Fantasy Sports – Brian.Carnell.Com

Who Owns Baseball Statistics?

The Associated Press was one of a number of outlets that reported on a lawsuit over who, if anyone, owns Major League Baseball statistics.

CBC Distribution and Marketing filed a lawsuit against MLB over the league’s requirement that companies offering fantasy baseball games pay to license game statistics from MLB. According to the AP, CBC has run an online fantasy baseball service since 1992 and had been licensing game statistics from the MPB Player’s Association. But last year the Player’s Association reach an agreement that gave MLB the sole right to license statistics.

Rather than continue the licensing agreement the CBC had with the Player’s Association or negotiate for a better deal, the MLB told CBC it simply could not use game statistics, period.

In the latest 1990s there was a similar lawsuit involving the National Basketball Association and Motorola over NBA game statistics. The NBA sued Motorola arguing that Motorola’s broadcast of up-to-the minute NBA scores violated the NBA’s intellectual property.

In 1997, the 2nd Circuit Court ruled in favor of Motorola, arguing that sporting contests are not “original works of authorship” and that Motorola’s use of statistics did not violate criteria set out under a Supreme Court decision that gives limited coverage of “hot news” — i.e. time sensitive news where organizations might be harmed if others are allowed to free ride on their scoop.

This case is a little different since CBC is profiting more directly off of the image of the MLB, its teams and its players. On the other hand, whereas Motorola was providing NBA game statistics while games were still in-progress, CBC doesn’t use the statistics until after a game is finished.

If MLB still has a proprietary interest in statistics after a game is over, does that mean it could require newspapers to license such statistics before printing a box score or league standings? Could it shut down web-based fan efforts to compile copies of fan-created score sheets for every MLB game?

Hopefully the courts will agree with CBC or the result will be a de facto database protection law of the type that has crippled the database market in the UK and Europe.

Source:

Baseball statistics: history or property? Associated press, January 15, 2006.

Database protection in the USA. Ius mentis, October 1, 2005.

What NBA Fans Really Want to Know about Suspensions

Now that David Stern has decided Ron Artest will have the rest of the season to promote his rap album, ESPN has fabulous coverage of the question that all true NBA fans are asking — how will the suspensions affect my fantasy league?

I imagine people counting on Artest will be angry enough at the suspension to throw some video monitors around, or maybe ask for a few weeks off to focus on the fantasy league in the wake of this disaster.

Source:

Fantasy Spin: Suspensions hit hard. ESPN, November 21, 2004.

Fantasy Supreme Court League

Here’s a cool twist on fantasy sports — a Fantasy Supreme Court League,

In the Fantasy Supreme Court League, “players” will attempt to predict the outcome of 9 cases that will come before the Supreme Court in its 2002-2003″ season, which will run from October 2002 tghrough June 2003. . . .

Players will receive 10 points for each correct outcome. Moreover, players will receive additional points for choosing the proper “vote spread,” which will be the number of votes by which the case is decided.

The Fantasy Sports Juggernaut Rolls On

Hmmm…it is almost June, the fantasy baseball league I’m in is more than third of the way finished. Which, of course, means that as usual I’m lodged in first place. This year isn’t really fair since I had the benefit of the Detroit Tigers/Lions Rule.

Let me explain. The Tigers and Lions have been poorly managed for decades (okay, the Tigers did win a World Series in the 1980s, but other than that, they’ve been perennial cellar dwellers). So this pattern is repeated over and over again: some big star gets lured away from his team to play with the Lions or Tigers on a large, but short term contract. The player absolutely stinks for the few years they play for Detroit. The player than leaves for another team where he tears up the league.

So that’s why while other people were dismissing him, I snatched up Juan Gonzalez very quickly and he has become the latest player to provide evidence for the Detroit Tigers/Lions Rule. This also works in basketball with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Anyway, here’s how the current rankings look:

Rank	Team Name	W-L-T	Win %	Games Back
1	Brian’s Bombers	50-28-2	.637	–
2	Can It Be*	47-31-2	.600	3
3	heatround	47-32-1	.594	3.5
4	indy cougars	44-30-6	.588	4
5	KC RAGE	41-36-3	.531	8.5
6	DUKE	38-36-6	.512	10
7	Wildcats	34-38-8	.475	13
8	Perry Hall Gators	36-40-4	.475	13
9	Hot Shots	35-40-5	.469	13.5
10	Channings Greats2	30-47-3	.394	19.5
11	dallas fools	28-47-5	.381	20.5
12	Thunder	27-52-1	.344	23.5

Fantasy Death Row

Some days I imagine the world can’t get any stranger and then along comes a site like Fantasy Death Row.

The site is modeled along fantasy sports games, except with death row inmates. The idea is to pick three inmate who are on death row in the United States and scheduled to be executed within the next 2 months. Players get 50 points if their inmate is pardoned, 25 for a clemency, on down to -10 points if the prisoner is executed. And, of course, -50 points if the inmate is executed but later proven innocent.

The site even sells Fantasy Death Row t-shirts, with buyers the option of donating part of the cost of the t-shirts to either Amnesty International, which opposes capital punishment, or Texans for Equal Justice, which supports capital punishment.

Chris Mortensen on Trent Dilfer’s Dig at Fantasy Football

In his post-Super Bowl commentary Chris Mortensen writes,

Dilfer was also on the mark in his post-game interviews when he basically said that those who follow the NFL get too caught up in the “fantasy football” syndrome. It’s about winning. Dilfer is a Super Bowl winning QB, and he need not apologize to anyone.

Huh? What did Mortensen expect to hear from a quarterback whose numbers are so bad that even after winning the Super Bowl it is unlikely Dilfer will be back starting for the Ravens next year. I’d hate fantasy football too if I were being paid a lot of money to be as inaccurate a passer as Dilfer was in the first half of Super Bowl XXXV.

The Ravens do have some good receivers, and if the defense doesn’t let up it would be amazing to watch what the Ravens might do next season if they ditch Dilfer for Brad Johnson or some other free agent.

On the other hand, if by some miracle Dilfer does end up back starting for the Ravens he need not worry too much about fantasy football fans — he’s not exactly going to be at the top of everyone’s draft list for next season.

Huh? What did Mortensen expect to hear from a quarterback whose numbers are so bad that even after winning the Super Bowl it is unlikely Dilfer will be back starting for the Ravens next year. I’d hate fantasy football too if I were being paid a lot of money to be as innaccurate a passer as Dilfer was in the first half of Super Bowl XXXV.