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Los Angeles Dodgers star and two-time MVP Shohei Ohtani has signed an exclusive long-term global trading card deal with Topps, a division of Fanatics Collectibles, it was announced Thursday.

Ohtani has signed other deals with Fanatics — including an exclusive autograph, collectibles and memorabilia deal in 2021, but it didn’t include sports cards.

“Ohtani’s been a part of the Topps family since he signed with the Angels in late 2017, early 2018, so this deal is super important to us,” said David Leiner, president of trading cards at Fanatics Collectibles. “Best player in the game, unique, global player, who pitches and hits. You’ve got to have this guy in product, you’ve got to have his autographs and memorabilia for fans to chase.”

The agreement includes autographs and game-used memorabilia cards and will feature cards centered around moments and achievements, involving U.S.- and Japan-based products, a bourgeoning region for Topps and collecting.

“I’m happy to be exclusively partnering with Topps to give fans unique cards and collectibles for seasons to come,” Ohtani said in a statement.

Ohtani joins fellow Japanese players Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui with Topps deals.

“Japanese allocation is a big piece and you better believe, for the accounts in Japan, there’s never enough [product],” Leiner says. “They’re always asking for more. Our largest Japanese partner, Mint Collectibles, they own and operate a chain of 28 stores across Japan and the hobby is vibrant over there.”

In early January 2018, Fanatics opened an office in Tokyo and launched Fanatics Japan, nearly four years to the day before acquiring Topps. Topps followed suit, opening an office in Tokyo in 2021.

“We’re pushing, we’re well-distributed,” Leiner says. “7-Eleven, FamilyMart, Lawson’s, the hobby is in its early stages there, but we’re going to continue to push and grow there. Japan is a great baseball country, a passionate group of folks over there, and [Shohei] is so important back home.”

Leiner notes that 2025 Opening Day is the Dodgers vs. the Chicago Cubs in mid-March at the Tokyo Dome: “Look for some fun stuff there featuring our newly exclusive man.”

While financial details weren’t disclosed, Leiner said the deal is similar to the one Fanatics inked with Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James in January and “longer than many of the other deals you see us doing.”

“We want to change the way our athlete partnership group works,” Leiner says. “Historically, trading card companies would stick a thousand cards in front of an athlete in a hotel room on the road or something, scribbling away. It’s no secret, these guys make a lot of money, [but] we want true partnerships, 360 deals; they’re gonna sign their cards, that’s part of the gig, but there’s bells and whistles — marketing and partnering on the category, social media — and we’re trying to, like with LeBron, bring Shohei into the family and have a true partnership.”

While the deal doesn’t include contractual appearances, given the level and stature of the deal Leiner says, Topps and Fanatics expect Ohtani to participate in programs and elevate the collectible category on social media authentically.

Leiner also notes that Ohtani is a collector himself.

“When he signs cards” — which Leiner notes Topps continues to have flexibility on, Ohtani signing inscriptions in English or Kanji — “he asks a lot of questions, looks at them, understands them and likes them. He has some of his own cards as well, we’ve made cards for him, too; last year, we called it A Transcendent Season, put it in a really nice box, he [put] it on social media.

“He enjoys seeing kids at stadiums, fans with his cards, attempting to get them signed at the stadium. He has a lot of respect for the category, going back to when he was a growing superstar in the Nippon Professional Baseball league.”

Ohtani currently leads the NL in home runs, slugging, OPS and he’s second in RBIs and stolen bases. According to ESPN BET, he’s a -1600 favorite to win NL MVP, which would be his third MVP award in seven MLB seasons. Only 11 players in MLB history have won three.

“[Shohei] is a guy that has a chance to expand the sport of baseball on a global basis and something I’ve been passionate about — and we’re passionate about at Fanatics — is global expansion,” Leiner says. “This guy’s doing things we haven’t seen since Babe Ruth and hopefully [Shohei continues to convert] more fans into collectors.”

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Ranking returning production for every FBS team: Who should improve, regress in 2025

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Ranking returning production for every FBS team: Who should improve, regress in 2025

The lengthy 2024 season has been over for more than a month, the transfer portal has settled down for now, and we’re waiting to find out if the sport’s powers-that-be are going to change the format of the College Football Playoff for 2025 and beyond.

