Panini America’s Hall of Fame-Focused 2012 Cooperstown Baseball Begins to Take Shape

It’s been awhile since we first previewed 2012 Cooperstown Baseball here on The Knight’s Lance. But in the five weeks or so since that initial sneak peek, the Hall of Fame-focused product resulting from Panini America’s new multiyear partnership with the National Baseball Hall of Fame has come together quite nicely.

Every day it seems, we’re we’re on the receiving end of some of the most legendary, crisply scrawled autographs in baseball history. Bob Gibson came in today. Joe Morgan and Phil Niekro arrived yesterday. On Wednesday it was Brooks Robinson and Barry Larkin. Talk about your monumental mail days.

We can’t wait to see what glorious arrivals await in the final weeks leading up to the release of 2012 Cooperstown Baseball in late July. But for now, we thought we’d share a sizable sampling of the beauties already in-house. Most of what you’re about to see are selections from the Cooperstown Signatures insert, the vast majority of which will be signed on-card.

Every autograph in the product is signed by either a Hall of Fame inductee, a broadcaster who has won the Ford C. Frick Award or a player whose game-worn or game-used memorabilia — for one spectacular feat or another — is on display in the Hall. We’ll have much more on the developing Cooperstown Baseball in the coming days, including behind-the-scenes details from Panini America Baseball Acquisitions Manager Tone Stakes on his recent signing sessions with Tony Gwynn and Jerry Coleman.