit about licensing properties in modern card manufacture. Basically, Topps has an exclusive licence with Major League Baseball (MLB), so they are the only card manufacturer who can use the team logos and names. Panini's modern cards (which includes long-established brands like DonRuss, Score, Leaf and Pinnacle) are licensed from the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) so they show the player and usually give the city name, which isn't copyrighted. This works for San Diego or Boston, but isn't ideal for New York or Chicago where there are two baseball clubs.

Panini also airbrush the team names and logos off the players' shirts, helmets, caps and so on so they aren't infringing any copyright held by MLB. Some collectors don't value "no logo" / "logoless" cards as much, but sometimes the cards can be a bit creative.

Before Panini secured an agreement with the MLBPA they wanted to produce baseball cards. They found a licensing loophole and signed a contract with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and so could produce cards related to inductees in the Hall of Fame, which is where these cards come from. I don't know if the photos are from the Hall of Fame's massive images collection. If they were, this makes Panini's move even smarter.

Card Number 13: Panini Cooperstown Collection 2012, #110

I actually really like this card. I think the front design is aesthetically pleasing, while the back has a nice write up. I appreciate the description of Tony as a "baseball scientist". Although I query the use of the word "torrid" to describe his career batting average, and I'm not sure why they profiled his 1997 figures. But overall this is a solid card for a "no logo" print run.

Card Number 14: Panini Diamond Kings 2018, #P8

This is a much more recent card, from the 'Portraits' insert series in their 'Diamond Kings' product. 'Inserts' are special cards included in packs, usually at the rate of 1 or 2 per pack. There were only 15 'Portraits' produced in the series, all of players with similarly legendary status.

The card itself looks like a reproduction of an actual painting. The only slightly odd thing is the repetition of the portrait in the design on the back. By 2018, Panini had a contract with thd MLBPA, but this card carries the Hall of Fame logo on the back.

Card Number 15: Panini Diamond Kings 2018, #GS15

Another insert series in the same product - Panini Diamond Kings. This time it's the 'Gallery of Stars' and another attractive card where the image is repeated on the back. There were 18 cards in this insert series.

And finally in this post, the first in a small series I call "When is a Tony Gwynn card not really a Tony Gwynn card?"

Card Number 16: Panini Cooperstown Collection 2013, #7

That's right, when it's a card featuring his footwear and nothing else. The reverse of the card has a blurred photo of the Museum and Hall of Fame, which you may recognise from my photo at the top of the post.

In the grand tradition of odd factoids on the back of baseball cards, this one tells you all about Tony's basketball stats when he was playing for the Aztecs, the San Diego State University team, before a throwaway comment about swapping to baseball. There's also a nice bit about the Museum itself, including that it houses nearly 40,000 "three-dimensional items" by which I think it means things like game-used running spikes.

So, that was Panini's loophole for publishing cards when they didn't have a license. It provides a bit of variety in the collection at least.

Total: 16/394

*reference: He Left His Heart in San Diego, p.80