For my next pick I select Bill Gates, shortstop for the New York Yankees.

We all knew Bill Gates was retiring from Microsoft in the next couple of years, but to go play shortstop for the New York Yankees? Well, that could have been the case if Major League Baseball had won it’s case against CBC Distribution and Marketing Inc. in St. Louis the other day.

You see, Major League Baseball was claiming that the player’s names and all their stats are their intellectual property, and because Fantasy Baseball leagues are making money using these names and stats, they should receive a percentage of that money. Most of the bigger leagues all have an agreement with the MLB about this issue. CBC also had one until it ran out in 2004, after which they decided to challenge the MLB on it. And I’m glad they did.

If the outcome was in favor of the MLB, hundreds of smaller Fantasy Baseball leagues would have to be shut down. Or, like in many of the video games out there, replace real player names with made up names. I mean it would be sort of cool to have Lance Bass pitching, Paris Hilton catching, and up in the ninth with the bases loaded and all the pressure on, George W. Bush as the designated driver--I mean hitter. You know, that would be cool. But it also would take away the true spirit of the game we love--as in we, the fans.

What this verdict will do to existing leagues is not known yet. But we’re hoping that the big guys [CBS Sportsline, Yahoo, and ESPN] can use this verdict to challenge their current agreement with the MLB and possibly nullify it. Then in turn they could pass along a 9 percent savings (the gross amount which goes to the MLB under the agreement) to those of us who religiously log on every day to watch our team’s stats update. I don’t know if they would do that, because it is a big business, but they could, and I’m someone who hopes they will.

I’ve been reading up on a few other blogs and following the reactions of many other fans. There are many different views and positions taken, mostly revolving around what constitutes intellectual property and who makes money off of it and well, here are my two cents.

What the fantasy leagues are being paid for is the service of information collection. This service ends up saving me a ton of time, which means I have more time to spend enjoying the game itself. Instead of looking in various different newspapers, websites, almanacs for historical information, I pull up my one fantasy portal. Instantly, within a few clicks, I have all the information I need for last second lineup changes, injury updates, and all the stats I could possibly want to help me make my game decisions and gratify my need to know all the numbers all the time.

So yes, the fantasy leagues are making money, but not by capitalizing from the direct usage of the names and stats itself, but from simply gathering and displaying that information that is already free. So should they be forced to pay a fee to the MLB, just to continue providing this time-saving service?

Not in my opinion. And after messing up the real game with steroids and labor strikes and All-Star Games that determine home and away in the World Series, not to mention rising prices just to see my favorite ballplayers at the ball park, they want to mess up my fantasy sports life as well?

You know what? Screw you, MLB, screw you.