I was reading Jayson Stark’s “Rumblings & Grumblings” today over on ESPN, and they had a bit about how he thinks Padilla will be moved this off season. Anyway, in the piece, there was a funny quote about “Padilla’s head”. It went:
“I once heard somebody say,” quipped one baseball man, “that he doesn’t just have baggage. He has luggage.”
Made me laugh. :)
I’ve also updated the poll on the main page to be a new one about Padilla and 2008. Give it a look. Thanks.
Something that’s been on my mind lately has been corporate sponsorships. The majority of parks these days have them. The owners and the reps from said companies make these grandiose statements about how it’s “great for the community”, or “our partnership will bring such and such” to the fans, and all that. But we all know what it’s really for. Lining the pockets of the owners with some more money.
OK, OK, it’s probably not all for the owner’s personal jet fuel bill, or the wife’s shoe budget, I’m sure some of it goes back to the team in some capacity (extra management salary, perhaps? – yes that last bit was sarcasm, Dave), but I’ve yet to run into a fan that honestly thinks these things are a GREAT idea. Most every one of these parks that has a corporate name almost invariably has it’s nickname ignored by the people who matter the most. The fans.
This is a Rangers fan site, so I’m most familiar with our own corporate shill name (which is now fortunately gone), “Ameriquest Field in Arlington”. You ask any fan of the Rangers, and did they call it “Ameriquest Field”? Heck no, they still called it “The Ballpark”, after it’s original name “The Ballpark in Arlington”. I admit I was one of those people who was not at first a fan of the park’s original name. I wanted Vandergriff Field, or perhaps something to do with Nolan Ryan, but over the years, “The Ballpark” really grew on me. I like that name a lot. It’s simple. It works. These corporate names are frequently not simple, and they almost never work – the majority of them are fingernails on a chalkboard. Very few truly blend in – off the top of my head, the only one that does is the name of the Reds’ current home – “The Great American Ballpark”. For two years after it opened, I didn’t even know it was a corporate name, I just thought it was a really cool name. Oh well. That’s one against my argument, but it is very much the exception.
Lately I’ve been thinking of all the parks, and it made me wonder how many of them do not have any sort of corporate sponsorship at all. So I decided to run down the lot of them, and come up with some more information about their names, their former names, nicknames, etc… I’m organizing them by age, from their original opening to the newest parks. I’m also adding a few thoughts of my own unrelated to the corporate sponsorship issue I raised here. I realized once I got started that I have a few thoughts on these places, even though I’ve not personally visited the huge majority of them.
The stadiums I’ve been near, but not been to games at are Fenway, RFK, Tropicana, & Turner. (My wife has been to Skydome, but not for a game). The stadiums I’ve actually seen games at are: Oriole Park, Ballpark in Arlington, Minute Maid, PNC Park, Citizens Bank. Stadiums that aren’t around anymore that I’ve seen games at were: Veterans Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium, The Astrodome, Mile High Stadium (Rockies 1st season).
So sit back and prepare to bask in my opinions on corporate sponsorship deals around Major League Baseball, as well as my thoughts on the various ballparks that make up the major leagues. If you are reading this on an RSS reader somewhere, you will have to visit my site to get the whole article. It was too large (at 18,100 words or so) to stick in the rss feed. :)
Coco won’t have to worry about coming back to Arlington any time soon to have his saves record blown again. He signed with the Reds today for an amazing contract. Four years, 46 million with an $12 mil option on 2012 and a $1 mil buyout. (Story here).
Seems a bit pricey – I don’t envision Coco as one of the elite closers (aka over $10 mil a year). I also don’t envision the Reds as being close enough to contending where they’d need an expensive closer.
The Yankees threw a stupid amount of money at Mariano Rivera, but at least he has a track record. Coco can save, yes – but I don’t see him as being THAT good.
What do you think?
I was planning on writing about Torii Hunter today, and how Arte Moreno seems to be trying to do what we tried to do in 2001 with Galarraga, Caminiti, & Arod by trying to be George Steinbrenner.
I don’t feel like writing about that after reading about Joe Kennedy. Seems petty. Hunter went for the cash grab. He would have been nice here, but oh well. Probably will make a run at Aaron Rowand, but at this point, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Marlon Byrd out there in 2008.
UPDATE: There’s a good post with a summary of various people’s feelings about Torii Hunter and the Angels. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you should. I particularly get a kick out of the notion read about moving Vlad Guerrero to permanent DH. One of the best arms in baseball, and you stick him in the DH hole. Smart.
UPDATE 2: Don’t forget Adam Morris’ thoughts on the matter. It’s pretty much what I feel anyway, so go read what Adam wrote I concur. :)
Black Friday, indeed. Saw this on ESPN a few minutes ago.
Free-agent pitcher Joe Kennedy, who played for Oakland, Arizona and Toronto in 2007, died early Friday of undetermined causes, reports ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick. He was 28.
May all of God’s blessings be with the Kennedy family, who obviously lost someone way too soon. I just hope that God’s plan for Joe’s early exit from the Earth will end up serving some greater cause.
Godspeed to Joe Kennedy, may his journey forward in the next life be one filled with the love from our heavenly Father.
Arod will retire in 2015 with 870 home runs, 3,694 hits, 2,499 RBI’s, and 2,477 runs scored.
So says a simulation of Arod’s career done by IGN on the MLB 2k7 videogame. Check out the full article, it’s actually quite an amusing read.
It does say that he remains a Yankee all this time, and that they win one World Series between now and 2015. :)
