"I'm Calling it Shea" Corporate Stadium Naming Rights Trend Invades the Premier League

My latest for epltalk. Newcastle's St. James' Park is being renamed Sports Direct Arena. But the companies don't pay us anything to call a stadium what they want. We're under no obligation to keep track of mergers and acquisitions to find out what the new name of a stadium is every year. How many names has the S.F. Giants' ballpark had? Anyone know which cities the American Airlines Arena and the American Airlines Arena are in? Isn't easier if we just refer to new stadiums as "(team name's) stadium" and old stadiums by their old names?

"I'm calling it Shea" t-shirts available at the excellent nomas.com

Welcome to the Terrordo----errr, Shea Dome

 From the always-excellent Uniwatchblog.com, the mid-1960s proposal to turn Shea Stadium into a dome. Would have been super-strange. And considering how poorly domes across the country aged, could have hastened Shea's replacement. Thankfully, many powerful people rose up in opposition to the plan, including William A. Shea himself, based mainly on the argument that the baseball fan deserves to watch a game in the fresh air.
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What's the over/under on Johan Santana's win total this year? 13?
I can picture the scene last night in Santana's hotel room.
3AM. Tossing and turning. Can't get the thought of staying in Minnesota out of his head. Competing for a title every year. Wasting the tail end of his prime and beyond on an embarrassment of a team. He turns to his left he sees Virgil. He turns to his right, Ted DiBiase. He bolts out of bed, runs to the bathroom to splash water on his face, he looks up into the mirror and sees Bone Thugs N Harmony singing ominously, "Foe da love of money."
He calls Beltran, first thing they exclaim in unison, "You had the same dream?!?!?"

Gorgeous Pictures of Old Yankee and Old Shea Stadiums

The Out-of-Town-Scoreboard, made obsolete for a time by B.O.O.T.S.

Phil Rizzuto, blowin shit up.

Not sure whom to credit, but it's from this thread, where many, many more senses-shattering shots of NYC in the 70s can be found.

Swing the Bat There, Big Boy! or, Mike Francesa's Brother Will Teach You How To Pitch, or Jeff Lynne of E.L.O. is Difficult to Look At.

Via the always-entertaining Uniwatch, footage of Terrific Tom Seaver's first game on the mound from 1967. Watch the footage and tell me you don't get nostalgic for Shea.


There was a time, a long time ago, when I modeled my pitching on Tom Terrific. I figured, I've got the trunks, may as well make use of them. Of course, I never did pitch effectively for too long. Bryman had a bit of Seaver in him as well, in so far as that his left knee would almost kiss the earf, pope-style, during his delivery. Cannatar made use of his stems as well, but, oddly enough, he seems to end up cross-legged at the end. The Bizman always appears to be all-arm.

In recent years, I've shifted my focus from my gams to my wrist, as Mike Marshall advocates. Using two deliveries based on pronation, I've found increased accuracy, if not velocity.

Which somehow brings me to the following insanity/video. Mike Francesa's brother, in both accent and looks, will help you INSTANTANEOUSLY achieve an ideal pitching motion. Peep the gold watch on his left watch. That's so he can constantly clock all the cold hard cash that he melts into pomade. Do you know what's behind that garage door? Did you guess sadness? Would you have guessed that this operation is based out of Staten Island? Actually, I appreciate this guy's intentions. Doesn't mean the product is worth it but it is worth focusing on the wrist. His heart is in the right place.



Also worth noting that the one non-baseball-training related video is a video for E.L.O.'s "Telephone Line" featuring a coked-out-of-his-fucking-mind Jeff Lynne. It's hard to look at him. Little known fact, Jeff Lynne always wears shades because he lost his eyeballs in a back alley in Bangkok betting that "Evil Woman" was not the greatest piece of pop rock ever written. Ever a man of integrity, he knew it was, but he could not, would not, bet on himself. But he can still see right through your shit.

Still Sheaing Hey

Full props & pounds to No Mas and Uni Watch for their campaign to call the new Mets Stadium "Shea."

After all, Citigroup didn't pay any of us fans to call the stadium what they want. Us fans are free to call the park whatever we'd like, and nothing makes more sense than calling it what us fans have always called it, "Shea."

As any Mets fan knows, William Shea willed the team into being. At the time, as Jimmy Breslin reported in his 1963 classic "Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?" Major League owners were content to let the Yanks enjoy a monopoly over big league ball in the big apple. William Shea ensured this would once again become a National League town.

The Mets should never have taken Citi's money. No doubt it's hard to turn down $20 mil a year, but the Yanks surely turned down more dough than that for their new bandbox. New Shea was the Mets big chance to get on level footing with the Yanks in at least the stadium department. The Yanks turning the money down makes the Mets look even tackier than the billboards for Geico and Caesar's Palace that adorn the facade facing Northern Boulevard.

William Shea's name could have at least been preserved at the #7 station, but the MTA oddly chose to go with "Mets-Willets Point." "Shea Station" is a more proper, and his name is worth preserving more than the obscure Charles Willet, who was an early 19th century landowner.

Of course, to many this is just semantics. A bigger issue is the lack of fannies in New Shea's seats.
I'm sure the Wilpons/Coupons had a good laugh in figuring that if the Mets averaged around 5o,000 in old Shea's last years, then if they dropped New Shea's capacity they could ensure sellouts every night. Well, they dridopped New Shea's capacity to around 41,000 seats, yet are only averaging 36,907 a game so far through 6 games in decent April weather.

Here's a comparison of the attendance figures for the first six games last year and this year.

Game 1 2008: 56,350
Game 1 2009: 41,007

Game 2 2008: 47,127
Game 2 2009: 35,581

Game 3 2008: 49,045
Game 3 2009: 35,985

Game 4 2008: 46,214
Game 4 2009: 36,436

Game 5 2008: 54,701
Game 5 2009: 36,312

Game 6 2008: 52,794
Game 6 2009: 36,124

I don't care how many Excelsior boxes they sell and how many Shake Shake burgers they push, losing 15,000 fans a game has to mean less cake for the Coups.