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Baseball Cracks Down on Fan Sites
serutan writes: "Looks like Major League Baseball has joined other players in the big-media content industry to crack down on fans who overstep their proper place as consumers. Anybody with a website dedicated to America's favorite pastime better read this story on Yahoo."
You really would think that baseball, of all sports, could do with some good publicity, what with all the strikes going on. Shooting yourself in the foot all the time will only drive away those casual fans, and hence revenue. Deary, deary me.
The owners expect us, the fans, to believe the players are greedy bastards and then they pull a stunt like this. It's things like this which make me think the players union isn't that bad.
maybe after they go bankrupt they'll realize thier mistakes.
Sorry about that, I should cut back on caffeine
Be wary of any facts that confirm your opinion.
These people make me want to shove a bat where the sun doesn't shine.
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
I'm shocked that the industry would do something like this! Oh, wait, no i'm not... Its probably all done on the advice of lawyers trying to justify their own existence (and jobs) by making trouble. Dont you just hate people like that?
"Ask a stupid person, get a stupid answer"
I suspect sports fans are to a large degree, goosesteppers. The hive mind, the joy of being one with the crowd, the need to be rooting for a team.
Now if this were about football (and I'm not talking about the kind of "foot"ball where you carry the ball) then I'd get upset.
But seriously, who cares about baseball anymore. It's not like the strike of '95ish didn't kill attendance at games, and there are more exciting sports to watch (australian rules "football" for example). Most of the people I know think baseball is a pain in the ass in the tv schedule, with games running 9 or whatever-the-hell extra innings.
That said, this is a brilliant move on their part, nothing like pissing off hardcore fans to drum up hatred against the the MLB and lower their tv ratings to the level of donahue's new show.
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...is that the site owners who were hassled were trying to make money from their sites.
I don't think *any* corporation has a problem with fan sites that are put together as a resource or community for their subject matter. Most of them are even generous about letting them use their IP.
What becomes an issue is when the owners of those sites decide to try and use their position for their own gain - for example, selling unauthorized merchandise, as at least one of the people quoted in the article did.
This is simply the difference between running a Star Trek fan site and using your site to sell bootleg CDRs of the episodes. Even if you're just covering the cost of hosting, it's still a crime, and naive to think that any copyright holder will allow it.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
The NFL is one of the few major businesses which has a modicum of sense. Consider this quote:
What the NFL realizes is that fan sites are good: they are free promotion (I know a few people who ran a Scottish Claymores fansite. When the club decided to do a new official site, they hired them to do it), and the people who run and read those sites are the hardcore fans, who either shell out hundreds of dollars a year for season tickets or who subscribe to the NFL Sunday Ticket.
Yet again baseball shoots itself in the foot, thanks to a management that has been slow to adapt to any change over the past 80 years. For instance, as late as 1930, none of the three New York teams allowed radio coverage of the games for fear that it would cut into the gate. It wasn't until the 70's that baseball teams began allowing televising of all games.
They're just mixing the great american pastimes of baseball and lawsuits.
Imagine if sites dedicated to rounders were removed in the UK.....
Major League Baseball is aiming for mlb.com to be a supper site that meets all baseball fan needs. I would guess that the director of the mlb.com asked the legal division to rain in the none mlb.com sites a little bit with the aim of increasing their own sites hits and revenue.
This is a pretty good strategy for baseball actually. First is provides uniformity to there product. If all fans start there baseball related news gathering by going to mlb.com you get a central influence on news and hype. Second it produces general revenue. This is exactly what baseball needs right now. Of course no general revenue source can overcome the local revenue associated with ticket sales; but baseball needs to look for as much shared revenue as possible in order to reestablish parity. A fan site devoted to the Yankees is taking eyeballs from advertising that benifits all teams.
I have been converted. I think mlb.com is the best professional sports web portal. I used to go the WGN to listen to Cubs baseball on the web but mlb.com centralized web broadcasting of baseball games. I still can hear the Cubs with WGN broadcasters but I have the pay the $10 a season on mlb.com. For this $10 you get the ability to listen to every other team also. And I am guessing the revenue is shared.
