TDA Bullpen - Our Writers' Blog

Monday, July 12, 2004

Corporate Makeovers

Tim Kurkjian did a piece for Baseball Tonight on the relationship between the city of Houston and baseball, which despite paying some attention to the earlier relationships between the city's power brokers and the ball club -- Judge Roy Hofheinz, Lyndon Johnson, the National Aeronautic and Space Administration, the Johnson Space Center, the Astrodome -- neglected to even mention that the current ballpark was christend Enron Field. Fast forward thirty years and we have the names Ken Lay, George Bush, the Texas Rangers, George Bush, the Houston Astros, and Enron prominently in the news. (In the latter day case, the use of the term "power broker" should be taken somewhat more literally. Since I pay my electric bill in California, at least I do.) There's a certain 1984ish effect from failing to note a rather extreme example of the intersections between the life of a town and the cozy management/ownership/government relationship. Perhaps it was just an oversight by Kurkjian; other ESPN stories at least mentioned the name now and again.

Jon Miller, the outstanding broadcaster for the San Francisco Giants and KNBR, got into a minor amount of hot water for not using the name 'SBC Park' to refer to the Giants' home venue, stating his son wouldn't refer to it by anything but its proper name, Pac Bell. There's a nice little back and forth on this on the blog Baseball Think Factory'. (Although I note that somewhat hiliariously, this site has Ads by Google, which have produced an ad for SBC Pacific Bell Phones on this discussion page.) While it's true that "Pacific Bell" wasn't exactly a name of longstanding, the nickname 'Pac Bell' ("Pac Belle") had a nice quality to it, and when you bond with a place, you bond with its name. The 'Stick, of course, was named 3Com field during its final years, after the networking vendor. I am given to wondering what kind of collective memory we're going to have about the current wave of corporate-named parks.

The wave of corporate naming is not, by any means, new. Back in the day when the ball club was identified strongly with the owner, who was in turn usually the owner and often the builder of the park, it was common to name the park after the owner. Comiskey Park (I and briefly II), Wrigley Field (both of them), Shibe Park (aka Connie Mack Stadium) (and the Baker Bowl), Briggs Stadium (aka Navin Field), Ebbets Field, Crosley Field, Sick's Stadium, Griffith Park, all named for an owner. And of course we have Turner Field and Jacobs Field now, the former somewhat ironically built by the public as part of the 1996 Olympics, and Busch Stadium, ambiguously named for both brewery and owner (earlier Busch Field incarnations, aka Sportsman's Park, were more clearly named for the man). Kauffman Stadium, like Turner Field and Jacobs Field, was named to honor a former owner ex post facto.

What's changed is the switch to the corporate governance over the personally-owned fiefdom.And the primary, usually exclusive, business of these owners with the eponymous stadia was baseball, not something else. Here's a quick rundown of the businesses corporate ballpark sponsors are (or were) in ("+" indicates name is no longer in use).

Power and Energy (once upon a time)

+Cinergy Field
+Edison Field at Anaheim (now thankfully renamed Anaheim Stadium -- but why not Autry Field?)
+Enron Field, sort of, once upon a time

Amusements/Entertainment

Great American Ballpark

Banks/Financial Services

Bank One Ballpark (soon to be renamed due to a corporate merger)
Comerica Park
Citizens Bank Park
PNC Park
Safeco Field (insurance and annuities/securities)
Ameriquest Mortgage Company (despite a pledge made to the city of Arlington when it was built that it would be forever named after the city)

Beer

Coors Field
Miller Park
Busch Stadium

Other Food Products (well, OK, Orange Juice)

Minute Maid Park
Tropicana Dome

Clothing

ProPlayer Field

Telecommunications

SBC
+Pacific Bell
US Cellular Field
Network Associates Coliseum
+3Com Stadium

Pet Food and Supplies

Petco Park

Not Named After Corporations

Oriole Park at Camden Yarks
Anaheim Stadium (now)
Fenway Park
Dodger Stadium
Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (named for the former Vice President and long-time Minnesota Senator; the putative new ballpark will have a corporate name -- Target Center II??)
Olympic Stadium (not for want of looking for a sponsor; Seagram's was once rumoured to be ready to sign on the dotted line, but the municipal government balked)
Jacobs Field (although the rights to name it thus were purchased by the surviving Jacobs brother to honor the deceased one)
Shea Stadium (local civic leader)
SkyDome
Wrigley Field*
Yankee Stadium

* Wrigley was, of course, named for both the chewing gum and the magnate of the same name who purchased the field from the defunct Federal League Chicago Whales franchise in 1915.

Well, back to watching Barry whack 'em out of Minute Maid Park.

posted by The Crank 4:53 PM