Marlin fans... don't get worked up over the stadium name

The Marlins new ballpark is coming along around the site of the old Orange Bowl.
What's it going to be called?

According to Big League Stew, one of my favorite reads on line, some Marlin fans are worried about the name sounding too corporate. Or perhaps even worse taking on a name that would make everyone think of a foreign conglomerate.

Let me say something very clear here, Marlins fans.
WHO CARES?

Listen to me and listen well. (I think that was grammatically correct.)

Would you rather have a stadium that SOUNDED great or that was a great place to see a ballgame?

The worst era of baseball stadiums gave us some of the best names for parks in history.
And the current crop of stadiums have decidedly mediocre or cold and corporate sounding names.

Let me show you what I mean.

Take Philadelphia for example.

The Phillies used to play in Veterans Stadium.

That is a great name for a sporting venue. Honoring the military, it had a nice rhythm to its name and a cool nickname as well.

"The Vet."

And it was an awful cookie cutter park. It was dark and ugly and unappealing.

But it had a cool name. MUCH cooler than Citizens Bank Ballpark.
Which is a better place to play?

Two of the greatest stadium names EVER were Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati and Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.


Both were perfectly tailored to their cities. The Ohio River was the lifeblood of Cincinnati and its stadium name reflected that.

Pittsburgh was formed at the meeting points of the Ohio Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, and the stadium name paid tribute to all three.

Look at the two pictures above. Quickly... which one is which? Chances are you have to look at the surroundings of the stadium to figure out which one is in Pittsburgh and which one is in Cincinnati instead of looking at the stadium itself.

The names didn't make the stadium.

Jack Murphy helped bring big league sports to San Diego and the stadium honored him... and was a dull dull dull stadium.

Compare that to the corporate named PetCo Park, which is a fabulous stadium in the heart of the city.

It is a stadium that would make Jack Murphy proud.



I would say few ballpark names were better than Candlestick Park.

It had geographic relevance. It was descriptive of where in San Francisco it was located.

Calling it a Park instead of a Stadium was a nice touch. And it had a wonderful nickname, "The Stick."

And as someone who went to many games there, I can tell you "The Stick" sucked. It was cold. It was ugly. It was poorly designed for baseball and equally ill fitting for football. It was freezing in August and there was one road leading in and out which meant traffic jams even if the game had a tiny crowd.

Compare that to the coldly corporate sounding AT&T Park. Its name reflects corporate take overs as it was originally Pacific Bell Park, then SBC Park and finally the Death Star's stadium.

And it is the most beautiful, most fan friendly and unique new ballpark in the country with fascinating features and the greatest new tradition in baseball: The boats in McCovey Cove.


It's not all in the name, Marlins fans.
You guys are finally getting a baseball only stadium and who knows? Miami might become a destination spot for free agents. Fans can come out to the game and not be baked or rained upon. And the core of players are talented. It might be a glorious time for a franchise that has a World Series title in each of the last two decades.

So who cares if it is called Blackwater Stadium?

It's a potentially great new place where all new memories of terrific and possibly sustained Marlins teams can grow.

Names are irrelevant.

Take a look at the current Marlins stadium. I think it changed names twice since I started writing this blog post.

I honestly thought it was still called Dolphin Stadium.

Evidently it is called Sun Life Stadium... not to be confused with Joe Robbie Stadium, Pro Player Park, Pro Player Stadium and Land Shark Stadium.

If the new park changes its name as often as the old one did, it won't matter. The PARK will be where you will be happy, no matter what it is called.

I am jealous of my dad

He is currently sitting at AT&T Park watching the Defending World Champion San Francisco Giants take on the Cleveland Indians.

Late afternoon game... Madison Bumgarner on the mound... have fun dad.

Giants tickets are the best value in all of baseball

There might be cheaper tickets.
There might be tickets closer to home plate.

But when you buy a baseball ticket, you are basically expecting to see a 9 inning game.
With the Giants, inevitably you will more than 9 innings and inevitably a walk off win.

I mean it seems like every other Giants win is a furious 9th inning comeback capped off with a walk off hit in extra innings and Krukow and Kuiper losing their voices.

Folks, extra baseball at no extra cost?
That's a great value!

