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Panini America, the company that currently has league and players union licenses to produce NBA and NFL trading cards, has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Fanatics, alleging it has “created an entirely new monopoly spanning multiple leagues and multiple players associations” in the industry.

Panini alleges that Fanatics engaged in “calculated, intentional, anticompetitive conduct” by securing long-term, exclusive licensing deals with leagues and players associations, according to the lawsuit. Panini also claims Fanatics signed rookie NFL and NBA players to exclusive deals, disseminated “false, derogatory statements” about Panini and poached its employees in an effort to create “insurmountable barriers to entry” in the trading card business.

“Panini’s lawsuit is a baseless last-gasp, flailing effort by a company that has lost touch with its consumers, is failing in the marketplace and has tried unsuccessfully for years to sell itself,” Fanatics said as part of a statement to ESPN. “Panini is trying to blame Fanatics for its own inability to keep pace with what players, fans, and even its own employees want.

Fanatics is preparing to countersue.

To make fully licensed trading cards — featuring the name, image and likenesses of players, as well as team and league logos — a manufacturer needs to procure licenses with both the players union and the league itself.

Panini America has been the exclusive licensee of the NBA since the 2009-10 season, and of the NFL since 2016. Panini’s union deals with the NBA and NFL expire in 2025 and ’26, respectively.

Fanatics has a 20-year deal in place with the NFL Players Association starting in 2026. That year, it also will become the exclusive licensee of NBA cards, via deals in place with its league and union. Fanatics also signed deals with MLB and its players association in August 2021 to become the exclusive licensee of its cards at the end of 2022, then acquired Topps in January of that year.

“Panini was not given an opportunity to bid or otherwise compete for the licenses Fanatics acquired,” the company said in the lawsuit. “Panini only learned about Fanatics’ exclusive agreements after they were consummated, through reading about them in the media.

“By combining long-term exclusive licenses for every major U.S. Professional Sports League and their respective player associations, Fanatics positioned itself to drive Panini and other potential competitors out of the market, and erected barriers to entry blocking their return.”

Panini also alleges that Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin — the former part-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils — “approached Panini in May 2023 to threaten that Fanatics would no longer supply Panini with any jerseys for Panini to offer to consumers as elements of its trading cards” and “would not stop its pressure campaign against Panini and continue to sign exclusive deals with players.”

A Fanatics source disputed that characterization to ESPN, saying it’s been engaged in conversations with Panini over the last year to transfer the rights it had won earlier than the expiration of the NBA and NFL deals.

Also in the lawsuit, Panini alleged that Fanatics has been “raiding” its employees and “induced some employees to come to Fanatics by threatening them with not working in the industry ever again once Panini’s licenses expired unless those employees committed immediately to join Fanatics.” Panini also claimed Fanatics told players, agents, players associations and employees that Panini would be “incapable of performing for them, will be out of business soon and lacks the money to pay them.”

“Fanatics’ media releases try to ignore its industry-wide, decades-long exclusive dealing arrangements that lock-out competitors for a generation of collectors,” David Boies, lead counsel of Boies Schiller Flexner, the law firm representing Panini, said in a statement to ESPN. “It won’t be so easy for Fanatics to avoid the merits of the case against it before a judge and jury.”

A Fanatics source said the company believes it won its deals “fair and square, one at a time” while focusing with leagues and players associations on the need to evolve to a more direct-to-consumer model.

“Our perspective is all the claims are baseless; we do what’s in the best interest of the collector, the hobby, the industry long term,” the source said.

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Springer’s 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

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Springer's 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

George Springer had a career-high seven RBIs, including his ninth grand slam, and the Toronto Blue Jays celebrated Canada Day by beating the Yankees 12-5 on Tuesday and closing within one game of American League East-leading New York.

The seven RBIs are tied for the second most by any Blue Jays player in a home game, behind Edwin Encarnación (nine RBIs in 2015), according to ESPN Research.

