Die-hard baseball fan Terry Haney got his wish Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed Major League Baseball's argument that fantasy sports leagues be required to pay a license for the right to use player names and plug runs, hits and errors into their popular online games.
As a youngster growing up in San Diego during the early 1960s, Haney freely incorporated baseball statistics gleaned from newspaper box scores into a rudimentary board game. Last year, Haney -- now a 55-year-old retired hog trader in Iowa -- parlayed his love for baseball's myriad metrics into a $100,000 prize in a national fantasy baseball league.
That MLB and its players union wanted to put the national pastime's treasure trove of game-related statistics under lock and key left Haney baffled: "I almost hoped that the justices would look at MLB and ask them 'Why . . . are you wasting our time?' "
The Supreme Court did the next best thing, fantasy sports league operators said, by refusing to review the case that MLB and its players union doggedly had pursued after losing an initial court decision in 2005.
The justices' decision was a setback not only for baseball players, but for other professional athletes who maintained that outside companies had no right to "exploit players' identity for commercial gain." The NFL, NBA and NHL had supported baseball's players and owners in their appeal to the court.
The court's refusal also throws into question any licensing deals already in place, something MLB had said amounted to "billions of dollars." When MLB appealed to the high court in February, it argued that such deals could be jeopardized if companies had a free-speech right to use the names of famous people without permission.
The largest fantasy leagues generally are licensed by MLB, including those run by ESPN and Fox Sports; they. had no immediate comment on the case.
MLB's Advanced Media department declined to comment on the case, and MLB Players Assn. spokesman Greg Bouris said in an e-mail the union was "considering our options at this time."
The fact that fantasy sports is big business is no small part of this, generating an estimated $500 million from fees, advertising and other revenue, said Jeff Thomas, president of the 150-member Fantasy Sports Trade Assn.
The St. Louis-based fantasy league operator that brought the lawsuit successfully countered that ballplayers are well-known to the public so that their names and statistics can be used freely, without paying for the privilege.
