So, You Wonder Why Baseball Has an Image Problem?

If a Little League team wants to use uniforms with a big league nickname, it’s going to have to pay extra for licensed products.

Major League Baseball Properties says amateur teams may still use the nicknames, but they will have to use licensed equipment. That will cost them more money: $6 more per uniform.

“It’s an uncontestable patent,” Ethan Orlinsky, the No. 2 lawyer for MLBP, the licensing arm of the 28 major league clubs, told Florida Today in an article published Thursday.

Orlinsky, in an interview with the Associated Press, said the major league clubs don’t want to prohibit use of their names, they just want to insist on the use of licensed equipment--for which they receive a fee.

Orlinsky said that Little League teams not able to afford licensed goods should call his office in New York. Acting Commissioner Bud Selig said he didn’t know anything about the issue.

Jack Gibbs, 12, of Melbourne Beach is a big Chicago White Sox fan and voted to name his Little League team after them. But his enthusiasm is waning.

“It really stinks,” he said. “First, they go on strike, and now they are trying to make money off little kids.”