Mar

22

Letter to Commissioner Bud Selig

Posted by Greg | Filed Under News | 

Dear Commissioner:

It was reported today in the Cape Cod Times that Major League Baseball continues to negotiate with the Cape Cod Baseball League for a license and revenue deal for the merchandise of six Cape league teams bearing the names of Major league teams — the Mariners, A’s, Cardinals, Braves, Red Sox and Mets. 

With all due respect, Commissioner Selig, you’ve made a mistake with respect to Cape Cod Baseball.  You can still avoid the sin of making this amateur baseball league that produces your stars of the future pay anything more than $6 per year to Major League Baseball.  

I am not a lawyer (I’m just an opinionated fan), but I do understand MLB’s need to license its names and logos.  In intellectual property law, as I understand it, he who fails to protect his property loses his property.  So I get the need for the CCBL to enter into a license agreement for merchandise.  But what I don’t understand is why MLB would want to take profits from amateur baseball.  Why not license the team names and logos for $1 per year? 

Why make headlines that reinforce the image of greed in an era of steroids and rampant player contracts (not to mention a nearly $200 per game average cost for a family of 4)?

Rather than allowing it to come to this, you should have deepened MLB’s relationship and support for the six teams bearing MLB logos.  The pride that fans, sponsors, players and parents feel for these Cape League teams is really the heart and soul of your sport. 

Why not call the Cape League commissioner today and say, “sorry, let’s get the lawyers out of this.  Here’s the deal, you give us $6 per year to use our team names and logos.  And because we all love baseball and recognize the vital role of the Cape league, let us know how we can help to support you more.” 

The MLB has shown recently that it is capable of helping amateur baseball in meaningful ways.   The Major League Basebal Urban Youth Academy in Compton, Calif., brought UCLA and USC baseball together with Historically Black College baseball (Bethune-Cookman and Southern) to provide more exposure to great college baseball for low-income and minority kids.  Perhaps the MLB could help more HBC players get a shot on the Cape.

Mr. Commissioner, you serve in a unique position — the top job in the world’s best sport.  Cape Cod Baseball is the best showcase and proving ground for your future.  I encourage you to reject dollars from amateur baseball and instead unleash the creativity of your staff on a more positive course — how to support Cape League baseball.

Comments

14 Responses to “Letter to Commissioner Bud Selig”

  1. Patrick on March 22nd, 2008 3:32 pm

    Well said.

  2. Andrew on March 22nd, 2008 11:06 pm

    The intellectual property issue that Greg touched upon is what baffles me the most. MLB has supported the Cape for (correct me if I’m wrong) at least 20 years. That means that they have known about the team names since then and have neglected to say a word. The league operates with very few year-round personnel and teams work very hard to raise money.

    I’m sure the Cape would be fine purchasing materials from MLB vendors if the price was the same or subsidized by MLB. But, making the league pay more and lose out on merchandise sales just does not make any sense. If MLB is looking to make money, they should not be looking at the Cape. If they just want to protect the team names, then they should do as Greg proposed.

    The CCBL may be getting more corporate (as evidenced by the Under Armour All-Star Game), but games will forever be donation-only and played in front of families sitting on beach chairs. That said, I’m sure the league would be happy to hang a few more MLB banners, or put some more logos on programs. That wouldn’t bother me; I like the MLB, or at least I thought I did.

  3. Greg on March 23rd, 2008 12:48 am

    A law firm blog has a good summary of the dispute — http://ssbooth.com/ssbooth/archives/37

  4. Scott on March 24th, 2008 1:47 pm

    I agree whole-heartedly. I *AM* a lawyer, and I think MLB is being extremely pig-headed about the issue, and I find it baffling. I think your suggestion, Greg, of $1 per year would be a great one that would allow MLB to protect its trademarks and at the same time encourage a great league and a continued relationship with MLB.

    MLB must protect its trademarks in order to be immune from trademark abandonment claims — which is why when you ask for Pepsi and an establishment serves Coke, the legally proper thing for the server to do is to say, “Is Coke alright?” rather than just serving you Coke. Both companies send reps around the country to dining establishments on a regular basis to check on this.

    But a licensing fee of $1 would get around the issue - MLB is protecting it but offering a steep discount to a valued affiliate in amateur baseball. Moreover, even the dimmest of accountants can see that MLB could then write off the “discount” as a donation.