Since I like the Cubs it is bad in a way that my dollars are shared but for all the fans of Yankees and Mets doing the same thing, it is good for me and the Cubs that some of their dollars are shared.
Fan sites are just what baseball needs, as it's popularity has been seriously declining over years, being sidelined by more trendy sports such as basketball (which in itself is a joke, as it's 8 foot tall black guys throwing a ball into a hoop a foot above them). The article mentioned that they had advertising on their sites (and thus could in theory make money, which the teams wouldn't want) but most sites these days need advertising just to cover bandwidth costs. It's baseball digging it's own grave.
But then again, who here really cares about sports anyway?
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
So .. in short, you're more than welcome to run a baseball fan site just so long as you don't use the team logos without permission to bring people to the site or make some money.
This is hardly an infringement of civil rights. It's their logo, if you don't have permission to use it or you're trying to make a buck off it, then they have every right to close you down.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
good thing soccer only exists in the US then, the rest of the world plays football. Coincidence? I think not.. ;) //rdj
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
When I was growing up I never watched american soccer and baseball, I always watched NFL and NBA. I still watch NFL and NBA but I also watch soccer. Guess what, I still don't watch baseball. Nobody I know watches MLB, its too boring. They just read the scores in the paper while they're in the shitter. Hopefully the MLB goes out of business so America can get a new pastime. I think my favorite sport now is soccer.
take me out to the crowds
......
where i'll pay 10 dollars for cracker jack
wont have enough money to drive my car back
Lets build the giants a stadium
let the panhandlers sleep on the street
cause it's 1 2 3 strikes your out
Fuck it, Its 4:30, cartoons are on.
"It's business, not personal, baseball officials said. " Thank God for the Industrial Revolution and the separation of personal and professional life. It allows us to be truly shitty and unreasonable to gobs of people and not feel a bit of guilt over the suffering it causes. This tactic is especially enjoyable if it results in cash or prizes.
Maybe they use the same PR firm as the RIAA.
It's been dying for a long time, but this is just the nail in the coffin.
You obviously aren't a sports fan. I'm not either but I have two things to say: A) Basketball is a much more entertaining and high-energy sport than baseball and thusly has a much larger comtemporary following. Do some research and you'll find I'm correct. B) Your thinly-veiled racist comment about basketball players makes you look ignorant. . .and kind of like an a**hole.
I hope the sport dies, then maybe it can be reborn as what it should be, an American pasttime.
Personally, I don't care for baseball, I think it's a boring sport. But, I know people who like it, and most of them have quit paying attention to it these days because they're sick of the BS, except for tuning in now and then for a good laugh at the players, etc. I really hope the sport will eventually be reborn for these fans who actually enjoy the sport.
I'm sure there will be a hundred more comments just like mine, but that will certainly say something about America's "pasttime"...
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
What if he's Italian? Then I guess it would be calcio. Can you say "calcio," dullard. Don't cry.
I'm a bot. See me in action as "Dead to Rights" in alt.games.video.xbox
American football has maybe a fifth of that and its TV ratings are constantly on top. Not to mention it almost always packs 50,000-seat stadiums to capacity, even if tickets are $50 (or in many cases much more).
A shorter regular season would make everything worthwhile. No more 30 minutes of highlights on the 11 'oclock news. No more sparsely populated million dollar stadiums (which, urgh, my tax dollars paid for). It would make the game far more exciting, for every game counts tenfold. Teams wouldn't be able to say, "Too bad we lost...oh well we have another 80 games to make it up..."
Dys.
This comment is brought to you by the drug caffiene, and the number 5.
good thing soccer only exists in the US then, the rest of the world plays football. Coincidence? I think not.. ;) //rdj
;-)
No, no, no, no, no... you english have it all wrong... You guys call soccer football, and you call football Rugby! Sheesh!
