The Brill Report: Kobe in the fold

By Bob Brill

  There is no more perfect fit in sports marketing. Kobe Bryant and Panini. What more could you ask for after Kobe signed an exclusive deal with the trading card and sticker maker. Here are the facts as Panini sees them.

1 ) Panini is the exclusive maker of basketball trading cards in the world. Kobe Bryant is the no. 1 players in the NBA today, LeBron James notwithstanding Kobe has won championships.

2 ) Panini is an Italian Company with world wide distribution in stickers. Kobe was raised in Italy, speaks fluent Italian and collected Panini stickers as a child.

3 ) Panini knows how to market it's goods. Kobe is known world wide and is a very easy marketere. He is Marquee.

  It was only seen as inevitible and since UDA and UDC lost the rights to make NBA trading cards Kobe had to find someone to market with. His comments hold true.

  "I know from my own experience growing up, how fun collecting and trading these products can be. I really believe collecting these products has the power, through the unique emotions of sports, to unify and strengthen bonds within families and across social groups, no matter what age you are. Panini and I are passionate about developing this hobby in many new and exciting ways."

  It was a natural fit for the Italian company and the kid who grew up watching his father Jelly Bean Bryant play in the Italian version of professional basketball. Speaking Italian fluently means a great marketing tool for Italian TV as well. Kobe can address fans in their native tounge and this means a lot to those who have watched TV with subtitles.

  I like Panini and always have. They will bring a fresh new approach to the trading card game even though it will take some time. Having Kobe locked up shows they are serious.

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(PANINI AMERICA) -- I'm sold! Panini just sent dealers and journalists a nice new packet and it actually included something usable. It was a large round basketball mouse pad with the word "Panini" on it. Finally something useful in the mail from a card manufacturer as a freebie outside of shopping bags. I've always liked Panini, my Italian is descent and I have friends and relatives in Italy. OK Panini I've given you a plug, now how about a job?

(RUMORVILLE) -- My how rumors spread. A former customer came up to me this week to pick up her annual Topps Factory Sets. I hold them while she's out of the state for months at a time. Her first question to me was "Is it true none of the card companies are going to make cards will the players on them? Are we still going to be able to get our Topps sets?" I explained the licenscing situation and how it evovled and how only Topps will have guys in their uniforms and logos. Her answer was "Good Topps will be the only real cards then?"

(1991 DONRUSS) -- Six weeks and counting. It has been six weeks since I unveiled my plan to make 1991 Donruss and other products of that era hot and valuable again. No one yet has taken me up on it. Darn it! I tried to get rid of that stuff for you guys but no one would listen. Another tree falling in the forest and lots of lumber was cut from 1986-1993 for trading cards.

(MCFARLANE LTD) -- McFarlane is taking the collector thing to the next level on it's prime action figure line. The Sportspicks figures will carry six different levels of collectibility including MVP which will be limited to up to 50 figures. In this instant collectible world no one yet has figured out what makes the thing collectible and desirable is time and the end user, not the manufacturer today.

(CORRECTION) -- Brad Abbott owns www.Rickeyhendersoncollectibles.com and contacted us to correct us upon stating it was Rickey's site. It is not but he has worked with the Henderson people regarding the site and products. Thank you for letting us know.

The latest Patti Waggin Tale. You have heard me talk about my new book about to hit store shelves on September 28. Well "Fan Letters to a Stripper; A Patti Waggin Tale" has been delayed about a month. It seems the shippers in China put the books on the wrong boat and it's still on the water. They will get to my publishers warehouse October 18. Now as long as Somali Pirates keep their hands off my ship we should be fine. Delayed, but fine. Our book signing at Book Soup in West Hollywood will be on November 1, at 2pm.

Sorry about taking last week off. Just too much to do and ran out of time. You can contact bob at bob.pattiwaggin-AT-gmail-DOT-com

Tags: rudolph baseball to a panini basketball burlesque fan waggin mlb kobe mcfarlane topps soup letters rickey nba book donruss stripper don patti

The Brill Report: Roger Staubach Set Revisited

By Bob Brill

In 1994 friends of mine at the Ted Williams Card Company contacted me about writing the backs of a new trading card set they were producing. I had never done this before but I always longed to and immediately jumped at the job. I was handed the task of writing the backs of the 60 some odd base cards while my good friend Steve Ryan, I learned was chosen to write the insert card backs. The money was good too as I think I was paid about $50 per card. This became a lost art in the 1990's when card manufacturers in an attempt to save money decided to put no text on card backs. Instead there were stats and player details such at home towns and birth dates.

