Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Stadium Nicknames Part 1

As I have mentioned, I do not have too much interest in baseball, I am more of a casual fan. I know who is winning their division and the basics of how each team is doing, but I don't follow it like I would the NFL. That being said I still have a passion for nicknames, and in this case nicknaming ballparks. Yes, this is the first of two instalments that gives a nickname to every MLB team's ballpark, some are their real nicknames, others are the nicknames that they should be given, so beginning with the AL, here are the nicknames in alphabetical order by team:

ANAHEIM ANGELS OF LA: (I know it is the LA Angels of Anaheim, but this is a crime, they play in Anaheim and that is who they are)
Real Name: Angel Stadium
Nickname: Graceland
Is this copyrighted, cause if not they gots to use it, imagine the headline "Brawl in Graceland lands DeJesus on DL." **note** I know that David DeJesus plays for the Royals, in my imaginative scenario he starts the brawl at Graceland.
Other Names Considered: The Holy O (this could be very very dirty), Disney Land 2 and Cloud Nine

BALTIMORE ORIOLES:
Real Name: Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Nickname: The Junk Yard
Note that the real nickname for this ballpark is The Yard, but that is too plain for me, especially for a team that has had losing records in its last 9 seasons. Just think with this nickname you could make shirts that say, "I got crabs at The Junk Yard", awesome.
Other Names Considered: The Vault's Red Headed Step Child, Purgatory, and The Crab Pit

BOSTON RED SOX:
Real Name: Fenway Park
Nickname: Fenway
Yes fans, this is just one of those parks that is sacred and the name should not be ruined by a lowly blogger like myself. Prior to the 'Sox winning the World Series there would have been a bunch of good names, but now alas, it is one of the few cool historical ballparks that one can sit and enjoy stepping on the peanut shells of a prior generation.

CHICAGO WHITE SOX:
Real Name: U.S Cellular Field
Nickname: The Cell
Easy one. The Cell is intimidating and also flows from the real name. I was thinking of calling it Dropped Balls (a play on the famed amount of dropped calls experienced by US Cellular customers), but I thought that could be taken wrongly in many different ways.
Other Names Considered: That Other Ballpark, The Not-so Wrigley Field and (what should have been the name) The New Comiskey

CLEVELAND INDIANS:
Real Name: Jacobs Field
Nickname: Poor Man's Camden Yard
I know that the real nickname is "The Jake," but that is lame-o. We all know that Cleveland called up the architects that designed Camden Yards and said we want something like that. Knowing that they were in Cleveland, the architects whited out the name Camden Yards and brought the blueprints of Camden Yards to show off to the city of Cleveland, low and behold they have Jacobs Field.
Other Names Considered: The Reservation and Burning River Park

DETROIT TIGERS:
Real Name: Comerica Park
Nickname: The CoPa Cabana
With the Tigers actually doing well, its hard to make fun of how bad they have been in recent history, so they deserve to have a decent name.
Other Names Considered: Unemployment Central, Bullet Proof Park and The Oasis

KANSAS CITY ROYALS:
Real Name: Kauffman Stadium
Nickname: The Sick
Kauffman is one of those names that lends itself to dealing with people that are unhealthy, and what a better team to have a sickly type name then the Kansas City Royals. Note that the people in Kansas City will think that outsiders will be using the term "The Sick" in a slang way meaning that the Royals are Awesome (or sick), but we all know it refers to how bad they are.
Other Names Considered: The Castle and The River Runs Through It

MINNESOTA TWINS:
Real Name: The Metrodome
Nickname: The Terrarium
A little lengthy, but makes everyone feel good when they think of their 3rd grade science class where they filled a two liter bottle of soda with dirt and called it a Terrarium (was anything supposed to happen with the dirt?). Anyway, about as much happens in the Metrodome as in a Terrarium, so I think it's a winner.
Other Names Considered: The Lake, Kirby Puckett's Good Eye, The Igloo

NEW YORK YANKEES:
Real Name: Yankee Stadium
Nickname: The Death Star
Yankess are referred to as the evil empire, thus they must play in the death star. Would have been more apt if they stadium were a dome and completely shaped like a ball, but hey, its not bad.
Other Names Considered: Guiliani's Fifth Wife, Babe's Boozery and That Damn Place

OAKLAND ATHLETICS:
Real Name: McAfee Coliseum
Nickname: Billy Beane's
This guy has put them on the map as a consistently competitive baseball team in a really bad baseball market. The ballpark deserves to be nicknamed after the pure genius of Billy Beane.
Other Names Considered: The Virus, The Other Side of the Tracks and Blue Screened

SEATTLE MARINERS:
Real Name: Safeco Field
Nickname: The Safe
I did think of this name myself, but I am not the first, this Seattle Weekly writer beat me to the punch, but I still did come up with it on my own.
Other Names Considered: The Rainout, The Emerald (sorry, nothing in Seattle is that funny)

TAMPA BAY DEVIL RAYS:
Real Name: Tropicana Field
Nickname: The Squeeze
Good for both a baseball reference and an orange reference.
Other Names Considered: The Empty Nest and Steve Irwin's Dive (is it too early? This reference is probably very wrong)

TEXAS RANGERS:
Real Name: Rangers Ballpark in Arlington
Nickname: The Bush
Sorry, this was one of the last ballparks that I could think of a name, and it is by far the worst. The Bush's used to (or still do, I have not idea) have a stake in ownership, and on top of that the name can be used in many ways that teenagers can have fun with.
Other Names Considered: Lynch-burg, National Cemetery (would the real Arlington National Cemetery have a problem with this?)

TORONTO BLUE JAYS:
Real Name: Rogers Centre
Nickname: North of the Border
Nothing special here, but as the lone team "north of the border" I thought it would fit. My brain has officially shut down.
Other Names Considered: Canadia and The Ball Eater (reference to Blue Jays eating other birds eggs, again this really could be taken out of context)

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