The people who run professional baseball are less uptight than the people who run professional football.

And that’s a good thing for people involved in professional poker.

Every year around the end of the pro football season, the news is filled with stories about the National Football League fiercely protecting the trademarked name of its signature event, the Super Bowl.

Sports bars and other establishments around the country that advertise they will be holding a “Super Bowl party” the day of the big game are quickly informed by NFL lawyers to cease and desist using the phrase “Super Bowl” in their ads, or else they’ll face a trademark infringement lawsuit.

There’s also usually a Las Vegas casino or two every year that faces the wrath of the NFL for promoting a “Super Bowl party.”

Eventually, the bars and casinos and others change their advertising, and instead of promoting a “Super Bowl party” they promote a “pro football championship game party” or some such doublespeak nonsense.

Could you imagine someone starting a new tournament in professional poker and calling the event the Super Bowl of Poker?

The NFL and its lawyers would be all over such a thing, quashing it before it had a chance to ever be held.

Conversely, however, the powers that be that run Major League Baseball have no such qualms about protecting the trademark of their signature event, the World Series.

Thus, the World Series of Poker, pro poker’s signature event, has been alive and well for 40 years, and baseball doesn’t seem to care one bit.

Why the big difference in the attitudes of the NFL and MLB over protecting their trademarks?

They’ve never said, but it’s likely gambling is at the root of the problem.

The NFL wants no connection to any form of gambling, no matter how slight.

The league even bans commercials about Las Vegas or Atlantic City from running during telecasts of NFL games.

So, by fiercely protecting its Super Bowl trademark wherever it is usurped, the NFL prevents any type of gambling-related activity (such as a Super Bowl party in a casino) involving that trademark.

Major League Baseball isn’t so uptight–it allows, for example, casinos to advertise on the outfield walls of its stadiums.

And the Boston Red Sox even allowed advertising for an online poker room.

The World Series of Poker?

A great and wonderful event, says baseball.

A Super Bowl of Poker?

Never going to happen, says football.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)