About time, guys

Rangers rename their home

Actually, the Rangers are (sort-of) reverting their stadium name back to its original goodness. There was something classy, distinctive about "The Ballpark in Arlington"... and when I moved back to Texas from Iowa last summer, I was holding my nose at the fact that the name had been changed to "Ameriquest Field" (blech!). That gorgeous ballpark deserved better than some corporate advertisement for a name. I couldn't help but think of Enron and how Houston had to change that stadium's name after the company went bust.

Well, now Ameriquest is in the tank thanks to the subprime mortgage debacle... and they're finally willing to let the Rangers buy back their stadium's name (since they're hemorrhaging cash badly, they need it).

And instead of changing it right back to "The Ballpark in Arlington," it's going to be "Rangers Ballpark in Arlington." They want to identify with their brand, and they're not foreseeing any more corporate sellouts in that department.

Hear, hear. I'm not one to criticize people for making money wherever they see a good avenue to do so -- but I also think that a franchise like a baseball team ought to think long and hard before selling the name of a permanent structure to something as tenuous as a corporation, something that's always changing and evolving and may eventually come to represent something the team doesn't want to be associated with.

Play ball, boys! Let's make some history this year.