>>>Wow, I didn't think it would really happen:
>>>
>>>http://cbs5.com/
>>>http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_313010933.html
>>
>>I can't believe the article called it Candlestick Park. That changed years ago, didn't it?
>
>Not to the players, fans or citizens of the Bay Area! :)

<g>

There were some funny moments in a Monday Night Football game there a few years ago, right after the name changed to 3Com Park. Al Michaels, who of course called San Francisco Giants baseball there for a number of years, was the play by play announcer. Several times during the game he referred to the stadium as Candlestick, "the 'stick", etc. Every time he did the guys in the truck did a quick cut to the new 3Com Park sign outside the stadium. It was funny. Michaels must have known they were doing it but went right on calling it Candlestick. I guess it was his way of saying that to him it would always be Candlestick.

I hate the whole movement -- nearly complete now -- of corporate names being attached to sports stadiums. (All right, "stadia" for you pedants out there <g>). Even pregame coin tosses and opening kickoffs now have corporate sponsors. Sometimes there are even corporate logos that aren't there, superimposed on the TV picture to make it appear they are on the padding behind home plate or some such prominent location. I realize money makes the world go around, certainly not excluding professional sports, but the overt corporate logos and sponsorships steal some of the fun from the game IMO, from the sense of an oasis from the serious side of life.

The one that's going to get me is when they finally rebuild Fenway Park and the new place gets the inevitable name of Gillette Stadium or Prudential Park or whatever. That will be a sad day.