Opening Day Read: Baseball Mascots and the Law
Play ball! As Major League Baseball opens its 2021 season this week, team mascots will once again be returning to the ballparks - and perhaps to the courtroom.
A 2017 article by Attorney Christian H. Brill and Prof. Howard W. Brill is a comprehensive examination of legal disputes involving these mascots and America’s national pastime. “Baseball Mascots and the Law” discusses a variety of legal questions involving mascots, such as:
Can a Dayton Dragons fan sue if she was distracted by a mascot’s performance when she was injured by a foul ball?
Do the actions of an “unofficial mascot” tarnish the protected trademarks of the Chicago Cubs?
Can a Pittsburgh Pirates mascot be fired for disparaging comments made about team ownership on social media?
Does the arrest of protestors burning a Cleveland Indians mascot effigy violate free speech rights?
Originally presented at the 27th Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, the article covers such areas of law as tort law, intellectual property law, and employment law.
The entire article is available from the Kansas Law Review.