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
The simple fact of the matter is that trademark/patent law has failed its original purpose: protect the little guy. In this case, devoted fans we not diluting the MLB trademarks but were actually helping to promote it. The next thing you know, people doing reviews of products will be targeted because they aren't "officially" endorsed. I urge people to ignore these phony cease & desist letters. You have a right to freedom of speech and expression, which clearly these people were exercising. In no way did their acts impede the rights of MLB. It's high time we legislate away frivilous trademark litagation, making illegal to sue private individuals for hosting a fan site. People just need to stand up and tell these A*#holes to F&*k off. The more people who do it, the less effective their tactics become. Eventually, this type of expression will make it to the Supreme Court where (hopefully) it will be upheld under the first amendment. All that's required is a few childeren getting on CNN or something similar to cause some outrage in America.
Cricket has a draw system for long games, and one day games have limits in the number of balls bowled (that's pitched to the ignorant). Far superior technically too. American sports all suffer from one thing: "jock" culture. Whilst there are exceptions, most of it is about sponsorship, hitting hard, stopping frequently for commercials, and statistics. *yawn*
Soccer is by far the best sport in terms of accessibility, simplicity of rules, and yet eventual complexity of the game. Great footballers are always those with the best touch, not just some hard kicker, agressive player, etc. Plenty other sports are around which are superior to baseball anyway. None of us outside the US even care, we just laugh that a sport like baseball could have been so popular in the first place.
Conversion Rate Optimisation French / English consultant
1) There was a strike. For then the fans would have left and certainly some teams would have gone bankrupt.
2) That this crack-down nonsense would end. For it is these types of fans that baseball would need the next time it goes on strike.
3) That baseball would die. Sure its America's favorite past time, but its also starting to look like America's biggest problem! GREED!!!
Major League Baseball casts Americans in the worst light possible. Here is a sport where some of the top paid players can't speak a word of English, but worst still, these players seem less inteligent then other sports (next to boxing and football).
Tournament Management Online &
Both are doing their best to turn their customers into thieves and through their policy actively encourage their most loyal fans to seek other sources of entertainment!
My prediction? Both the RIAA and MLB will need to loose big money before they wake up!
Oh, and Canadians.. Congradulations on showing the Blue Jays and Expos just what would of happened with a strike... and a 15% drop in CD sales in Canada... Good job!!!
Tournament Management Online &
Is this where we get to make the gag about baseball having a world series that is only for American teams? (I'd heard Cubans and Japanese are pretty good at baseball but they don't seem to take part)
Even cricket has more countries playing at the top level...
Soccer also exists in Australia and Canada. "Football" probably doesn't exist in most non-English speaking lands. It's highly possible that if you threw all English-speaking people together, showed them a man kicking a black and white ball, asked them what it was called, that most would say "soccer". But it's not likely, as I think they call it "football" in India.
To me this is a case of operating within one's rights, to the detriment of one's business. Baseball has done this in spades for as long as I can remember, and it's finally beginning to affect the business.
I have had season tickets to a major league baseball team for the past ten years, meaning that during that time I have seen over 750 games (I've had to miss a few due to business trips, etc.). The basic attitude of the team and MLB in general, seems to be that fans are obligated to attend, regardless of how they are treated.
Probably the best example of this is the stadium's "security" policy regarding material one may bring to the games. I would like to bring in things like a score book, media guide, binoculars, sunscreen, pencils, etc., but they won't allow a bag larger than 8-1/2" x 11" (21.5 cm x 28 cm) into the stadium--even if you let them search the bag, or even empty it out at the feet of the inspector. The bag itself is not permitted, for some reason. However, they *will* allow women's purses and infants' diaper bags of any size, and they don't perform body searches or use metal detectors--whatever is in your pockets or under your clothes is yours to keep.