    I personally have always wanted the Cape League to change the names of the teams that share names w/ MLB — I think the Cape League in many ways is far superior and should disaggregate from MLB’s trademarks. But the point is well taken that MLB gets a lot of publicity from the use of the names, and when the players from the CCBL invariably wind up in MLB, the relationship continues to grow stronger.

    Frankly, this could be a blessing in disguise, though. If teams are forced to change their names to avoid forking over much-needed funds to MLB, communities will be able to come up with fresh names that reflect the community and not some far-off MLB franchise. And MLB will take a publicity hit on this one in amateur baseball circles, at a time when they can ill afford much more bad pr. I think this will work out for the CCBL either way but it will be interesting to see how it plays out, and if MLB removes its head from its posterior long enough to see that what it’s doing is damaging one of its chief sources of scouting and recruiting.

  5. bill on March 24th, 2008 6:54 pm

    As a former player from the Cape I was both saddened and disgusted with the recent MLB stance about licensing and naming rights. The availability of collecting nominal licensing fees from the CCBL and acknowledgement of MLB trademarks more than adequately protects MLB interests unless its motivation is strictly financial. In the end it is the fans and locals of the CCBL who are penalized. Their pride and efforts be damned…If things are that bad for MLB perhaps it should request players of CCBL teams to “pass the hat” on its behalf this season..or stated more succintly the $100,000 contributed by MlB to CCBL equates to approximately 5 1/2 innings of pay for Alex Rodriguez

  6. Frankie Piliere on March 25th, 2008 7:56 pm

    Hey guys,

    Long time reader and lurker. I scouted the Cape League last summer for an MLB team and am part-time scouting again this summer…this site’s a great resource. Myself an my partner who also has experience working in scouting have started up a website: http://saberscouting.com/

    I’ve already got a couple reports on Cape alum up on the site. Hope you get a chance to check it out and enjoy them.

    And, to the administrators of this site, we’d like to add you to our blogroll.

    Thanks,

    Frankie Piliere

  7. Greg on March 25th, 2008 11:09 pm

    Welcome, Frankie, and thanks for the heads up on your website. I’ve looked at it briefly and can tell that it will be helpful. Keep up the good work.

  8. Dave on March 26th, 2008 8:21 am

    Very well said in your letter, Greg. Unfortunately, it seems that Commissioner Selig and the other honchos at MLB don’t read CodBall or any other media. Public comments that I have read in various sites is almost unanimous in support of the CCBL and against MLB’s stance. Dugout Central reported last night that the Hyannis Mets will be changing their name: http://www.dugoutcentral.com/blog/?p=1159

  9. CapeMan on March 26th, 2008 12:36 pm

    That report appears to be incorrect. The Hyannis Mets have posted a message on their website contradicting any internet reports regarding a name change. See here…. http://www.hyannismets.org/

  10. Dave on March 26th, 2008 2:45 pm

    Thanks for the correction, CapeMan. That is good news. I checked the Hyannis website this morning before posting that, but obviously that info was not there at that time. My son was listening to the Red Sox game while driving to work this morning and he said that this was a topic of discussion during the broadcast. The announcers said Hyannis would be changing their nickname. He called to tell me what he heard and I then checked Dugout Central and found that info that backed up what the broadcasters were talking about. It’s kind of funny that the info - even though it proved to be untrue - made its way to Japan !
    I’m glad the report was erroneous. Maybe MLB will end up doing the right thing afterall. It is absurd that it was even given a thought in the MLB offices, let alone that it has gone this far.

  11. Denver Souza on March 30th, 2008 10:27 am

    hi, my name is Denver Souza and im 20 years old, and i was wondering if i could get some help on where i could sign up for baseball or softball this summer, i did play baseball in california but i had to stop because of knee injury, now im 100%, and i was looking to play some ball to get my rhythm back.
    thank you

  12. Denver Souza on March 30th, 2008 10:28 am

    I live in hyannis,ma

  13. Andrew on March 30th, 2008 11:03 am

    Hey Denver,

    The Cape Cod Baseball League and NECBL are invite-only (and you need to be a full-time college student in a baseball program), but there may be other options for you:
    http://www.cranberryleague.com/ is one I would look into.

  14. Denver Souza on April 3rd, 2008 10:25 pm

    thank you andrew
    i sent them an email asking about tryout dates and stuff like that..
    thank you

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