Old-time players

[hormone]

I was searching for MLB: the Show topic on uniforms (I can't find it so if someone can link me that would be great. Believe me, I tried). I understand with player's unions and stuff, they cannot put old time players in the games, but I was wondering two things

1. Do places like Ebbet's Flannels have to license the player to sell a throwback?

2. Why cannot they put in a player's name in things like the record book in the video game? Like for HRs, it says GIANTS 2007. It's not like they are making money off Bonds' name/image. They are just putting what is in the record book. You can buy a baseball encyclopedia and it says Barry Bonds is the HR king or Joe Dimaggio has the hit streak.

Thanks for your replies and sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

[tubby34]

I was searching for MLB: the Show topic on uniforms (I can't find it so if someone can link me that would be great. Believe me, I tried). I understand with player's unions and stuff, they cannot put old time players in the games, but I was wondering two things

1. Do places like Ebbet's Flannels have to license the player to sell a throwback?

2. Why cannot they put in a player's name in things like the record book in the video game? Like for HRs, it says GIANTS 2007. It's not like they are making money off Bonds' name/image. They are just putting what is in the record book. You can buy a baseball encyclopedia and it says Barry Bonds is the HR king or Joe Dimaggio has the hit streak.

Thanks for your replies and sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

Barry Bonds broke away from the MLBPA, pretty much taking control of his image and it's profits.

As such, he isn't elibible to be in MLB games unless he independently is paid. That's the reason you never saw bonds in LF in video games, and it was always a white guy who was a random player.

He didn't trust the MLBPA to use his image correctly.

Older players are never part of the MLBPA I believe, and there is a retired association they should deal with but not all players are there. Older players like to retain their image rights and it's usage as well.

[Buster]

I remember a version of NBA Live that had Michael Jordan named "Player 99" wearing #99. I just edited his name and number. The guy dominated no matter what they called him.

[guest23]

I remember a version of NBA Live that had Michael Jordan named "Player 99" wearing #99. I just edited his name and number. The guy dominated no matter what they called him.

air morris

[BBTV]

I was searching for MLB: the Show topic on uniforms (I can't find it so if someone can link me that would be great. Believe me, I tried). I understand with player's unions and stuff, they cannot put old time players in the games, but I was wondering two things

1. Do places like Ebbet's Flannels have to license the player to sell a throwback?

2. Why cannot they put in a player's name in things like the record book in the video game? Like for HRs, it says GIANTS 2007. It's not like they are making money off Bonds' name/image. They are just putting what is in the record book. You can buy a baseball encyclopedia and it says Barry Bonds is the HR king or Joe Dimaggio has the hit streak.

Thanks for your replies and sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

My uneducated guess would be that records are technically property of the leagues, and it's kind of like a "anything you create at this company becomes property of the company" kind of thing, so Bonds nor any player can't keep his name out of record books that are licensed by MLB, since it's not a MLBPA thing.

As for the game, there's probably separate rules that govern in what media these things are allowed to be used. So maybe the deal with the MLBPA governs using real or past names in any video game application, regardless of whether it's a mention of a record or anything else. Bonds might also own his own rights when it comes to this. For a while these types of things were slow to catch up to technology, but I'd imagine now that it gets very specific.