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 Post subject: It's your paper
PostPosted: Tue Feb 04, 2003 10:23 pm 
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Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 3135
Location: Albuquerque, N.M. USA
Read the news that Comiskey Park in Chicago will be renamed for a corporate sponsor. We discussed this a while back when Denver renamed its stadium (or built a new one, whichever). <p>But now's a good time to remind ourselves that we can call ballparks whatever we want. If the Chicago papers merely called it Sox Park, everyone would know what they were talking about and would find their way to the game. We are under no obligation to print the corporate names of stadiums.<p>Why is the "official" name of a stadium almost always included in gamers? Probably because just about every beat writer and sports editor thinks it's cool. <p>It's also worth remembering that the holy temple on the north side, where the Cubs play, has since nearly forever been named for a corporation that makes chewing gum.


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 Post subject: Re: It's your paper
PostPosted: Tue Feb 04, 2003 10:45 pm 
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Location: Bethesda, Md.
<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by jjmoney62:

It's also worth remembering that the holy temple on the north side, where the Cubs play, has since nearly forever been named for a corporation that makes chewing gum.
<hr></blockquote><p>I was surprised to learn that Wrigley Field was known widely as and still is called "Cubs Park" in the neighborhood. I never heard it uttered anywhere else. "Cubs Park" was the "real" name of the now dilapidated and unpleasant stadium for only about six years in the 1920s.<p>[ February 04, 2003: Message edited by: blanp ]</p>


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 Post subject: Re: It's your paper
PostPosted: Tue Feb 04, 2003 11:21 pm 
Seems to me that last year there was a big flap in which one of the Denver papers refused to use the new corporate name of the former Mile High Stadium in print ... then sheepishly backed down some months later when it was clear that they weren't leading some great populist swell of sentimental opinion toward the old name.<p>Here, few people I know use the word "Safeco" for Seattle's pro baseball field ... but many use the word "Key" for KeyArena, where the Seatle SuperSonics play. It would be fascinating to understand how some such monikers absorb into a mass cultural consciousness, while others are rejected immediately and completely like incompatible organ transplants.<p>In this case, I'd say "U S Cellular Field" doesn't stand much of a chance for at least 10 to 20 years. WAY too unwieldy, and there's no way to give it a lovable shorthand nickname, i.e., "The Murph" for Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, or "The Jake" for Jacobs Field in Cleveland.<p>Have either the Sun-Times or Tribune weighed in with their intentions?


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 Post subject: Re: It's your paper
PostPosted: Tue Feb 04, 2003 11:21 pm 
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Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 151
Location: Gautier, Miss.
<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by jjmoney62:
Why is the "official" name of a stadium almost always included in gamers? Probably because just about every beat writer and sports editor thinks it's cool. <hr></blockquote><p>Bullshit. Sports editors and beat writers may or may not have a good reason to use the corporate name, but I've never met one who did it because they thought it was cool. If you were trying to be cute or funny, you failed on both counts.<p>If I seem harsh, it's only because I'm feeling a little queasy after reading this tripe, http://msn.espn.go.com/nba/columns/spears_marc/1503467.html.


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 Post subject: Re: It's your paper
PostPosted: Tue Feb 04, 2003 11:37 pm 
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Joined: Tue Aug 06, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 37
Location: Colorado
When Phoenix got the Diamondbacks and Bank One bought the naming rights to the field, I don't think they ever anticipated the name being shortened to BOB. We often used the full name of the ballpark in the Republic -- and I'm guessing they still do -- but it was great to have the BOB option. WHAT ABOUT BOB even got used in some page toppers in the inaugural section we put out for the first game played there. (I wasn't responsible for those, but I think it's funny now.)


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 Post subject: Re: It's your paper
PostPosted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 11:20 am 
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Joined: Fri Jun 21, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 145
Location: Toronto
Some names rub the wrong way. I've never been bothered by Massey Hall or the former O'Keefe Centre, two Toronto concert halls built way before my time. Massey was a farm equipment company, O'Keefe a brewery. But the Molson Indy (car race) makes my fillngs jump. O'Keefe Centre was changed to Hummingbird Centre a few years ago for a software company pay-out without much fuss.
The Air Canada Centre (Leafs hockey and Raptors basketball) often gets reduced to ACC or the Hangar because it sort of looks like one. I doubt if a corporate name was tagged to SkyDome (Blue Jays alleged baseball and Argonauts football) that it would be known as anything but SkyDome.
In my neighbourood is the Ted Reeves Arena (minor hockey) named for a late Toronto Telegram sports editor.
Many years back at a small town paper, I helped cover a pretty decent amateur baseball team that rounded up sponsorship from local businesses for each uniform. My favourite was "Linda's Lingerie" across the shoulders of the first-base coach.


