Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, August 25, 1995                   TAG: 9508250087
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: AARON EPSTEIN KNIGHT-RIDDER TRIBUNE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

PARODY CARD HAS PLAYERS CRYING FOUL

If there is no joy in Mudville, it may be because mighty Casey can't take a joke.

At least that's what the creators of parody baseball trading cards say about the modern, monied Caseys they make fun of: Barry (Treasury) Bonds, Jack (Greenback Jack) McDowell, Bobby (Bonus) Bonilla and the other handsomely compensated members of the Major League Baseball Players Association.

One glossy card, for instance, contains a caricature in which Bonds, the slugging San Francisco Giants outfielder who earns $8 million a year, wields a 24K ``Fort Knoxville Slugger'' for the ``Gents.'' On the reverse side, it explains that Bonds ``plays so hard he gives 110 percent, compounded daily.''

Unamused, the Major League Baseball Players Association wants the parodists of Cardtoons Inc. of Tulsa, Okla., barred from the marketplace, setting up a legal duel that may wind up in the judicial equivalent of the World Series - the Supreme Court of the United States.

At stake are two conflicting rights.

The baseball players rely on the centuries-old ``right of publicity.'' This is a right of prominent people to prevent others from exploiting their names, pictures, voices or personalities for profit without their consent.

The parodists of the mock baseball cards lean on the First Amendment guarantee of free speech. They say it permits them to make a buck by ridiculing the rich and famous.

``Baseball has been taken over by greed and money and that's what we're holding up to ridicule in these cards,'' said Mike Sowell, Cardtoons writer and co-founder, who was sports editor of the Tulsa Tribune before it folded in 1992.

``I love the game but I'm very sad by what's happened to it,'' Sowell said. ``Kids know more about the players' salaries than their batting averages.''

The case, now in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, presents a novel issue of particular importance to celebrities, satirists and the advertising industry.

``There really is no consensus as to how to balance the right of publicity of a celebrity with the First Amendment right of anyone else,'' said James W. Tilly, a Tulsa lawyer who represents Cardtoons.

Baseball players, he said, simply ``do not have the right not to be made fun of.''

But Judith Heeter, director of licensing for the players association, said the players aren't seeking to immunize themselves from ridicule but to protect their property interests.

``It would be all right with the ball players for them [Cardtoons] to poke fun at players or criticize the sport,'' she said. ``But their use of actual players' images is not necessary to the parody. It's done simply to make their product sell. It's a commercial use, pure and simple.''

Sales of the parody cards, priced at $1.29 for a pack of eight, ``will divert sales away from baseball trading cards or other products which are authorized by the MLBPA,'' Heeter said.