Panini America Prepares to Hit the Road for Inaugural Spring Training Road Trip

Beginning tomorrow, Panini America baseball officials will embark on a two-week, cross-country journey that will take them to three cities in Florida and one in Arizona during the inaugural Panini Spring Training Road Trip. Throughout the trip, Panini America will meet with more than 30 of the brightest young players in baseball (as well as a few superstar veterans) for a series of events that includes autograph signings, Panini Box Breaks and social media activation featuring Twitter takeovers of the @PaniniAmerica account and Twitter Q&As with fans about preparing for the upcoming season and, of course, showcasing their Panini baseball cards.

The trip kicks off Tuesday in Stuart, Fla., before moving to Ft. Myers on Wednesday and Tampa on Thursday. Players confirmed to appear on the Florida leg of the trip include World Series champion Mike Napoli of the Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Michael Wacha, Kolten Wong, Byron Buxton, Noah Syndergaard, Carlos Martinez and 13 others.

One week later, on March 20, the Panini Spring Training Road Trip arrives in Phoenix to interact with more promising prospects including Jonathan Gray, Javier Baez, Matt Davidson, Michael Choice and one of baseball’s great Tweeters, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitcher, C.J. Wilson.

“All of the players we’re interacting with during the inaugural Panini Spring Training Road Trip represent important elements of our MLBPA-licensed card sets and there’s not a better place than spring training to get so many of them together,” said Jason Howarth, Panini America Vice President of Marketing. “Just as everyone anticipates the start of the baseball season, we thought it was time to take the Panini Spring Training Road Trips that we’ve done over the last few years up a notch — and to really highlight the excitement for the upcoming season and what it means to collectors. Collectors will get the opportunity to engage some of baseball’s emerging and veteran stars via social media throughout the Road Trip by using #PaniniSpringTrainingRoadTrip.”

Stay tuned to The Knight’s Lance for additional details and to Panini America’s Twitter feed and Instagram account for your chance to interact directly with the players participating.