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 Post subject: Re: It's your paper
PostPosted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 11:26 am 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Tim Hathcock:
<p>Bullshit. Sports editors and beat writers may or may not have a good reason to use the corporate name, but I've never met one who did it because they thought it was cool. If you were trying to be cute or funny, you failed on both counts.<p>If I seem harsh, it's only because I'm feeling a little queasy after reading this tripe, http://msn.espn.go.com/nba/columns/spears_marc/1503467.html.<hr></blockquote>
The link doesn't work. Dare I ask what the story was?


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 Post subject: Re: It's your paper
PostPosted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 12:57 pm 
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Location: Gautier, Miss.
<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by SusanV:

The link doesn't work. Dare I ask what the story was?
<hr></blockquote><p>Sorry about that, try it without the period at the end. It's about an alleged sports writer who was astounded he was asked to do "real" journalism after the shuttle disintegrated.


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 Post subject: Re: It's your paper
PostPosted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 1:25 pm 
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Thank you, Tim, for pointing out this idiotic column. I was looking for something to be pissed off about for the rest of the day, and you have provided it.<p>I covered the 1978 Phillies a few times while our regular writer was out of town. Every day that I went to the ballpark, I wished I could be doing something worthwhile instead.<p>This column shows that some people don't have the same perspective. A chance to report on a major news story, and this guy is longing for a chance to cover a jackass basketball game.<p>Pardon me; I have to go be pissed off now.


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 Post subject: Re: It's your paper
PostPosted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 3:26 pm 
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Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2002 12:01 am
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Location: NJ
<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>It's also worth remembering that the holy temple on the north side, where the Cubs play, has since nearly forever been named for a corporation that makes chewing gum.<hr></blockquote>
Well, yeah -- they built it. Same with Busch Stadium. Neither stadium got its name by leasing the naming rights to a company looking for a new outlet for advertising, otherwise those two ballparks would've been called something like "Budweiser Stadium" and "Wrigley's Doublemint Field."<p>(Off on a tangent: Is there any evidence, anywhere, that this naming-rights business even comes close to working as advertising? When 3Com thrust its name onto the nation's sports pages, did anyone learn -- or care -- what the company does? My gut feeling is that you're going to start seeing these deals fade away as companies find they're not getting very much bang for their name-recognition buck.)<p>But back to the point: Our paper uses the "official" advertiser-sponsored names of stadiums but generally avoids the sponsor names that are glued to names of events (e.g., the "Garden Weasel Rose Bowl" or whatever).<p>[ February 05, 2003: Message edited by: Finn DeSiecle ]</p>


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 Post subject: Re: It's your paper
PostPosted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 4:06 pm 
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Posts: 231
Location: Bellevue, WA
Poor Mr. Spears.<p>I think some of us are missing the point of his column: "As I went to glance at the space shuttle remains, it finally dawned on me that what I was covering was a lot bigger than any NBA All-Star Game or Finals."


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 Post subject: Re: It's your paper
PostPosted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 4:14 pm 
There's no sign that a writer has lost perspective than a cringe-inducing "Suddenly my life's work has meaning and perspective" piece. Save the navel-gazing for a three-martini midnight at the neighborhood bar, pal.


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 Post subject: Re: It's your paper
PostPosted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 4:31 pm 
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Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 17
Location: Not in Florida
I didn't miss the point of his column. I'm missing why this ran at all.
Reporters report, editors edit... if you want your personal story in the paper, quit and start firing off letters to the editor. I don't give a flying flock about his day, his drive or his thoughts. Get the real people in there, and save your 'feelings' for your beer and memoirs.


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 Post subject: Re: It's your paper
PostPosted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 5:11 pm 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Tim Hathcock:
<p>Sorry about that, try it without the period at the end. It's about an alleged sports writer who was astounded he was asked to do "real" journalism after the shuttle disintegrated.<hr></blockquote>
Crap. I should have left well enough alone. I am amazed at his small-mindedness. (And I hope he is a better sportswriter than this idiocy conveys.)


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