Wednesday, August 04, 2010

A New Player in Baseball Cards - In the Game

Today, In the Game announced they're entering the baseball market. Like they've been doing with hockey for years, it looks like they'll be doing it without a major license.

They'll be kicking things off with 2010 In the Game Heroes and Prospects Hits that will offer a mix of up-and-comers and old-timers. Why the emphasis on "hits" you ask? Because there's no base cards, just hits (the press release's language, not mine). Four hits per four-card box, to be exact.

Another statement from the press release that made me chuckle:

On average, there will be 3.5 Prospect Autographs per box and every other box will contain one Heroes Cut Signature or Heroes Game-Used Memorabilia card featuring some of the greatest players to step out onto the diamond.

If I read that literally, you're going to get half a signature so people can make up their own imaginary prospects using a first name on one card and a last name on another. Of course, the statement is meant to offer an explanation of how things will be seeded.

There's little other info available at this time other than names like Jason Heyward and Tim Beckham being the headline prospects and cut signatures of Joe Dimaggio, Ted Williams and Hank Aaron covering the heroes portion. The mock-ups of the cut signatures show pictures of the players, which could signal a shift in exclusive contracts. A few months ago I recall Upper Deck had an exclusive with the Dimaggio estate. But that was before the lawsuits started flying. So whatever the case, at least one Joltin' Joe autograph will lurk in boxes.

In the Game has been working around licenses for many years and they know how to make a card that looks great without infringing on rights. So while these cards might be missing a logo here and there, I'm still very interested to see where the company goes with baseball.

2010 In the Game Heroes and Prospects Hits is scheduled for release on November 1.





2 comments:

Twitch said...

Hell yes~! :D

BA Benny said...

If they do it right they could have some sucess. 2008 Donrus Threads had a nice product without a license and they had did pretty well with it.