Jay-Z sues Big Papa for 40/40

Rolling Stone Magazine is reporting that Jay-Z is suing the Boston Red Sox "Slumping Slugger" for unauthorized use of the name "40/40" for Big Papi's nightclub which is located in the Dominican Republic.

From Rolling Stone online...

In a lawsuit filed yesterday, Jay accuses Big Papi of naming his Santa Domingo nightclub “Forty-Forty,” a variation of Jay-Z and Juan Perez’s line of 40/40 Clubs in New York, Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

“[Jay-Z and Perez] have accused Ortiz of trading on the fame, value and goodwill of their name through his club Forty/Forty and its website, www.fortyforty.net, which they say has caused their business ‘marketplace confusion and damage,” reads the lawsuit. Jay-Z’s suit goes on to argue that the shared name isn’t accidental, as Ortiz “has been a patron [at the 40/40 Club] on several occasions long before he opened his infringing Forty/Forty Club.”

As Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” all but soundtracked the Yankees’ World Series-winning run last season, it’s no surprise that he might take offense to someone not named Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez opening a club with the “40/40″ name.

The baseball blog Big League Stew points out the “40/40″ moniker comes from when a player achieves both 40 home runs and 40 steals in one season. Only four players in history have done it — including current Yank A-Rod — but Big Papi hasn’t come close, managing only 10 steals total over the course of his entire 14-year baseball career. (To Ortiz’s credit, he has hit a Red Sox record 54 home runs in a season, but then why not the “Fifty-Ten Club”?)

No word whether Jay-Z is seeking compensation, a club name change or maybe just an apology from Ortiz for his Game Four, 12th inning, course-of-history-changing walk-off home run against the Yankees in the 2004 playoffs.

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Today's Baseball Song of the Day comes from Warren Zevon who also wrote the terrific "Werewolves of London" (for all you kids out there...look up "All Summer Long" by Kid Rock).  Today's BSOD, "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" was written in 1978 for the "Excitable Boy" album.

The song has been featured in:

- The movie "Grand Canyon"
- The movie "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson"
- TV series Justice
- TV show Farscape three part episode "Liars, Guns and Money"
- TV show "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" in a spoof called "Robots, Bears, and Lincolns"




BSOD 4/16/2010: Lawyers, Guns, and Money
Artists: Warren Zevon
Released: 1978


Lawyers, Guns, and Money Lyrics

Well, I went home with the waitress
The way I always do
How was I to know
She was with the Russians, too

I was gambling in Havana
I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns and money
Dad, get me out of this

I'm the innocent bystander
Somehow I got stuck
Between the rock and the hard place
And I'm down on my luck
And I'm down on my luck
And I'm down on my luck

Now I'm hiding in Honduras
I'm a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns and money
The shit has hit the fan