Since Steve and I both came from journalism backgrounds, he in newspaper me in radio as well as print, this seemed like a fun although somewhat daunting task. The end result turned out pretty good and unlike the initial offering of the Ted Williams Baseball Card Set, the Roger Staubach Set was pretty close to free of errors.

Well, I did put Bert Jones in the NFL Hall of Fame but aside from this mistake I think for my part it was error free. My biggest mistake was in assuming someone at the card company was going to be proofing everything I wrote. I learned very late in the game when I had to drop a player or two and add others, this was not the case. So for all my good intentions Bert Jones fans will be thrilled.

"It says right there in black and white on this football card, 'Bert Jones is in the NFL HOF,' and that counts," a fan might counter.

Well I'm here to say don't count on it. The only thing which might justify this error is if someday Bert Jones really is elected to the NFL Hall of Fame. His time may be passed. The first TWCC baseball set was loaded with errors and the company took some heat for it. Not so with what proved to be the only football set TWCC produced. It made one more baseball set, an attempt at basketball and then went out of business.

My real claim to fame in the set is the fact aside from cards produced by Signature Rookies, the O.J. Simpson cards was readily signed by the Juice while he was in jail. I took a strange sort of pride in looking down at a dealer's table noting the Staubach series Simpson card signed in jail, was "my handiwork," minus the signature of course. That was pretty cool.

I remember being instructed when it came to stats on the back I was to choose the players five best years which in most cases was pretty easy. Just look at the stats. There were some players we used however who did not have FIVE good years. Some did but not statistically. For instance Ray Nitschke has only three years of stats on his card while Buck Buchanan has none. What kind of stats do you put for a defensive lineman anyway?

The set was fun and it filled my need for research. I love research and while sometimes I don't do enough of it, finding the facts and putting together a story from them is just way too cool. I relish in it.

There were a lot of questionable guys in the set probably rather because the company could only afford certain guys, while others wanted way too much money. If you are picking the top 60 players of all time why on earth would you put Cardinals QB Jim Hart in this group? He was a four time Pro Bowler and a star during his time but he is not anywhere close to the top 200, let alone 60.

I had trouble with Hart who only completed 51.5% of his passes and threw 36 more interceptions than TD's. This just didn't add up. There were others as well but economics I'm sure played more of a part than sports reality.

There was also an insert set called "Dawning of a Legacy" which featured the Steeler's Neil O'Donnell. We all know how he turned out. He made it to the Super Bowl and became a goat then out of the NFL. Steve told me there were some insert sets he had trouble writing because he had to write so much and not be repetitive. This was surely one of them.

All in all it was a job I loved and would dearly love to do again. It was fun and profitable. And who knows maybe Bert Jones will make it to the HOF afterall. I know if I had a vote he'd be there if nothing more than to just prove myself right.

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(RICKEYHENDERSON.COM) -- It had to happen. Everyone else is doing it so why not Rickey Henderson. Henderson now has a memorabilia website where he sells his signature and other items. He is "the greatest!"

(PURDOM DOES TWO) -- Celebrated Sports artist Bill Purdom is producing two new litho's for the Bill Goff galaries, celebrating Yankee Stadium. The first shows Mariano Rivera throwing the final pitch at the old stadium while the second offers up C.C. Sabathia tossing the first pitch in the new ball park.

(FANTASY NFL) -- Get your FFL picks ready, that is Fantasy Football League. The NFL season is underway officially and it seems as if 75-percent of American males are in a league or two or three. We've noticed the last two years it seems (it seems no hard stats here) as if fewer people are being drawn to FFL. The economy is likely one reason the other is "time."

(DONRUSS A BUST?) -- SO is nobody going to offer to take us up on our idea to rejuvinate the likes of 1991 Donruss and 1988 Topps. Read the last two columns if you don't know what we're talking about but we are serious here.

You can reach Bob at bob.pattiwaggin-AT-gmail-DOT-com. You can also visit his website www.pattiwaggin.com, to read about his new book coming out shortly, or to pre-order it. "Fan Letters to a Stripper; A Patti Waggin Tale" details the life in photos and fan letters of burlesque queen Patti Waggin and her husband, White Sox and Senators pitcher, Don Rudolph. Check it out.

Tags: hall purdom roger goff rudolph ted patti staubach jones fame henderson of bill brill waggin hof ryan steve bert rickey williams don bob