Boy, the Astros' brass just took the heckler heat off "the gay Met" with their naming rights announcement!

Biggio, Bagwell and Berkman have always looked juicy to me...

What an awful name. They're just open to so many jokes about being taken in a minute, the other team cleaning up the maids..........

OH MY GOD!

[quote]Originally posted by Bill W:
...
Biggio, Bagwell and Berkman have always looked juicy to me...

---

Don't forget about Ausmus.....he's yummy

I dread what corporation is going to get the naming rights to the Phillies' new stadium. In today's Phila. Daily News a writer asked people to get behind an effort to somehow raise enough money that the Phils would forego corporate sponsorship and name it "Richie Ashburn Stadium." Sadly, there's no chance of this happening.

I suppose this selling of the ballpark naming-rights has become unavoidable in the modern baseball era, but I have to say that I was enjoying the few moments of sanity that prevailed, all-too-briefly, while Houston's home venue was simply being referred to as "Astros Field." Shall we begin calling the team the "Minute Maids?"

I think many Braves fans breathed a collective sigh of relief when their newly-opened ballpark (which, you may remember, was re-configured from the 1996 Olympic Stadium in a rare example of site-preservation through advance-planning) was named, simply, "Turner Field" by the AOL-Time-Warner megacorporation that owns the Braves franchise. It's true that most of us were originally hoping for "Henry Aaron Field" but, at least we weren't blighted with an idiotic mouthful of company trademarks that could have been our fate, and it allowed us to occasionally use the nickname "The Ted" instead of some nonsense like "The AOLTW." I've been thankful for this small miracle of reason in a baseball business not renowned for its rationality.

Nuthin' says baseball like hotdogs, peanuts, and frozen-concentrate fruit beverages.

Keep in mind that MinuteMaid is part of the Coca-Cola company. I understand their little marketing department (Stan & Shirley) had a few bucks to spare. "Hey Shirl, let's buy a stadium!" And can we now expect corporate-shill Elton John songs between innings?

Perhaps now a new team slogan is in order: "The Houston Astros – Our Balls are Juiced!" or maybe "Our squeeze plays are FRESHLY squeezed – and now with added calcium!"

(I won't even touch MM's new hot-seller, "MinuteMaid Fruit Bars." )

[quote]Originally posted by Seph:
(I won't even touch MM's new hot-seller, "MinuteMaid Fruit Bars." )

---

I'll touch the fruit bars if you won't.

Well, as a poor dumb 'Stros fan I have to say the naming game is RIDICULOUS! I'll take the cue from the fans in Denver...when their new Broncos stadium was opened and the corporate sponsor named people where (justifiably) hacked off. It was always the Stadium at Mile High and folks swore to continue calling it just that; or Mile High Stadium. Sorry I don't have a link for the article, but it was in the Rocky Mountain News a couple of years ago.

So, in the spirit of that bit o' common sense, I'll just continue calling it what most we Houstonians refer to it as anyway...the ballpark.

So, do you think Kotex will build us a new WNBA court?

[quote]Originally posted by protistdog:
So, do you think Kotex will build us a new WNBA court?

---

But of course, for the Tampa Bay Tampons!

I wouldn't care what they named it if it could help us get back in the race for the NL Central. GO 'STROS!!