NEW YORK (Reuters) – Major League Baseball has sued Upper Deck Co, accusing it of trademark infringement for using its logos on trading cards without permission.

The lawsuit was filed six months after the sport awarded rival Topps Co a multi-year agreement to become its exclusive trading card maker. Topps has sold baseball cards since 1952.

Upper Deck had no immediate comment on the lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan federal court. The company is based in Carlsbad, California.

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DALLAS (Reuters) – Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan is part of an investment group that has reached a definitive agreement to purchase the Texas Rangers, the team said on Saturday.

Hicks Sports Group LLC will sell the team to Rangers Baseball Express LLC, an investment group headed by Pittsburgh attorney Chuck Greenberg and Rangers president Ryan, the club said on its website (http://texas.rangers.mlb.com).

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CHICAGO (Reuters) – The No. 1 U.S. lawn care company is staking out new turf by offering baseball fans a chance to replicate the lush, green playing fields of such iconic ballparks as Wrigley Field and Fenway Park in their own yards as part of a sponsorship deal.

ScottsMiracle-Gro Co has signed a multiyear, multimillion-dollar sponsorship with Major League Baseball that includes licensed products such as grass seeds and fertilizers, baseball-themed advertising, in-park signage and partnerships with several teams.

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CHICAGO (Reuters) – A group led by Pittsburgh sports attorney Chuck Greenberg was picked as the lead bidder for the Texas Rangers baseball team being sold by sports tycoon Tom Hicks, but still must finalize the deal and get the approval of the league’s owners and Hicks’ creditors.

Greenberg, whose group includes Rangers President and retired all-star pitcher Nolan Ryan, has 30 days during which only he can negotiate a purchase. Terms of the deal, announced late Tuesday, were not disclosed but analysts had expected the club to attract bids of at least $500 million to $550 million.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Yankees players earned a record post-season bonus of $365,000 each for their 2009 run to the World Series title, Major League Baseball announced on Monday.

The figure, based on a percentage of gate revenues and set by shares voted by players, was nearly $3,000 more than the old record for members of the 2006 St Louis Cardinals. National League champions Philadelphia Phillies, who fell to New York 4-2 in the Fall Classic, received $265,000 for full shares.

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TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwanese authorities have detained six people on suspicion of accepting bets that prompted deliberately poor performances from baseball players, a prosecutor’s spokesman said on Tuesday.

The case, following a drive earlier this year to stop baseball gambling in Taiwan, could further tarnish the image of the island’s shrinking Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL).

The domestic game has already lost viewership due to public suspicion of betting.

Taiwan’s cabinet said earlier this year it would take clamp down on gambling as celebrities and the president attended games to revive spectator interest in the island’s most popular sport.

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CHICAGO (Reuters) – The Ricketts family has closed its deal and assumed control of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, ending a sales process that took more than two years.

The family bought 95 percent of the team from bankrupt media company Tribune Co for $845 million.

As part of the deal, the Ricketts also get the Cubs’ storied home park of Wrigley Field and a 20 percent stake in a regional sports network. Tribune retains a 5 percent stake in the team and has said it expects to end up with $740 million from the deal.

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SEOUL (Reuters) – Scantily-clad cheerleaders gyrating to corporate theme songs at South Korea’s professional baseball championship series are a far cry from the Christian missionaries who introduced the game to the country a century ago.

The Korean Series finished at the weekend with a dramatic walk-off home run in the deciding game seven that gave the Kia Tigers, owned by the carmaker, their 10th title.

They beat the SK Wyverns, owned by a leading mobile phone operator, and the series itself is almost as much about advertising as about who sits top of the local baseball world.

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CHICAGO (Reuters) – The Chicago White Sox are stepping up to the plate in the digital media arena.

Silver Chalice Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Major League Baseball team, is working with customers to boost business online and via mobile platforms by helping clients offer such services as the ability check scores on cell phones.

The revenue raised by Silver Chalice will not be subject to baseball’s revenue-sharing rules, meaning everything generated by Silver Chalice belongs 100 percent to the team, said Brooks Boyer, White Sox chief marketing officer and CEO of the new venture.

“When you look at baseball, we are the only league without a salary cap. My challenge is … we have to grow revenues,” he said in a telephone interview.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – The owners of the New York Mets baseball team made about $48 million in dealings with swindler Bernard Madoff, court documents showed.

The Mets Limited Partnership, which is connected to the Wilpon family, led by Mets owner Fred Wilpon, deposited $522.8 million in two accounts with Madoff and withdrew $570.6 million, according to a Monday filing by court-appointed trustee Irving Picard.

The Mets could not be reached immediately reached for comment by Reuters. Earlier this year, Erin Arvedlund, author of “Too Good to Be True”, a book on Madoff, said the Wilpon family would be forced to sell the Mets due to huge losses suffered in the Madoff swindle.

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