No more injury news [merged threads]

[cubfan33]

As I addressed over on UTK, the Yankees and MLB are considering no longer commenting on player injuries due to privacy regulations. I had a nice long chat yesterday with a Yankees official and he relayed to me that staff attorneys had looked at the HIPAA regulations and feel that giving out medical information may be a violation. The NY Times had an article about this yesterday. I'm no lawyer, but I am curious how the lawyers we do have here would comment on this.

My thought is that "information wants to be free." If places like UTK exist, we'll get the information through anonymous sources, etc. For MLB to close off their information pipeline seems ignorant.

BTW, I spoke to the NFL offices today and they have no intention of ceasing injury reports. Their position is that as players and public figures they have a reduced expectation of privacy.

[SmedIndy]

I think there could be some suits and injunctions filed about this.

The NHL just gives out dis-information. If MLB really wanted to, it could do the same. The NBA always has the sprained ankle or hip flexor injury to hide someone on their roster. MLB could trot out "tendonitis"...

[moose]

Originally posted by cubfan33
BTW, I spoke to the NFL offices today and they have no intention of ceasing injury reports. Their position is that as players and public figures they have a reduced expectation of privacy.
having had very little training in the law, I am far far less knowledgeable on this stuff than others here, but that was the first thing I thought of ("that" being a reduced expectation of privacy)

[Rajah]

I think its just MLB's anti marketing at work again. "How can we alienate fans this week? Lets cut off injury news! They really don't care about that anyway even if all evidence is to the contrary!"

Or, to quote Rob Neyer on a similar topic:

"All the ins and outs of transactions are covered, sometimes in excruciating detail, in a large loose-leaf binder titled, "The Official Professional Baseball Rules Book," something completely separate from the "Official Baseball Rules" (which cover only the game on the field).

Unfortunately, Major League Baseball doesn't make that loose-leaf binder available to the public. There's not really anything controversial or confidential in there, so maybe they just think we don't care and/or wouldn't understand the arcana contained within. And of course, MLB isn't famous for its public-relations acumen."


http://espn.go.com/mlb/s/1999/0908/46397.html

By the way, the transactions primer is a wonderful little thing.

[Glyndwr]

Originally posted by cubfan33
BTW, I spoke to the NFL offices today and they have no intention of ceasing injury reports. Their position is that as players and public figures they have a reduced expectation of privacy.

and the sports gambling community!

[cubfan33]

After the excellent advice of Lee Sinins, Esq. I went to my attorney. Ok, I don't really have an attorney, but my mom works at a law firm - close enough.

The firm (it's a big one) has a HIPAA expert who was consulted and he determined that :

a) the law is only designed to protect records.
b) the law is aimed at health care providers

Since I don't ask for records, merely opinion, I am in the clear. Athletic trainers are not (for a variety of stupid reasons) not health care providers. While this may slow the spread of information, it won't stop it. Good news for UTK!

[Glyndwr]

I would never normally inflict Richard Griffin on you good folks, but he had an interesting column this week, and I havent seen anything about this anywhere else. The Blue Jays are no longer giving out any injury news about players.

"Sometime today, the Jays are expected to issue a clearly defined statement of policy — written by team lawyers — governing injuries to its players. There will, hereafter, be no information supplied on the area of an injury, nor the extent or estimated loss of playing time. For the moment, this policy is left up to individual clubs, but a universal, league-wide policy is now being discussed between the players' association and MLB."

http://waymoresports.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=waymoresports/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035777853060&call_page=WM_Columnists&call_pageid=980137871627&call_pagepath=Columnists/Columnists

[Max Power]

Quite a different approach than the old NFL, "probable" etc.............

[SmedIndy]

Great. More Steve Barber comments, I guess. "My arm's not sore, just a little stiff..."

[Max Power]

This seems to all be related to HIPAA - - http://www.nytimes.com/auth/login?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/11/sports/othersports/11INJU.html&OQ=tntemail0


Joe Torre's daily routine includes updating reporters on injuries affecting his players. Torre, the Yankees' manager, may discuss a pitcher's shoulder tendinitis or an outfielder's chronic knee trouble. It has been standard operating procedure in baseball and other professional sports for decades. But under a federal law that all health-care providers, including the Yankees, will have to comply with by next April, Torre and other sports officials who talk about injuries may be prevented from disclosing a player's medical information without consent. Lawyers from the major sports leagues are sorting through what could be a very troublesome issue.

[Max Power]

Just realized we had a thread on this - so, I merged them.

[clemente21]

Isn't that going to make putting players on the DL pretty interesting.

"Yes, we want to put him on the DL. No, we are prohibited from telling you why he has to go on the DL without his consent. "

"I feel that giving my consent will reduce my earning power in the future, and therefore will not provide it."

Long live Rule V-itis...

[nyy26wc]

It could also make televising games very interesting.

Oops, he's hit by a pitch. He might be hurt. We have to censor that pitch.

Grounder to short. Batter is lame running down to 1st. Might be hurt. Can't show that one.

We'll have to do with putting games on a few second time delay to censor out the things we're not allowed to see.

We'll have a bunch of broadcasters announcing, "There was an out at 1st. Federal law prohibits us from telling you why. Back to the action."

Fans will have to sign sworn statements before they're allowed to leave the park if an injury occurred. "I understand that if I tell anyone what I saw, I will be punished to the fullest extent of the law."

[cubfan33]

It's good news bad news for me.

Good news is that fans will need info and only those with good sources will be able to get the info.

Bad news is that MLB and its cadre of lawyers will likely enforce this policy pretty strictly from what I'm hearing, once in place with MLBPA.