What they *think* they are accomplishing by this I cannot imagine, but I can say what they *are* accomplishing: As a result of this policy I can always tell a new, prospective fan, going to a game for the first time--I pass him walking back out to the parking lot as I am walking in, carrying the bag or knapsack he quite reasonably expected to be able to take to the game. Or I pass him at the inspector's station at the stadium entrance, presenting rational but useless arguments and expressions of surprise and disbelief to the bored workers there. As a business, the team has the right to set up rules for all those who enter, but the team shouldn't complain when no one bothers to come any more, and new fans prove difficult to attract. It's always been a puzzle to me how baseball owners could have business acumen sufficient to amass personal fortunes, yet run major league baseball as if they were the stupidest form of life on the planet.
This kind of behavior is rampant in MLB and, barring an unforeseen turnaround, may soon enable baseball to reach the popularity of those other major sports of the 1950's--boxing and horse racing.
Bart: You're probably wondering about the coat hangers. They're to ...
block the satellite that's been spying on me.
Marge: [with trepidation] Okay
Bart: It can read your electric organizer from space.
Homer: Even mine? [Bart takes it and smashes it] Hey, I had
Lenny's name on that!
Bart: They have it now.
Lisa: Who are they, exactly?
Bart: Who else? Major League Baseball.
http://www.snpp.com/episodes/AABF22
What are you saying, I should cut back on coke too?
Be wary of any facts that confirm your opinion.
yada yada yada... you didn't think I was really gonna type all that out did you?
I'm a dutchman... we don't play rugby either, and I watch my 'voetbal' in a coffeeshop.
//rdj
then again, dutch coffeeshops have about as much to do with coffee as american football has to do with feet (or balls...)
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
Wrong. The term is used in many (if not most) non-english speaking countries.
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
~~~
I was hoping the two sides would be dumb enough to allow a strike to happen, but I was wrong. Now, will someone please take this sport out back and put a bullet through it. Football season starts in six days.
As a teenager, I used to buy tickets in the "bleechers" with my friends to watch the most talented Montreal Expos ever. We were going to make it to the series and they came with the strike, cancelled the series and because of the lack of money, the following winter, we lost all our good players.
I never went back, bought anything anymore or watch or listened to anything associated with MLB ever since.
There is much better sports anyways
Bryan Hoch, the guy who operated metsonline before the clueless fucktards at MLB closed it down is now being paid to write a column called METS ONLINE for Fox Sports.
Watching Cowboy Bebop in my jammies, eating a bowl of Shreddies.
Honestly this whole week is a /. "Everything in the whole world is shit, I alone am great and all knowning" moment.
This used to be such a nice neighborhood how it's just a skater wannabe strip mall.
Sports should be played, not watched. Nuff said.
Its the fan made websites and not the greedy players, owners, and union that have ruined the game. Close down the sites. All I can say is thank God it is football season or there might be a .001% chance that I would give a damn.
'Same speed C but faster'
*bzsdft*
There was a penalty on the play -- simultaneous English-language elitism and bad grammar in the same sentence. 15 yards and repeat the post.
*bzsdft*
Apparently MLB Properties hassled the Houston Astros site without the knowledge of the Houston Astros. In "A note to any newcomers to the Astos Daily" dated yesterday and featured prominently on their home page, Ray Kerby, the owner of http://www.astrosdaily.com said, "I just ant to make it clear that the Houston Astros had nothing to do with the "Cease & Desist" letter sent to me by MLB Properties on July 5th."
The Houston Astos themselves helped resolve the problem between astrostoday.com and MLB Properties which revolved around the use of player photographs. Kerby says that he was a guest of Astros owner Drayton Mclane at a game Sunday just to show there are no hard feelings.
While I, personally, have elected to boycott professional sports in their entirety due to their attitude of "screw the fans... build us another stadium or we'll leave" attitude, at least in this case the team behaved properly. And the site itself (astrostoday.com) is a very good fan site.
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!
Am I the only one to spot the irony of history?
Two messages side by side: one about Google being censored in China, the other about baseball fans being persecuted for publishing on internet. There are a lot of lessons here.
Read more about it here.
