New on Sports Illustrated: Marlins' New Stadium Name Immediately Becomes MLB's Most Ridiculous

-

Beginning on Opening Day 2021, the Miami Marlins will play their home games at the newly-renamed loanDepot park, violating both the rules of fun and capitalization.

Say what you want the name "Guaranteed Rate Field"—at least it uses proper capitalization.

The same cannot be said for loanDepot park, the new home of the Miami Marlins. Team chief executive officer Derek Jeter

announced the move on Wednesday, the day before Opening Day, calling it "beneficial to our organization" and citing the company's belief in the Marlins and greater South Florida community.

"I think you've seen what we've been trying to do here in the community and our involvement in the community and saying that this is the community's team," Jeter said, per MLB.com's Christina De Nicola. "And (loanDepot CEO Anthony Hsieh) is on board with that. He wants to make an impact here as well."

The 11-year-old mortgage company was founded by Hsieh, who had previously started and sold other mortgage companies to E*Trade and LendingTree. Its slogan, "Home means everything," is being embraced by the Marlins as a season-long RBI campaign. The company will donate $25 for every regular-season RBI to Boys & Girls Clubs of America, plus $250 per RBI on Opening Day.

The initiative is certainly a noble pursuit worth commending, but back to the name. I'm quite certain this will be the first Major League ballpark whose words begin with lowercase letters, creating a real pop artist track listing feel. It's a style Hsieh believes "looked pretty cool," but it also breaks conventional rules of capitalizing proper nouns. If the goal was to come up with a name that stood out from its peers, mission accomplished. If the goal was to also choose a name guaranteed to be the most mis-capitalized, a job well done on that front as well.

Whatever your feelings on lowercase letters, loanDepot park joins the ranks of the previously-lambasted Guaranteed Rate Field (White Sox) and RingCentral Coliseum (Athletics) as the league's worst-named venues. Baseball stadiums are built like cathedrals—let's try to avoid naming them like used car dealerships and strip-mall payday lenders.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New on Sports Illustrated: NBA Draft Big Board 3.0: Top 80 Prospect Rankings

-
Image
Ranking the top 80 players in the 2021 NBA draft with the NCAA tournament in the rearview. View the original article to see embedded media. With three months until draft night and the NBA’s regular season winding down , the league at large has begun shifting full focus to the off-season. Players have until May 30 to declare as early entrants for the draft, after which point the predraft process will open up in full, leading up to the combine and lottery at the end of June . Our Big Board is long overdue for an update, and fully expanded out to 80 prospects as we all attempt to make sense of the big picture moving forward. As usual, the Big Board is primarily based on my personal evaluations from both live viewings and on film, in many cases dating back several years. The rankings also incorporate feedback and opinions I glean from NBA executives, scouts, and others around the industry. This is not a mock draft, and team fit is not considered, but it is also intended to be somewhat
Read more

New on Sports Illustrated: The Patriots’ Post-Brady Era Begins Now

-
Image
In Mac Jones, Bill Belichick drafted a Round 1 quarterback for the first time ever—and looks to usher in a return to dominance. Of course the first time Bill Belichick drafts a first-round quarterback, it’s one for whom he could get an unvarnished scouting report from good buddy Nick Saban —and without even having to do any draft-day maneuvering. Now, the post-Tom Brady era in New England really begins. The Patriots treated 2020 as something of a gap year, with a league-high eight opt-outs due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a starting quarterback, Cam Newton, who didn't sign with the team until June. They were, for the first time in two decades, mediocre, but that 7–9 record bought them the ticket to a fresh start: the No. 15 pick, which they used Thursday night on Alabama QB Mac Jones. The oft-cited statistic that Belichick had never drafted a QB higher than pick No. 62—used on Jimmy Garoppolo in 2014—was inherently flawed, given that Belichick had Brady as a starter for 19 of
Read more

New on Sports Illustrated: NCAA Board of Governors Unanimously Votes to Extend Mark Emmert’s Contract

-
Despite recent controversy, the NCAA Board of Governors voted unanimously to extend Mark Emmert's contract through 2025. The NCAA Board of Governors unanimously voted to extend president Mark Emmert's contract through Dec. 31, 2025. The news was announced Tuesday as a one-line news item buried within a larger update after the board's quarterly meeting. He's the fifth president in NCAA history and has been in the role since 2010. Emmert previously held high-ranking roles at Washington, LSU, Connecticut and Montana State. His base salary is reportedly $2.7 million.  Within the announcement, the Board reaffirmed its commitment to updating name, image and likeness rules. Dellenger: Inside the Hidden Industry of Name, Image and Likeness and the Changing World for College Athletes Emmert came under fire after disparities were shown between the men's and women's college basketball tournaments this year, specifically the weight room. Prior to the public backlash,
Read more