Monday, February 21, 2005

Mays Field vs. SBC Park

SBC Park. Are any of us really sold on that yet? I think there are two groups of people when dealing with this name. Group #1 are those who still use Pac Bell Park, and deny the existence of the multi-initialed, non-nicknameable moniker that's been hung on our beloved diamond. Group #2 are those, like myself, who've become resigned to the name change, and use SBC Park, but always throw in the pause for emphasis and sarcastic tone of voice which serve as our unspoken quotation marks. You know..."SBC" Park.

So. Dealing with reality, what are our real options? Back to Pac Bell? Let's all do a koom-ba-yah chorus together...no. Not gon' happen. Pac Man Park is as likely to happen as that.

SBC forever? Ouch. We've had quite a while to come up with something other than that name, something cool. Bank One Ballpark = the BOB. U.S. Cellular One Field = the Cell. SBC = ...the Suckiest Ballpark name Change?

We failed, all of us. We've got Stanford, Cal-Berkeley, the Silicon Valley, the world famous Napa Valley, and one of the most culturally diverse populations in the world, and we've struck out looking. Good morning, good afternoon, good night. Us? No nickname by now? What the heck is wrong with us?

Then, a small glimmer of light. A small spark of hope amongst the chaos and bedlam. A shoot of green in the driest of barren deserts. A new dawn...okay, that's enough of that. Somebody finally had a freaking good idea. And luckily for all of us, it's somebody with the drive to start a blog on the idea, and come up with cool paraphenalia (uh, stuff) to back up the idea. T-shirts, hats, bumper stickers...stuff, man, stuff. Those of you who've wandered my sidebar know my love of stuff, right? Well, there stuff in them thar hills. Ed Bautista and Daniel Ben-Horin are the stuff-holders, the stuff-distributors, the stuff-masters. The stuff-inators.

The stuff is here, at www.maysfield.org, and if you're wondering why I put that link up twice, it's so that you know how to get there. Oops, I did it again.

...Did I just quote a Britney Spears song? I did. And that alone should show you how serious I am about this idea.

Changing SBC Park to Mays Field officially would be difficult to accomplish. However, changing SBC Park to Mays Field among the fans? Not nearly as difficult. I just made the change about 30 minutes ago. You can do it, too. It's simple, it makes sense, and it honors the best ballplayer of all-time. Yep, you heard right. Willie Mays, best ballplayer of all-time. You can go with the home runs if you want, you can trot out career batting averages, and a host of other offensive stats if you'd like, but I'll take a guy who did all of those things, and played centerfield better than everybody and their momma ever did.

So, visit the site, and show your support by either: a) buying stuff, or b) telling others about the site. I'm gonna buy a t-shirt myself, just as soon as I win another poker game. Gotta have financing, you know.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Daniel. We appreciate the support, and I really like the way you describe the Mays Field campaign. I just posted about it at the Mays Field site.

Ed