Evil is the money of root.
hawk
I love baseball, but MLB has consistently refused to get with the program and shake up the paradigm that they built decades ago. When's the last time the Yankees weren't a contender? When's the last time the Dodgers were so bad that nobody could seriously give them any hope of winning their division? Since Turner came along, Atlanta has always been in the running, season after season. The big market teams have huge amounts of money to lavish on the top players, the little guys don't. It's that simple.
Look at the NFL, on the other hand. In the last few years in particular, every season has been exciting, because it's anyone's guess as to which teams will be the most powerful. There are dynasties in football, but they're nothing like the dynasties in baseball. The Cowboys of the 70s, the 49ers of the 90s, sure. But compare that to the Yankees of the 20th Century, and you see that competition is alive and well in the NFL, but not in MLB.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
I was majorly disappointed when those pricks hammered out a deal on Friday. I was completely hoping they would strike, and drive the final stake through the heart of MLB, and that of their own livelihoods.
Players: Millionaire crybabies paid twice the money in one night to play a fucking GAME, than I earn in a year working hard at my real job.
Owners: Billionaire crybabies, getting tax breaks and taxpayer money to build stadiums I can't afford to set foot in-- not that it matters, because all the good seats have already been sold to their corporate sponsors, and I'd be stuck behind some support column in far right field.
How do either of these groups expect any sympathy at all from the people who now have to spend damn near a week's pay to park at the stadium and buy tickets, food and beverages for a family of four? Fuck those assholes.
And now cracking down on the few remaining fans who still love the game, by releasing the copyright/trademark hounds on them? Great move, Baseball. Hilary Rosen must be proud.
A friend of mine has been running PhilsPhans.com since the beginning of this year with a focus on forum discussions, in response to many people who complained about the forums at the official site being crowded with spammers. The site gathered popularity among Phillies fans pretty quickly, and soon a lot of users from the official Phillies forums switched to the little new site. About a month or so ago, he received a letter from the Phillies ordering him to shut down his site due to "trademark infringement"; their claim was that the word "phils" is their property, and thus he can't use it as part of the site's name. How could anyone trademark such a common word is beyond logic, but since he doesn't have the resources to fight this, so he's being forced to move the site to a different domain.
In Soviet Russia, Jesus asks: "What Would You Do?"
Throaty masculine voice:
Football is rigidly timed and the game WILL end even if we have to go to Sudden Death.
Simpering squealy voice:
In Baseball, you don't know when it's gonna end. We might even have to have extra innings.....
George Carlin
Actually, you're right to some extent even for me, a rabid diehard baseball fan. It stopped being interesting when they introduced interleague play and football[NFL]-style playoffs, with wildcards and more divisions. It took away something that's hard to explain -- about how it's more fun to follow your team with loyal hope even if they're lost in the basement, than it is when anybody and their brother can make the playoffs.
Supposedly these changes were made to draw more fans, but apparently I'm not alone in my feelings about it, because since then, attendance has dropped 20%. Which is more than the rising price of tickets could account for by itself (consider that movie theatre tickets have risen at a similar pace without killing their audience).
Tho this notion that a star pitcher is worth $120M annual salary cuts into the fun, too. (Scale for everyday players is what, somewhere around $200k now? Yeah, that's real parity.) Now that's supply and demand run amok. Yeah, there are very damn few major-league calibre pitchers (ill-considered expansion went to prove that there really *are* only about 600 truly ML-quality players in the world at any given moment) but there comes a point when I'd rather watch enthusiastic youngsters in local college games, where this sort of massive egoboo hasn't yet tainted their attitudes.
BTW, I also love American football, and Australian-rules football is great too. But the best was the mad enthusiasm of the World League (as I think it was called) -- NFL rules meets Aussie go-gettum!!
As you also point out -- yeah, killing fannish activities is a really great way to encourage fan loyalty. NOT!!
