The Philadelphia Phillies filed a federal lawsuit Friday saying that the New York designer who four decades ago helped create the costume for the team’s beloved mascot, the Phanatic, is trying to kidnap him for the equivalent of copyright ransom.

The team’s lawyers are asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to declare that the Phanatic belongs to the Phillies forever, and no one can take the mascot away.