And even if the Giants LOSE in extra innings, you get to see something memorable... like Buster Posey's career being on the line.

In these tough times, you can NOT beat that.

Jealous of my dad

The Giants just won a come from behind game against the Rockies.

It was a great game...

And my dad, the huge Giants fan was as thrilled as any fan for the 8th inning game winning rally.

Where did he watch the game?


Club level at AT&T Park!

Hope you had fun Poppy!

Awesome overload at AT&T Park

There will never be a night like this again in San Francisco.

Oh there might be another ring ceremony by China Basin.
And there will no doubt be another "down to the last strike surreal walk off win" for the Giants. So far they have had two in two home games this year.

But there will never be a first ring ceremony again.
Never again will there be a night where Hall of Famers Willie McCovey and Gaylord Perry get their first ever World Series rings. (Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda got rings, but those were their second rings. Willie won in 1954. Cha Cha with the 1967 Cardinals.)

And to combine that with the surreal ending and Miguel Tejada basically saying "I want a ring too!" and you have a night that will never be replicated.

The great things about the Ring Ceremony is that it gives the previous championship a final exclamation. Everyone who got a ring (including Barry Zito) never has to wonder if they will ever reach the top of the baseball world. So many Hall of Famers played long and wonderful careers and never got that.

I wonder if the Madison Bumgarners and Buster Poseys, who spent part of 2010 in the minor leagues and won as a rookie, really understood what Perry and McCovey's rings meant.

They each played 22 seasons and never won a Series (although if McCovey's line drive eluded Bobby Richardson, then it would have been a different story.)

So 2010 is over. Focus on 2011.
And if the first few games are any indication, it is going to be nuts.

A great day for three Yankees with bad timing

The Giants and their coaching staff got their World Series rings yesterday. And for three members of the coaching staff it was especially sweet.

Dave Righetti, Hensley "Bam Bam" Meulens and Roberto Kelly were all supposed to be big parts in a revamped Yankees team in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Unfortunately for them, the Yankees were dreadful when they played for them.

Had they played for the Yankees for a few more years, they may have had a chance to win a World Series (or 4) with the Joe Torre led squad. Instead they went through their playing career without a ring.

I am sure watching the many Yankee World Series ring celebrations over the years put a little bit of envy into them.

Now they've got rings of their own.

As I wrote last October, Yankee fans should have rooted for the Giants in the post season.
Now I hope a few Yankee fans are happy for some of the representatives of some not as lucky times in the Bronx.

The Giant Alternative - A Sully Baseball Video

In my latest video, I question what MLB has done to appeal to younger fans and ask why they aren't marketing the World Champions more.

Filmed on location at AT&T Park... camera work by my lovely wife.

You are damn right Giants fans should cheer Barry Bonds

Barry threw out the first pitch yesterday afternoon in San Francisco, and no doubt people will fret over it... wondering what message it will send the kids.

Funny, the other night when Andy Pettitte pitched a wonderful game against Cliff Lee, I don't remember people saying how disgusting it was that he was playing.

He used the stuff.

He followed Clemens from New York to Houston and back again.

He denied it at first, and then after getting caught was hailed as a great man for saying "Yeah I used it... like one time. The fact that I was crossing country back and forth with Clemens was a complete coincidence."

Nobody seems upset that Alex Rodriguez has been playing this post season... another guy who used it and denied it left and right until he was cornered.

Those guys are playing in the PLAYOFFS.

Is anyone upset that Mark McGwire, the man who could have done so much good if he were honest but decided to not talk about the past, is a hitting coach for a contending Cardinals team and giving players tips? Maybe some pointers... like one to inject into your butt.

Bonds got applause from the fans and threw a ceremonial first pitch.

And the fans know, as I wrote earlier, that Bonds saved baseball in San Francisco... BEFORE his body ballooned up.

The fans were sitting in beautiful AT&T Park, instead of miserable Candlestick Park... or Tropicana Field, because of the excitement that Bonds brought to San Francisco starting in 1993... the year after they almost moved to St. Pete.

Let's not get carried away over a first pitch, shall we?

For Christsake, they had someone dressed as Captain Morgan throw out the first pitch at some games! It's not a big deal!