There's talk of Tommy Lasorda as the next baseball commissioner -- and he's always said that baseball is about the *fans*. If he gets the seat, I'd like to see him put his money where his mouth is, and *encourage* fan websites. Don't hold your breath.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Let's not neglect Korea, who is also becoming more prominient in the MLB as time goes on,
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
Baseball is NOT a game of action. It's a game of *anticipation*. There's a huge chess game going on in the background ALL the time, between rival players and rival managers. Baseball is really about microplays, not the macroplays (frex, home runs) that are visible to the untrained eye. The microplay can be something like the player on first taking half a step toward second, thus throwing the pitcher's rhythm off so maybe he'll hang a curveball, and "You hang 'em, we bang 'em." Or conversely maybe the pitcher holds the ball half a second longer, to freeze the runner who was just about to take off for second, and oops, now he's pick-off bait. This sort of thing goes on *constantly* throughout every game, but you have to learn to see it. Even something as small as someone shifting their weight from one foot to the other can be a significant microplay.
:)
:)
It's like the difference between a programmer and a user. Does the user see or appreciate all the beautiful or ugly code that's under the hood? Nope, the user just sees the macro-effect on his screen. But another coder will see and appreciate what's going on behind the CRT. Baseball fans are the programmers of the sporting world.
When a game goes slowly it's usually due to a pitcher who dilly-dallies between pitches, which has the bad side effect that his fielders behind him get stale and lose concentration (and while occasionally it's to screw with the batter's concentration, just as often it means the pitcher isn't sure of his next pitch and is procrastinating). The steadier pitchers usually get ball, get sign, throw pitch, and don't step off the mound unless it's to hold a runner on base (who might otherwise take off).
"Throw strikes. Home plate don't move." -- Satchel Paige
Tho that brings up another point. Pitching is NOT just about throwing the ball so hard that the batter can't catch up with it. It's much more about fooling the batter into swinging at a bad pitch, ie. a pitch that he can't do anything useful with, so he makes an out. It's a lot more efficient to get your 27 outs with 27 ground balls or pop-ups than it is to throw 27 strikeouts.
Conversely hitting isn't just about getting the ball past everyone. It's about putting the ball where no fielder can do anything *useful* with it. Watch the entire infield fall on their noses when some clever batter unexpectedly dribbles a piddly little bunt that barely makes it out of the batter's box.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Personally, I was hoping the overpaid jerks would strike. After they took their money and went home before the All "Star" game was over, I haven't paid any attention to the "sport." MLB's attitude seems to be that the fans are stupid enough to take whatever they dish out. The fact that the ballparks are still filled and televised games are getting ratings proves they're right. Jumping on fan websites just shows once again that they're only in it for the money, and the fans can go screw themselves as long as they'll stay stupid enough to shell out the bucks.
there's lots of baseball sites that MLB encourages, among them are baseball-almanac.com and the various sabermetrics sites (like http://www.baseball1.com/c-sabr.html )...
these sites *talk* about baseball, and provide lots of insight, they just don't attempt to portray themselves as official sites, and they produce their own artwork and design. A lot of the pages that get 'foxed' are full of graphics, photos, and information (including trademarks within urls) that the sites' producers simply don't have the rights to re-transmit. The graphic designer that produced last year's world series logo deserves payment for it's use, just as Derek Jeter deserves the right to control who uses his image, or, moreso, perhaps, those who've PAID Derek Jeter for the exclusive right to his image deserve to retain those exclusive rights.
Look at the baseballhalloffame.org site (which, while having a good relationship with the MLB, has no official tie to any current or former league). You'll not see any logos, images, etc. that they don't own the rights to, even though they're obviously "serving the fans", and have a great relationship with professional and amateur baseball at all levels.
There's nothing wrong with "posting information, pure and simple". The sites that do that aren't the ones receiving letters from the MLB.
Many people in India speak English, it was a colony. It is easily one of the two most common languages there. In the future it may become the most common language for various reasons. There are hundreds to thousands of languages in India, but only two really common languages - hindi and English. But hindi is only spoken in India, so many people are putting more emphasis in learning English as it is a universal language.