Andrés Giménez had a go-ahead, three-run homer for the Blue Jays, who overcame a 2-0 deficit against Max Fried. After the Yankees tied the score 4-4 in the seventh, Toronto broke open the game in the bottom half against a reeling Yankees bullpen.

Springer went 3-for-4, starting the comeback with a solo homer in the fourth against Fried and boosting the lead to 9-5 with the slam off Luke Weaver after Ernie Clement‘s go-ahead single off shortstop Anthony Volpe‘s glove. Springer has 13 homers this season.

Toronto won the first two games of the four-game series and closed within one game of the Yankees for the first time since before play on April 20.

New York went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, dropping to 3-for-24 in the series, while the Blue Jays were 5-for-7. After going 13-14 in June, the Yankees fell to 10-14 against AL East rivals.

The Associate Press contributed to this report.

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Astros’ Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

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Astros' Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

DENVER — Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez has experienced a setback in his recovery from a broken right hand and will see a specialist.

Astros general manager Dana Brown said Alvarez felt pain when he arrived Tuesday at the team’s spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he had a workout a day earlier. Alvarez also took batting practice Saturday at Daikin Park.

He will be shut down until he’s evaluated by the specialist.

“It’s a tough time going through this with Yordan, but I know that he’s still feeling pain and the soreness in his hand,” Brown said before Tuesday night’s series opener at Colorado, which the Astros won 6-5. “We’re not going to try to push it or force him through anything. We’re just going to allow him to heal and get a little bit more answers as to what steps we take next.”

Alvarez has been sidelined for nearly two months. The injury was initially diagnosed as a muscle strain, but when Alvarez felt pain again while hitting in late May, imaging revealed a small fracture.

The 28-year-old outfielder, who has hit 31 homers or more in each of the past four seasons, had been eyeing a return as soon as this weekend at the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now it’s uncertain when he’ll play.

“We felt like he was close because he had felt so good of late,” Brown said, “but this is certainly news that we didn’t want.”

Also Tuesday, the Astros officially placed shortstop Jeremy Peña on the 10-day injured list with a fractured rib and recalled infielder Shay Whitcomb from Triple-A Sugar Land.

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Ohtani’s 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

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Ohtani's 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

Shohei Ohtani reached 30 homers for the fifth straight season, hitting a fourth-inning drive after fouling a pitch off the plate umpire, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox 6-1 on Tuesday night.

Ohtani fouled the ball off Alan Porter’s right knee in the fourth. Ohtani checked on the umpire and stood by watching until Parker got up under his own power. The three-time MVP then hit a 408-foot shot to center, snapping an 0-for-6 skid and extending the lead to 6-1. He tied Cody Bellinger in 2019 for most home runs before the All-Star break in Dodgers history; Bellinger won National League MVP that year.

Ohtani joined Seattle‘s Cal Raleigh (33) and Aaron Judge of the Yankees (30) as players with at least 30 homers by the All-Star break; it marks the fifth season that three players have reached the 30-homer threshold before the break (2019, 1998, 1994, 1969).

As for Ohtani, this is his third season hitting at least 30 home runs before the break, tying Ken Griffey Jr. for third most in MLB history (Judge and Mark McGwire each did so for four seasons).

During the seventh-inning stretch, Ohtani walked over and checked on Porter again before leading off.

Los Angeles scored its most runs this season in support of Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-6), staking the Japanese right-hander to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.

The Dodgers won for the 13th time in 16 games and opened a season-high, eight-game NL West lead. They are 16-5 (.762 win percentage) since June 8, the best record in MLB during that span.

Every run Tuesday night was scored with two outs.

Yamamoto allowed one run and three hits in seven innings, struck out eight and walked one.

White Sox rookie Shane Smith (3-6) got two quick outs in the first before walking Will Smith and Max Muncy back-to-back. Teoscar Hernández followed with an RBI single, Andy Pages hit a run-scoring double and Michael Conforto had a two-run single.

Chicago’s lone run came on Lenyn Sosa‘s RBI single in the third.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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