The Citi Pity

Both professional New York baseball franchises began the 2009 season with new home stadiums. Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium are old news. Yankee Stadium and Citi Field are in.

As anyone can tell, the American League Yankees have chosen to retain the old stadium's name, as it was named after the team itself, who was, in turn, named after the obnoxious and caustic people of the north.

The National League Mets chose to go the more conventional route and not name the stadium, but sell off the naming rights to the highest bidder. That bidder just happened to be Citigroup and they just happen to be the highest bidder despite being flat broke and unable to correctly spell the word 'city.'

Citigroup Inc. actually gathered the $400 million ($20 million a year for 20 years) from government bailout funds received as a result of the national economy. Instead of rehiring workers, restructuring internal management, or plugging some of the other holes in their sinking ship, the decided to blow it all on four tall letters outside of a baseball stadium.

They didn't even buy the team. That would be something. That would at least be an investment. This is just selfish.

It has been suggested that because of the used bailout money, that they stadium instead be named "Taxpayer Field."

Naming a stadium after a corporation has become more cliche than intelligent marketing technique as of late: there are only a remaining handful of venues that do not bare a company's moniker. Even classic fields like Chicago's Wrigley was named after the gum company. The worst example comes in the form of a college football bowl game: the Papajohns.com Bowl to be specific.

At least the Mets got what was coming to them. In the inaugural game at Citi Field, the San Diego Padres won the game 6-5. Not only that, but Padres centerfielder Jody Gerut sent the third pitch thrown in the stadium by Mets starter Mike Pelfrey out of the stadium for a leadoff home run.