A Usenet Troll Triumphs on Slashdot
Whether it sounds the same or if it's of the form , no, it isn't the same term. It's in another language, and for the purpose of figuring out whether the English word for you-know-what is football, it's not relevant.
Also just a little bit of small print from the MLB website...
"The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.
-- Espionage_07 or God_Father_Ye
This puts MLB neck and neck with the RIAA labels. Perhaps some enterprising slashdotter ought to set up death watch pools for each of these markets... set up an acceptable definition for industry death (MLB declaring bankruptcy? 3 of the 5 RIAA major labels closing?) either for fun or profit... so we can start entering our guesses as to when these industry segments will crash and burn.
Tech Public Policy stuff
In spanish they actually call it futbol, which is as close as they can actually come to saying football with their spanish accents.
In Chinese, they say zuqiu, zu meaning foot and qiu meaning sport.
if MLB tries to take away the site of my beloved NY Yankees Bleacher Creatures, they are becoming beyond fuct up.
the Creatures have gone to lengths making sure they don't have anything copyrighted by MLB on their site. the only thing remotely conflicting are pictures of the creatures at the games.
Anybody with a website dedicated to America's favorite pastime...
There goes the last profitable sector of the web...pr0n.
I guess the two fans who run websites on the internet dedicated to MLB have to close up shop.
It's not like anyone visited those sites anyways.
Take me out to the ball game.
Take me out with the young upwardly-mobile demographic.
Buy me some peanuts and trademarked carmel-coated popcorn.
I don't care if the players smoke crack.
Let me root, root, root for the first-round draft picks.
If they don't win, they don't care...
For it's pay, pay, pay or they strike
and there's no ball game.
astrosdaily.com is completely non-profit.
We were "hassled" by MLB Properties for two things:
-- displaying historical logos in our historical section. All of the logos except one are no longer used by the team
-- displaying player photos in which a logo is visible on his uniform.
The letter was sent by MLB Properties. When the Astros found out about it, they made it clear that they did not want the site to shut down.
Funny, once a little common sense was used then a compromised was found that allowed the site to stay up with player photos.
Ray Kerby
www.AstrosDaily.com
only 1 of the 6 sites I'm aware of was selling merchandise. 2 others had ads.
Never let facts get in the way of a good argument, I guess.
Ray Kerby
www.AstrosDaily.com
Here is a great list of contact information for Major League Baseball: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/official_info/ml b_official_info.jsp
Pretend I said something meaningful or insightful here.
Thai Linux Penguin
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
They weren't bootlegging merchandise, they were reselling it. There's nothing wrong with buying an item and reselling it. It's not like they're /printing/ the shit. MLB gets the money somehow. MLBshould applaud this, it just gets more people selling their wares, it's called an affiliate program: getting more people to use and sell your product.
what does a newspaper do? Imagine if they had to black out the logo on every jersey in every photo.
They reproduce IP and logos, and guess what, smart guy, they sell advertising too!
Wrong, apparently....
... I personally saw the term misused in Europe more than once when I lived there).
From snopes urban legend page linked on other comment:
Origins: For nearly a century now, baseball's annual championship, the World Series, has been an essential American ritual...
Snopes is a great resource for debunking Urban Myth's and Legends, but I am curious if there are additional citations available. Why?
Because checks and balances are IMHO very important, and it is entirely possible for one source to be incorrect about this or that fact. Add to that the (possible) temptation to take a particular stance on one or another political issue (like the myth that the United States is the only country to misuse the adjective "world"
While I have no reason to believe Snopes is wrong about this (or any of their other points, for that matter) I'd feel more comfortable with a second, corroborating citation.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
I thought I was gonna get my ass kicked at a Sox-Yankees game a few months ago. Sox ended up waxing the Yankees by the 8th, and everybody started leaving. This after they were so vocal about how they sucked........ so I stood up and started yelling: "Why are you all leaving? It's not over yet, is it? The Yankees really are the best players in baseball, right?". Got some very unpleasant looks from people....... fortunately, I had already spent upwards of $50 on beer, so I didn't mind at the time.