How did ootp get the rights to use the likeness of all these players?

[Patsy Tebeau]

As the king of asking stupid questions, i must ask how did ootp get the likeness to use all these random players, especially minor leaguers from a century and a half ago, as well as college players. Using the b ref ID's i was literally able to import some guys who i used to play with into the game and they didnt get checks or anything as far as i can tell. Does it have something to do with the fact that the pictures are fictional so it doesn't count as actually using their likeness or something? MLB the show doesnt include a lot of good players I wanted to see for years now for such reasons so thats what made me wonder this.

[LansdowneSt]

I presume it is a fictional facegen given the type of player you describe. It is not a likeness of them in that case. Anyone can have "random generic face type X" assigned to them by turning on fictional facegens. For facegens that actually look like the people, OOTP ships with only licensed facegens.