There were many memorable images to come out of Rougned Odor cracking Jose Bautista across the jaw with a right hand.
Associated Press photographer Albert Pena snapped one of the best shots of the strike. Odor gritting his teeth as he follows through on his punch, Bautista’s eyes closed, his helmet and sunglasses flying through the air.
It’s a great photo.
Chances are the image has appeared on your timeline at one point or another. It also apparently appeared in a Celebrities Unlimited-owned sports memorabilia store in Dallas called Field Of Dreams and was on sale for $19.99.
According to ESPN’s Darren Rovell, Pena saw the photo in the store and has filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York suing for damages of up to $150,000. Pena, who has the copyright to the photo, claims the store is selling it without permission.
“It’s pretty much all over the place,” Celebrities Unlimited general manager Mark Phillips told ESPN. “I’m not sure why he singled us out.”
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Phillips, who suggested Field Of Dreams was by no means the only store out there selling the photo, told Rovell Tuesday afternoon that he hadn’t heard about the lawsuit.
“Ninety-five per cent of the photos we sell are licensed through PhotoFile,” Phillips added. “In some cases, there’s a better photo of an event, and we’ll sell that. In our 23 years, we’ve never been told that what we were selling was someone else’s property.”
There’s always a new branch growing on the Odor-Bautista storyline tree, which first blossomed when the Blue Jays star flipped his bat in the 2015 ALDS.
In fact, the news about this photographer’s lawsuit came to light one day after Odor attempted a bat-flip of his own during a World Baseball Classic game. However, his bat-flip didn’t occur during an epic home run. Singles are good too though…