What made them think it would be proper to take someone’s obvious trademark? They’re lucky Chrysler didn’t ask for damages.

Sure.

MLB Tells Little League Not To Use Team Names

The MLBPA originally supported the position as each player in the league made $80,000 from licensing fees. (More popular players made more of course because of their names being attached to jerseys.)

Note: I had more sources, but the site here (understandbly) doesn’t like a whole lot of urls.

AFAIK, MLB is more popular with youth today than it has been in 30 years.

I can only tell you what I know and see in my area. I don’t know of a single youth baseball / softball league that has not downsized. As an example, when I moved to my present home 15 years ago, the 10 – 12 age group had 6 teams and 12 “supporting” or “minors” teams. The town next to mine had 8 teams in the age group but no “minors” program.

Two years ago the two leagues combined and now field a total of 6 teams in that age group.

The leagues that I used to officiate and still help out once in awhile are all down.

The reasons seem to be many. First seems to be that baseball is one of the harder sports. Arguably it is the most difficult to play. To practice, you need a team or for the most part, one or two other players. Sports like soccer, lacrosse, basketball, etc that don’t require as much skill to play at a basic level are more appealing to today’s “my little baby is a superstar” mentality. I also believe that video games have hurt team sports as well. Growing up, I could ride my bike to the park and see lots of pick up games going on. Now, I never see any.

I know that MLB is worried about the sport in the inner cities, and have their “RBI” program (Restoring Baseball in the Inner city) going as much as they can.

I see a decline but that doesn’t mean that there is a decline. It is only what I see, and other officials that I have talked to across the country see the same thing.

Now if you want definite proof that the “hands are not part of the bat,” I can give you that. 😉

Nor would I consider accepting money so that children could proudly where their MLK/VISA High School team jackets.

AFAIK, MLB is more popular with youth today than it has been in 30 years.

Instead of paying a fee to MLB, the leagues just changed the names of the teams. Teams were no longer the “Tigers,” but the “Dragons” or something like that.

MLB didn’t get any more money for their players from licensing the name to the youth leagues. The other effect was that kids stopped following their “team” at the MLB level. MLB killed a lot of interest and following by demanding more money for something that helped their product.

It was a stupid move.