Baseball is about numbers, but whose?

Major League Baseball says companies operating fantasy leagues must pay to use players' names and statistics.
The New York Times

The story "Baseball is about numbers, but whose?" published May 15, 2006 at 11:00 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[challman]

Keep it up MLB (and professional sports in general)...

and you will alienate what fans you have left. As if strikes aren't bad enough, controversy over drug use for physical enhancement and just over all bad behavior/attitudes from players, now you want to take public domain statistics and make them private? Eventually, you're going to lose a good number of fans. The NFL is starting to go that route. With Monday Night Footbal going to a pay channel, soon enough more game venues will follow until the availability of a NFL game on public television will be a rarity. All in the name of the almight dollar. How oh how can we squeeze more money from the fans?

[jeffhesser]

greedy people!!

so much is wrong with this idea. first of all any money the MLB collects is going straight into their pockets and not the players they are trying to 'protect'. free form fantasy leagues provide SO many benefits to the MLB they are down right stupid for doing anything that might cripple the industry. if people are spending 1.5B on fantasy league crap then they are becoming considerably more capivated fans. they watch more games, go to more live events, buy more merchandise, and in general keep alive one of the most boring sports EVER (in my opinion). it is so sad watching the MLB trying to charge people just because they are able to make money on information you made freely available... i hope they go down in flames on this one.

[Knight21024]

totally agree

however golf is more boring - unless you are fond of watching grass grow.

[Knight21024]

This will reduce viewship

This does baseball a disservice because now folks are less motivated to watch their fantasy team players perform well, it removes an incentive for viewship. Less views = less ad revenue = less money.

It also sets a dangerouse precidence for fantasy football players too.

[Knight21024]

subject should have been viewership

mistyped that one :)