Ever turn up at your local police precinct to confess you’d torn the tag off a mattress? Forced a cab driver to fill out a receipt rather turn in a fraudulent sum as part of an expense report? If you’re amongst the most ethical persons in our society (or perhaps, one of the more paranoid) you might relate to the experience of Consumerist’s Phil Villareal, who decided to pester Major League Baseball over his desire to describe a recent D-Backs/Astros game to a pal (feel free to call “bullshit” anytime you want). To wit, Mr. Villareal was worried about running afoul of MLB’s oft-repeated warning, “any rebroadcast, retransmission, or account of this game, without the express written consent of Major League Baseball, is prohibited.” . (link courtesy Mets Police)
I shot off an e-mail to MLB with my request and heard back within hours from Valerie Vieira, from the business development department in MLB Advanced Media. She asked me to call her.
I explained my situation to her and asked how to go about getting express written consent. She wanted to know if I was going to blog about the game or do a podcast, and I said no, I just wanted to describe the game to someone while sitting on my living room couch.
“How could anyone stop you from talking about the game in your own living room?” she said, taking my request as a joke.
I reassured her that it wasn’t. While I doubted the MLB spies would be able to get to me, the disclaimer made it very clear that I’m not allowed to give my account of the game, so I wanted express written consent that gave me permission to talk about the game, and I would post a blog about how I went about attaining the consent. She said someone else from MLB would be calling me.
I waited 9 days, holding my tongue about the forbidden Diamondbacks-Astros game, patiently hoping MLB would give me the thumbs-up. I called and e-mailed Valerie several times to remind her I was waiting, but neither she nor anyone else has gotten back to me.
I take this to mean I am not allowed to describe the game to Tyler. Which is just as well, because I’ve forgotten all about the particulars now. Well played, Major League Baseball. This is one treasured, legally protected account you were able to keep under wraps.
This guy comes off pretty douchey. I wouldn’t return his repeated inquiries either.