As if Major League Baseball (MLB) doesn't have enough on its plate with a tainted Barry Bonds chasing Hank Aaron's precious home run record and Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr. both closing in on 600 career home runs, now they are threatening the fantasy baseball leagues!! Come on, give me a break, isn't anything sacred and just about the love of the game?!! Oh, yeah, there are lawyers involved!
MLB lawyers are demanding that fantasy leagues, of which there are hundreds--no--thousands-- pay a licensing fee to the MLB for players names and statistics. One particularly sane judge--must have been a bad lawyer cause he's doing the right thing --said "MLB is like a public religion. This is just part of being an American, isn't it?" Thank you U.S. Judge Morris Arnold for being a voice of sanity in an insane grab for more money. A lower court denied MLB's request for licensing--thank you Babe Ruth's ghost!!
Fantasy leagues are made up of frustrated, normally male, adults trying to recapture the glory of years gone by. Because playing skills may be a memory for these adult-players, analytical skills of putting together a fantasy team stoke the flames that make us great baseball aficionados. Baseball players from the MLB teams are drafted by these fantasy players and the only way to gage success is by using the actual baseball players statistics. The court has ruled that statistics are a matter of public record!
Some media giants like Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) operate fantasy leagues and remit to MLB licensing fees. This is not, however, the basis for squeezing the thousands of other fantasy leagues. Yahoo generates revenues from the advertisements surrounding the fantasy league pages. Most fantasy leagues charge an entrance fee, but you know what? No one's really getting rich off of these leagues.
Commissioner Bud Selig needs to weigh in on this issue and get his lawyers off the case. The goodwill that the commissioner could generate by dropping this ridiculous request for licensing fees would far outweigh any monetary rewards. Baseball recovered from the strike-shortened season of 1994- Cal Ripken Jr.'s surpassing Lou Gehrig's consecutive games played record helped re-elevate the stature of the game in 1995.Then, with the McGwire- Sosa home run chase of 1998, the romance of baseball came back only to get kicked in the gut by the whole steroids issue.
Saints preserved--the Red Sox came back from an 0-3 deficit to crush the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship series and went on to win their first World Series in some 86 years. Baseball was back!! Miracles were still possible...little kids could dream about becoming baseball players again!!
Now with the Barry Bonds-Jason Giambi steroid fiasco, the commissioner needs to follow Judge Morris Arnold and do the right thing. Darn it, don't mess with our American pastime!!
Georges Yared is the CIO of Yared Investment Research and an avid baseball fan!! Go hometown Cleveland Indians!!
Entrepreneur's Journal: Key steps for telesales success
The week in preview: Focus returns to earnings: Alcoa, Chevron, Family Dollar
Comfort Zone Investing: Survival of the fittest -- letting some banks fail