It seems like as good a time as any to start talking about who might actually be good in 2025!

Early each offseason, I spit out initial SP+ projections, based on a forever-changing combination of returning production, recruiting and recent history. As always, those projections stem from three primary questions: How good has your team been recently? How well has it recruited? And who returns from last year’s roster?

SP+ projections are still a few days away, but let’s deal with that last question first. Who returns a majority of last year’s production? Who has done the best job of importing production from another team? Who is starting from scratch?

For a few years now, I’ve been attempting to expand how we measure returning production. The formula I created shifts with each new year of data and has had to shift a ton with the rising number of transfers. But the gist remains the same: High or low returning production percentages correlate well with improvement or regression. They might not guarantee a good or bad team, but they can tell us a lot. And in 2025, they tell us a lot about the state of college football.

Looking through the prism of returning production data of every FBS team, we’ll break down how the percentage of returning players is trending, what the numbers mean for your favorite team and which teams can expect to improve and which could regress in 2025.

Jump to a section:
Percentages | Transfers
Returning trends | What numbers mean
Likely to improve | Likely to regress

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Mets’ Manaea strains oblique, likely to start on IL

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Mets' Manaea strains oblique, likely to start on IL

New York Mets left-hander Sean Manaea has been shut down for a few weeks due to a right oblique strain and will likely start the season on the injured list, manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters Monday.

Manaea, who is projected as the team’s No. 2 starter, went 12-6 with a 3.47 ERA with 184 strikeouts with the Mets in 2024, leading to a three-year, $75 million deal in December.

“The good news is … the tendon is not involved, the rib cage is not involved,” Mendoza said of the MRI results for Manaea. “It’s just straight muscle, so he’s going to be shut down for a couple of weeks — and then we’ll reassess after that. We’ve got to build him back up again. Safe to say that he’s probably going to start the season on the IL. … Once he’s symptom-free, he’ll start his throwing.”

It is the second injury to the Mets’ starting rotation after right-hander Frankie Montas was shut down for six to eight weeks on Feb. 17 after suffering a high-grade lat strain.

Kodai Senga, Clay Holmes and David Peterson are set to top the Mets’ starting rotation to begin the season. Paul Blackburn, Griffin Canning and Tylor Megill will compete for the final two spots until Manaea and Montas return.

The Mets have also lost reserve infielder Nick Madrigal for an extended period after he suffered a fractured left shoulder during Sunday’s spring training game against the Washington Nationals.

Madrigal, who is fighting for a roster spot, fell to the ground while throwing to first base after making a bare-handed play on a ground ball. He was originally diagnosed with a dislocated shoulder but further tests revealed the fracture in his non-throwing shoulder.

Mendoza told reporters that Madrigal, who signed a one-year deal with the Mets in January, will have a CT scan and will be sidelined “for a long time.”

Field Level Media contributed to this report.

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‘New York, New York’ to play only after Yanks win

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'New York, New York' to play only after Yanks win

TAMPA, Fla. — The Yankees will play Frank Sinatra’s version of the “Theme From New York, New York” only after home wins instead of after all games in the Bronx, going back to the original custom set by owner George Steinbrenner in 1980.

The Yankees said players and staff were tired of hearing a celebratory song following defeats.

After Sunday’s 4-0 spring training loss to Detroit at George M. Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees played Sinatra’s 1966 recording of “That’s Life,” a 1963 song by Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon. The change occurred two days after the team ended the ban on beards imposed by Steinbrenner in 1976.

The team said various songs will be used after losses.

“New York, New York” first was played at the end of Yankees wins after Steinbrenner learned of Sinatra’s version from a disc jockey at Le Club, a Manhattan restaurant and disco, former team public relations director Marty Appel told The New York Times in 2015.

The song, with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, was first sung by Liza Minnelli for the 1977 Martin Scorsese film “New York, New York” and Sinatra performed it in a Don Costa arrangement for his 1980 recording “Trilogy: Past Present Future.”

For several years, the Yankees alternated the Sinatra version after wins and the Minnelli version following defeats. In recent years, the Sinatra rendition has been played after all final outs.

The Yankees said Friday that they were ending their ban on beards, fearing the prohibition might hamper player recruitment.

Hal Steinbrenner took over in 2008 as controlling owner from his father, who died in 2010.

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