Counterfeit Phillies gear a big business

If your idea of sharing in the Phillies' World Series glory is to wear a baseball cap, jersey or T-shirt adorned with the team's name, nickname or logo, Major League Baseball has a warning: Beware of counterfeits.

Since the playoffs began, MLB investigators have seized more than 5,000 counterfeit T-shirts and caps from about 45 vendors hawking them in the vicinity of Citizens Bank Park, said Ethan Orlinsky, general counsel for Major League Baseball Properties.

The fakes are often hard to distinguish from their properly licensed counterparts, although they may be made with substandard materials that won't wear or wash as well, said Orlinsky, whose office oversees licensing deals for the National and American Leagues and all 30 teams.

To help fans tell the difference, MLB requires that each legitimate item, large or small, be tagged with a silver holographic sticker bearing a serial number and MLB's silhouetted-batter logo. For this year's World Series, MLB refined the sticker to include a raised red stitch that mimics the stitching on a baseball.

Merchandise sales are big business for baseball - making it to the World Series is expected to generate at least $4 million in extra sales of Phillies memorabilia. Orlinsky said it was no surprise that the Fall Classic is a magnet for counterfeiters.

"Fans want a keepsake that says 'I was there,' and often that's in the form of a T-shirt," he said.

MLB works continually to police merchandise sales. Since 2003, Orlinsky said, MLB has tallied seizures of a million counterfeit items a year, with an estimated street value of $20 to $300 apiece.

Orlinsky said MLB had 24 investigators working near the ballpark this weekend. From an enforcement standpoint, the goal is to get the fakes off the street and to pursue those who make and distribute them.

They have had some recent success. Stuart Drobny, a Norristown investigator who specializes in product counterfeiting, said today that a team from his company, Stumar Investigations, discovered 3,500 counterfeit Phillies items, "mostly T-shirts and sweatshirts," at a South Philadelphia warehouse earlier this month.

"They were turned over to Major League Baseball," said Drobny, who said the merchandise's origin was "part of an ongoing investigation."

Orlinsky stresses that baseball takes its rights seriously. Among the Rays' trademarks is the glint on the team's logo, which Orlinsky likened to the Nike swoosh or the golden arches of McDonald's.

The Phillies protect not just their name and various versions of the Phillies' "P," at least one dating back to 1950, but also a set of nicknames and slogans, including "Phillies Phever" and "Phinally."

Even "Fightin' Phils" is protected - or at least half of it. "Because we have 'Phils,' we don't need 'fightin'," he said.