People in the fantasy world of fantasy baseball have been extremely concerned over this, as am I. The background is that fantasy baseball sites have been getting their licenses from the Major League Baseball Players Association so they could utilize various logos and trademarks. However, the use of statistics (the lifeblood of fantasy sports) was considered to be public data.
But last month, MLBPA sold all such rights to MLB Advanced Media for $50 million, giving them exclusive fantasy rights. Other fantasy sites (Yahoo, ESPN, CBS, etc.) have suggested they’re coming out with a fantasy product, but haven’t said anything concrete. They certainly haven’t mentioned acquiring a sub-contract with MLB Advanced Media.
There have been reports of small organizations and cites receiving contracts - which gives me a little hope. But ultimately, I think that MLB.com is trying to corner this market - and will end up strangling it with a crappy product. Everything I’ve seen from MLB.com says something about “our exciting new fantasy format” or “revamping” something.
I don’t want my fantasy baseball revamped - I want an electronic accountant and a simple no-frills interface. That’s it. I’d prefer it to be free, but I can deal with a small fee. But if mlb.com manages to fuck this up, I’m going to be pissed. I can’t say I’d boycott MLB as they’ve got me by the short and curlies when it comes to fantasy sports, but I’d be willing to give a pencil and ledger a shot for a season.
Anyway, who’s getting excited for fantasy baseball!? I am, mlb.com be damned!
Wow, that was news to me. This has the potential to end very very badly. MLB should for once err on the side of good PR instead of potential profit, especially with all the issues they have to cope with. If free Fantasy Baseball goes the way of the dodo, expect MLB TV ratings to take a pretty hefty hit. Just think if they suddenly decided to stop letting newspapers carry the box scores for free…
I quit fantasy baseball quite a few years back (when I gave up on baseball), but this seems to hit new heights of stupidity for MLB. Other than the chilling effects for fantasy and TV ratings:
Will newspapers have to pay for boxscores now?
Will it be illegal to score along at home?
What do the sabermetricians have to say about all this?
What does it say about me when these articles have made me angier than anything in recent memory? If MLB fucks this up I will be apoplectic, never has less choice led the way to a better product. Honestly, when considering the 'roids, the competitive imbalance, the average seat prices, having to watch Sosa for a decade in Wrigley, having to listen to the likes of Joe Morgan and Tim McCarver (while losing Steve Stone) and all the other shitty things baseball has putupon me…this will be the only one that would actually cause me to stop paying big bucks to go to Wrigley and to watch WGN like an addict. This is the kiss of death for me.
I’ve been tempted to open up a pit thread about this…
I hadn’t seen the 2/17 date before now - at least that gives me some hope that Yahoo, ESPN, etc. will be up and running soon.
If Yahoo doesn’t offer free fantasy baseball, that would be beyond depressing. I’m not sure I’d go so far as to stop listening to or watching baseball or going to games, but it sure would decrease my interest in the sport.
Pssst… Hey Munch, if Yahoo does open up their free leagues again, were you planning on running a SDMB league this year?
If Yahoo fires back up, you can count on me starting up at least the one league. I’ve never done an AL or NL-only league, so I’d be interested in one of those as well I think.
And ESPN’s fantasy page seems to indicate that their leagues start up tomorrow. Yahoo has also put up the following message on their baseball page:
Well, that’s a relief.
It’s disturbing in a way that I’m much happier about Yahoo free fantasy baseball continuing than I am unhappy about the cancellation of the NHL season…
God I hope CDM wins. I’m getting a serious scorched earth vibe from this. I’ve read alot of articles trying to spin it partially in favor of the MLB, but everything is pretty hollow. My hatred for Selig is at a record high.
Okay, everyone settle down - it seems everything is fine (for this year at least). MLB released a nice long list of fantasy sites they licensed, so it seems at the moment that they just recognized a good profit opportunity and seized it. In the meantime, I’ve staked out a small claim on Yahoo. Should we all start a new thread to drum up interest, or should we wait on it for a while? It is only February.
There’s always the problem of finding a good draft time slot. If we wait too long, it may be harder to get a good time slot… not that it is ever easy to get a slot that works for everybody.
Wow. Between the other posts and the linked articles in this thread, most of my feelings over this have been pretty well covered, so, just - wow. It’s amazing how far out of touch some of these sports unions and leagues are with their primary clientele.
Well, at least we’ll be fine for this year. Eighteen teams again, right?
I was discussing this via e-mail with Wilson. I don’t like the idea of 18 teams anymore.
I want 36!
Yup. 36 teams spread across 3 leagues. It’d be non-keeper, but the top 2-3 teams in leagues B and C move up, the bottom 2-3 teams in A and B move down. It’ll be a logistical nightmare, which means fantasy baseball fans should instantly fall in love with it!
Or we could do 180 teams in one league. Each team gets one player and one pitcher, no bench spots.
Makes for a real long wait between picks if you draft #1!
Munch, although I like the concept of 36 teams spread across leagues, with soccer-style promotions and relegations, I’m not positive we’d get that many people interested. And keeping everybody from year to year would be a challenge…
But hey, I’m game to try anything.
Speaking of which, is anyone out there interested in a money league? Not necessarily on Yahoo. I’d been wanting to join one for a year or two now, and the league I thought was a possibility just fell apart. If there is interest I’d be willing to commish it.
This would be totally in addition to the free “official unofficial” SDMB Yahoo league.
