MLB Removes References To Current Players On MLB.com Due To Lockout
from the take-this! dept
Whether you’re a baseball fan, or a sports fan in general, or not, regular readers here will know that we’ve covered aspects of many sports leagues and Major League Baseball in particular. As you’d expect with any major business like MLB, some of those posts have dealt with some nonsense intellectual property actions the league has undertaken, but many more of them have been positive articles about the forward-thinking folks at MLB when it comes to how they make their products available using modern technology. The league’s website work has always been particularly good, whether it’s been the fantastic MLB.TV streaming site the league operates, or even simply the base MLB.com site itself.
But that latter site has now become a petty pawn being played by MLB as part of the owner’s lockout of players that just kicked off. For non-MLB fans, the quick version is this: the collectively bargained labor agreement between owners and players expired this week without a new agreement inked. As a result, the players are now locked out of team facilities by ownership. That last bit is important, because many people have been describing this as a labor strike. It isn’t. At all. This is the owners refusing to let the players fulfill their duties. And as part of that, it seems, MLB released the following news update on its MLB.com website.
You may notice that the content on this site looks a little different than usual. The reason for this is because the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the players and the league expired just before midnight on Dec. 1 and a new CBA is currently being negotiated between the owners and the MLBPA.
Until a new agreement is reached, there will be limitations on the type of content we display. As a result, you will see a lot more content that focuses on the game’s rich history. Once a new agreement is reached, the up-to-the minute news and analysis you have come to expect will continue as usual.
It’s unclear precisely what game MLB is playing with this move, but the end result is a website that is almost entirely bereft of content on any current MLB player. While the stats and standings from last season are still available in their tabs, the entire main page is now filled only with content about players no longer playing. Players that are on this year’s Hall of Fame ballot, for instance, or check ins with Ichiro showing up at a high school to hit home runs. Interested in Vin Scully’s thoughts on Gil Hodges? MLB.com has you covered! Want to know anything new about Kris Bryant or Mike Trout? You’ll have to go elsewhere.
The league is making noises about having to comply with federal labor laws regarding the use of player likenesses in promotional or advertising material, but that doesn’t make that much sense in the context of simply listing players currently under contract and on team rosters. Instead, this looks to be an attempt to, in some manner, punish current players by ripping away any fame or notoriety they might get via the MLB.com site. It’s also notable that each individual team site gets feeds directly from MLB.com and those sites too are changed in a similar manner. Perhaps most strangely, the headshots of all current players have been removed and replaced by generic avatars of faceless heads
It could be that MLB is just playing it really, really safe on the labor laws situation… but I doubt it. This is more likely part of the overall strong-arm tactic by team owners that are crying poor to the players’ union while beating the CBA buzzer to hand players millions and millions of dollars at the same time. And, just to add more to the mix, this all is happening at the same time MLB admitted it has been messing with the types of balls within the game, introducing multiple differently behaving balls in a league that is absolutely driven by statistics for what is supposed to be a uniform game.
Not exactly the ammo the owners need going into CBA negotiations, to be sure.
Filed Under: articles, baseball, collective bargaining agreement, journalism, labor agreement, lockout, mlb, news, players
Companies: mlb
Comments on “MLB Removes References To Current Players On MLB.com Due To Lockout”
"Whether your"
you’re*
I don’t think they are under contract with the CBA expired. There was a similar situation with the NFL about a decade ago. All contracts were suspended until the lockout was resolved. Notably, players could do "dangerous activities" that their contracts prohibited them from doing.
Beyond that, the MLBPA holds exclusive rights to all player likenesses when multiple players are involved. That right is probably assigned to MLB for the purposes of the website by the CBA … which no longer exists. It may be partly CYA, but they may be entirely correct that they aren’t legally allowed to use those likenesses.
Re: Re:
On MLB network radio, they mentioned that the MLBPA licenses the rights to the images back to MLB, and the license expired when the CBA expired.
Also of note, they stated the the MLBPA uses the money from thst licensing to fund their "strike warchest".
So what else is new?
Extortion, in all its forms, is the new growth business these days. This is no different than a cable provider blocking a channel during negotiations or a streaming company blocking access to media during a negotiation.
More broadly thinking, we have "buy from us or do without" monopolies and "if you want your printer to scan papers buy our ink" or get your repairs only from us" at a mere 10% above retail cost of a new device.
It’s the play of the day: find someone with an arm to twist and wring that money out.
They just want the kinds of fans who would go to the site to blame the players for the lack of (semi-) current content and pics.
Can cities sue them for the revenue losses from the stadiums not being filled?
I mean its not like they make back enough to make up for the handouts to these poor owners, might as well find someway to get those dollars back.
Rich old white men demand their serfs work harder for less.
Heard this story a couple thousand times, really can’t bring myself to give a shit.
MLB might be a thing… but looking at who is involved, pretty sure a bunch of players could make their own league & kill off the MLB, so they can then turn into the old men who do nothing but complain about spending millions of the billiosn they are earning off the sweat of others.
The players should walk and start up their own league.
Re: Re:
Or their own streaming teams.
There’s probably a niche for virtual baseball in the US, if Japan is of any indication…
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Millionaires arguing about how much more money each gets from the other… I’m so not there.
I find "you’re" grammar, or lack thereof, more interesting.
TIL - MLB
OK, so two days later and I learn about an MLB lockout from Techdirt not the regular media. This is obviously not high on anyone’s radar. MLB should take care that they are not too quickly sinking into irrelevance. Attendance was bad enough before COVID.
Re: TIL - MLB
It has been in the papers, too.