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03 February 2006

Giants ballpark renamed again

As expected, that ballpark in China Basin, SBC Park, which was formerly named Pacific Bell Park or Pac Bell Park, is switching names once again to "AT&T Park". Last year's SBC-AT&T merger resulted in the new conglomerate taking on the older, more familiar moniker. The change has also been accompanied by a relentless marketing and ad campaign launched at the beginning of the year. (Speaking of which - Oasis? Puh-leeze. Damon Albarn of Blur/Gorillaz has more talent in his right pinky than Liam "The Rawk Stah" and Noel "One Scale" Gallagher combined. I know Oasis is Billy Beane's fave band, but it's the truth.)

"AT&T Park" doesn't really roll off the tongue and is probably worse than "SBC Park", but "Pac Bell Park" didn't elicit a velvety, dulcet pronunciation either and was given far too much credit for not being a set of initials.

There was the ill-fated attempt by SF Supervisors Chris Daly and Matt Gonzalez to force the edifice to be named after Willie Mays. There's still a petition effort, but contracts are contracts, so don't expect the place to be renamed out of kindness. Fans could force "Mays Field" to stick by consciously incorporating it into their vernacular, nevermind what the tickets and signage says. No offense to the Sey Hey Kid, I'm going to call it what it should be, reflective of another era when baseball wasn't the sole notable monopoly in the States:
  • Ma Bell

On the other side, supposedly Lew Wolff already has a naming rights partner in mind, and it's not a company that makes consumer products. A bank or financial services company? B2B? Whatever it is, it's probably not going to roll off the tongue easily either.