Uniform question

[Guest Jennifer L Carmichael]

Hello- we play and have a USSSA baseball team and another team went to do there own things and have the same uniforms. They are no longer apart of our organization - we play against them - are they allowed to wear our uniforms when we play against us? What’s the rules on this? 

[noumpere 3,272]

There's no rule that each team needs distinct uniforms.  A LEAGUE might have such a rule, but since this team isn't in your league ...

[flyingron 10]

Used to be the visiting team had to wear gray out of necessity (laundry issues).

[Senor Azul 555]

Here’s the only mention of uniforms in the actual USSSA baseball rules--

USSSA OFFICIAL BASEBALL NATIONAL BY-LAWS & RULES

Edition Dated: August 1, 2020

7.01.E  Protests on uniforms shall not be allowed. It shall be the League / Tournament Director’s responsibility regarding uniform legality. Violation of the uniform rules shall result in the violator being allowed to immediately conform or be removed from the game. Managers and coaches may wear athletic type gear.

 

It happens occasionally in USSSA tournaments where two teams with the same name or same color scheme uniforms meet. (When I worked USSSA tournaments most weekends had over 100 teams entered.) It just cannot be avoided completely but it isn’t against any rules. What you are asking about may actually be more of a legal question. Most baseball clubs/baseball academies are businesses with legal claims to the business name.

[beerguy55 747]

12 hours ago, Guest Jennifer L Carmichael said:

Hello- we play and have a USSSA baseball team and another team went to do there own things and have the same uniforms. They are no longer apart of our organization - we play against them - are they allowed to wear our uniforms when we play against us? What’s the rules on this? 

Say you have a tournament in Texas, and one team from Oregon and another from Florida are there...and they're both the Angels, with exact same colors and logos - you gonna kick one out?

They're not wearing "your" uniforms, they're wearing their uniforms - unless you have placed some kind of copyright on the design, or can prove your team/club literally owns those clothes, you're SOL.  You each have the same rights to the name and design.  And if you want it to go that far this is a legal issue, not a baseball issue.  eg. did the players pay for the uniforms, or were they provided by the organization?  Is the team still using the full organization/club name - it's one thing to be the Dallas Chickens...or the Dallas Chickens Boys Baseball Association...or just The Chickens.   That's just scratching the surface of how stupid this situation can get...been there done that.

Play nice with them and try to come to some kind of agreement.   Someone's gonna have to check their ego at the door and change their name and uniform.   Usually when something like this happens the team that breaks off wants a new start and changes names...the issue gets ugly if the coaches on said team were also the founders of the organization, thus believing it is "theirs".

Have fun with that.

[lawump 1,166]

https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20081016/sports/81016013

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/sports/baseball/24capecod.html

Just an interesting piece of history about uniforms and who "owns" them...at least when it comes to copyrighted logos/names of MLB teams.

[BLarson 19]

We have tournaments where multiple teams in the same age group from the same organization will play in a tournament.   The names might be different, but the uniforms can be similar in style and colors.