A Little Little League Discussion

I was watching a little league game yesterday - coach pitch, to be exact. It was the Yankees, the team our friends' son plays for, versus the Tigers. Come to think of it, they played the Tigers on Saturday too, but it was a different team. The Tigers from Saturday's game had white shirts with black lettering and black hats which resembled the High School team, who is also the Tigers. Yesterday's opponent had red uniforms with Tigers in white across the front, and a block-letter T on their hats. The Yankees, on the other hand, had official-looking hats and jerseys, with the trademark NY logo. 

During the game, another friend of ours commented that he'd read that Major League Baseball had threatened to sue Little Leagues over Trademark infringement. I hadn't heard anything about it, but it didn't surprise me. I did a quick search and found this article out of Chicago. According to the article, not only the logos, but the team names are trademarked. So I guess the Tigers and the printer that supplied their jerseys had better come up with a new name. But does that go for the high school team too? I don't think so. Otherwise where would the line be drawn? The high school football team's name doesn't infringe on MLB trademark law if they're the Tigers. Besides, what about the University of Missouri Tigers, or the LSU Tigers? Trademarking the Red Sox, the Phillies, the Dodgers, or the Twins is one thing. But trying to own the rights to being named after a mascot from the animal kingdom, like Tigers, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Orioles, and Marlins, could prove more difficult. 

My formative years in baseball were as a Pirate, a Mighty Mite, a Red Sock, a Giant, a Pirate again, a Brave, and a Cardinal. We had fairly official-looking t-shirts on most of those teams. My Red Sox team had royal blue t-shirts and hats (of the trucker variety, foam in front, mesh in back) with RED SOX spelled out in red block lettering. As an nine-year old in an imitation Red Sox t-shirt, I hoped that one day I would play in the majors. No, not THE Majors, though I probably hoped that too, but to be honest, I don't think I was ever good enough to convince myself that it could happen. Eight- and nine-year-olds played in the minor B. Minor A was for ages 10-12, unless you were drafted by the majors. If you were good enough, a team in the majors could draft you when you were nine, but that, of course, was considered controversial at times. It was debatable whether a promising, young ball player would be better served by playing against players his own age, getting more playing time, and being the star of his team, or being "called up" to the majors where he would spend four seasons with the same team, and sometimes, the same coach, playing against the best players the community had to offer. 

Anyway, as I was saying, there I was in my generic Red Sox jersey, and I could hardly wait for the majors because their uniforms were awesome. To a nine-year-old me, they were perfect in their authenticity. And most of the players had what we called "pro-backs." Pro-backs were the fitted hats worn in the major leagues, and I wanted one. I tried out for the majors when the time came, thinking I had an in because I had a cousin on a team, but I wasn't drafted when I was ten, and spent a year in Minor A with the Giants. Sure, we had officially licensed jersey's and hats, but they were lower-tier, as far as I was concerned. The next season I was drafted by the Pirates to the majors, and I couldn't have been happier. I had the sweet uniforms, the team jacket (which was a HUGE status symbol at the elementary school), and my pro-back Pirates hat. I had quite literally made the big time. 

Luckily, if I read that article right, the MLB wasn't outlawing the use of their names and logos, only saying that the teams needed to be buying the official gear MLB produces. So kids all over the country can still be excited to be on the Mets or the Indians or the Pirates, as long as their league can afford the shirts and hats. Otherwise, maybe they can look forward to being on teams like the Sluggers or the Bandits. Hopefully someone has outlawed the Mighty Mites by now, so they won't have to worry about that. 

**Hopefully this post comes through alright. I'm away from home and trying to email this to Blogger to be immediately posted.