Jay-Z Sues Red Sox Slugger David Ortiz

There’s only one Hova – and Jay-Z believes there should only be one line of nightclubs named after the baseball term “40-40 club.”

The rapper and his business partner Juan Perez own a chain of nightclubs called the 40/40 Club with locations in New York City and Atlantic City, N.J. A third 40/40 Club in Las Vegas closed in 2008. According to Reuters, additional clubs are planned for Tokyo and Macau.

Jay-Z and Perez filed a lawsuit April 15 in Manhattan Federal Court against Boston Red Sox star David Ortiz, who owns a nightclub named Forty/Forty in his hometown of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

“David Ortiz is fully aware of plaintiff’s Manhattan 40/40 Club, since he had been a patron there on several occasions long before he opened his infringing Forty/Forty Club,” the lawsuit said.

The suit accuses the first baseman of trying to profit from Jay-Z’s fame and claims that the Dominican Republic club and its Web site, www.fortyforty.net, are causing “marketplace confusion and damage.”

According to the 40/40 Club’s page on Restaurant.com, the chain was named after the baseball term that “denotes players who hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in one season.” The clubs features jerseys of the only players who have earned bragging rights for this incredible feat – Barry Bonds (1996), Alex Rodriguez (1998), Jose Canseco (1988) and Alfonso Soriano (2006).

According to Baseball-Reference.com, Ortiz scored more than 40 homers in a season for three consecutive years (2004-2006) but in his 14 years in the MLB, he’s only stolen a total of 10 bases.