It seems very appropriate that on the day of the first preseason games of the 2013 MLB season, the Yankees would find themselves in the press for being evil—and embracing it. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Yankees have won a trademark lawsuit to ensure that they will forever be known as "Baseballs Evil Empire." [sic] "In short, the record shows that there is only one Evil Empire in baseball and it is the New York Yankees," wrote the judges. "Accordingly, we find that [the Yankees] have a protectable trademark right in the term...as used in connection with baseball."
In 2008, Evil Enterprises, Inc. applied for the exclusive right to market merchandise using that phrase, which is attributed to Larry Lucchino, the president and chief executive of the Boston Red Sox. After learning that the Yankees had signed Cuban pitcher Jose Contreras in 2002, he reportedly said: "The evil empire extends its tentacles even into Latin America. The Yankees argued that they were, in fact, comfortable enough with being evil to fight for the phrase:
Part of the Yankees' argument: a concession that in the baseball world, they are, in fact, the "Evil Empire." In its legal papers, the team referenced a number of articles from the past decade using the term in connection with the Yankees, and conceded that the team has "implicitly embraced" the "Evil Empire" theme by playing music from Star Wars during their home games.
At the end of the day, the Yankees choosing to associate themselves with that phrase is still better than choosing to pay Bobby Bonilla for the next 6,000 years. Let's go Mets!
