PHILADELPHIA (Audacy) — A long legal battle over a beloved green cheesesteak-loving creature with an extra-long tongue and penchant for silliness is apparently over.
Matt Breen of The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the Phillies will be able to use the prior iteration of the Phillie Phanatic as part of a settlement that they reached with the original creators of the mascot, Wayde Harrison and Bonnie Erickson. It's not clear how much the Phillies paid the duo to end a years-long legal process.
In August of 2019, the Phillies sued Harrison and Erickson, whose representatives wanted a chance to either reach a new contract — one that presumably would include much more compensation — with the Phillies, or potentially take the Phanatic to another organization.
Before the 2020 season, the Phillies made tweaks to the Phanatic, which included a shorter snout, the addition of a tail feather and scales on its arms:
This settlement appears to close the book on one of the strangest lawsuits ever: a fight over a baseball mascot that was born in the Galápagos Islands.
