L’histoire de sa vie

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, currently only one game ahead of the Houston Astros for control of the AL West, are visiting town next week in a series that will prove to be tense and interesting. Hopefully the Astros will regain the lead of the division during the series, but regardless of how things turn out, the Astros have one thing to be proud of: they're not geographically deceptive.

See, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are, as the latter half of their name suggests, based in Anaheim, CA. A city, that, for the record, is not even in Los Angeles County. These Orange County wannabes look to their northwest and see love for the Los Angeles Dodgers, based in, believe it or not, Los Angeles. They are understandably envious of the admiration that big city living gives you. And frankly, I can't blame them. When they changed their name from "Anaheim Angels" in 2005, they gave a nod to their beginnings, they created a more easily marketable franchise name, and they began their geographic deception.

After thinking about the Angels, I got interested: are other baseball teams practicing geographic deception of the same caliber? What about teams of other sports?

As it happens, in baseball, they are the only team to lie about their location, and even that's not quite a full lie, as they maintain the "of Anaheim" qualifier. The other twenty-nine MLB teams are accurate about where they are located, although five (Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins, and Tampa Bay Rays) are vague enough to facilitate a possible future-though-nearby move.

And it turns out that this geographic deception is actually not very rampant outside of football: the NFL is by far the most egregious pit of lies. Of thirty-tw teams, only twenty-six play where they call home, and six of those (Carolina Panthers, Tennessee Titans, New England Patriots, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Arizona Cardinals, and Minnesota Vikings) are quite vague, hedging where they actually play. That leaves a whopping SIX teams that are geographically deceptive in the NFL: New York Giants (East Rutherford, NJ), New York Jets (East Rutherford, NJ), Dallas Cowboys (Arlington, TX), The Washington Professional Football Team (Landover, MD), Buffalo Bills (Orchard Park, NY), and the San Francisco 49ers (Santa Clara, CA). After all, what's in a name?

The NBA and NHL are much more honest, basically on the same level as baseball. The NBA has only four 'hedgers' (Indiana Pacers, Utah Jazz, Golden State Warriors, and Minnesota Timberwolves) and only one liar: the Detroit Pistons (Auburn Hills, MI, but can you blame them?) Frankly, the NBA should get bonus points for their aboveboard honesty in the form of the Brooklyn Nets. Where every other NY-centric team in any sport claims just "New York," the Nets are specific enough to name their borough. The NHL, similarly, has six 'hedgers' (Florida Panthers, Arizona Coyotes, Colorado Avalanche, Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, and Minnesota Wild) and only one liar: The Ottawa Senators (Kanata, Ontario – I expected better from you, Canada… shame.)

The conclusion from all this? Minnesota is one big state with no individual cities, at least as far as sports are concerned.

When I was a kid, the Astros and Oilers played in the Astrodome, and the Rockets and Aeros played in the Summit. Today, the Oilers are no more, the Aeros are no more, the Astros play in Minute Maid Park, the Rockets play in the Toyota Center, and the Texans play in NRG Stadium.

In between my childhood and now, Houston has been graced by even more names: the Astros went from the Astrodome to the Ballpark at Union Station to Enron Field to MMP. (Those last three being the same location.) The Rockets and Aeros went from the Summit to the Compaq Center to the Toyota center. (Those first two being the same location.) And the Texans began life at Reliant Stadium before NRG Stadium. (Yes, those are also the same location.)

Naming rights are fascinating to me when I consider this: as a child, every stadium I knew was unnamed, an advertisement for sports only, yet today, I see cars, juice, and electricity. And in traveling, I find that there's fewer and fewer unnamed sports complexes. My uncle once took me to see games at both Cowboys Stadium and the Ballpark at Arlington, but those are now gone, and their teams instead play at AT&T Stadium and Globe Life Park in Arlington. Even while in college, I watched as Shea Stadium was replaced by Citi Field. The unnamed building is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

Given this, I decided to do some simple research to answer some questions. What industries are most prevalent in naming rights? Does that differ by sport? What stadiums/arenas/ballparks still don't have paid naming rights and what are they named for? Etc. Here's what I've found:

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Links to full size images: MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, Overall. And the data I used (excel format).

• Outside of the MLB, there's very few places that haven't sold naming rights. Fully one-third of MLB ballparks have avoided doing so, but the other three sports combine to produce the same number (ten: two in the NBA, six in the NFL, and three in the NHL).
• Financial institutions hold the most naming rights (twenty-one overall), followed closely by Tech/Communications (fourteen), Insurance (eleven), and Retail/Consumer Goods (eleven).
• There are two Casinos, one in the NBA and one in the NHL, that have naming rights, yet sports gambling is illegal in most of the country.
• There's something called a Scotiabank Saddledome.
• When the Dallas Mavericks played the Miami Heat in the 2011 Finals, American Airlines won. Both teams play at AA-branded arenas.
• Of the twenty venues without naming rights, six are named for a team owner, six are named for the team itself, three for a place, three as a memorial, and two just as a pleasant flourish (The Palace of Auburn Hills and Arrowhead Stadium, where the Kansas City Chiefs play).
• There are some interesting choices in the non-Finance/Retail/Insurance sectors. For example, four NBA stadiums/NHL arenas have airline naming rights, yet there are no airlines in any other sport. Similarly, the MLB has five Food/Beverage ballparks (Coors, Minute Maid, Miller, Busch, Tropicana), whereas the other sports combine for three (NBA: Pepsi, NBA/NHL: Smoothie King; NFL: Heinz).
• And finally, in case you were unsure just how much of a scam for-profit colleges are, in 2006, University of Phoenix (which, it should be noted, has a higher student-loan-default rate than graduation rate) paid $154.5 million for twenty years of naming rights for the Arizona Cardinals' stadium.

A continuation from yesterday’s post about crazy baseball ideas the Astros should try because they have nothing to lose.

Starting Relief – I got this idea while watching Brett Myers pitch. Myers has a lot of trouble with the first inning. He usually gives up a couple runs then settles down until around the fifth or sixth, when he again gets shaky. Check out his six starts for the month of June:

Remarkable. In June, Myers began each of his starts by giving up runs, yet had a clean second inning every time. In those starts that the Astros lost (Jun 7, 12, 29), they never had the lead after his two first-inning runs. So why let Myers pitch the first inning?

And that’s where my crazy idea comes in. The first inning sets the tone for the whole game. In many ways it’s as important as the ninth. So my proposal is to have a “starting reliever” who comes in for the purpose of handling only the first inning. Think of this “opener” as a reverse closer. Rather than hold the lead, he is simply holding the first inning. When the second frame opens, the starter will come in, pitching his customary outing.

In Myers case, that means a pitcher in the first, one in the second through seventh, a setup man, and a closer.

The best part of this is that if the starting reliever does a good job, the starting pitcher starts his game in the middle of the opposing lineup, avoiding the dangerous one-two-three hitters until later in the game.

This is also great for starting pitcher stats: the starting pitcher is as likely to earn a W, but slightly less likely to take the L – if the starting reliever screws up big, the starting pitcher is insulated from this tarnish to his record.

Again, this is a crazy idea, but it’s worth a try, and Brett Myers for one could really benefit from it. What do we have to lose?

It’s no secret that the Astros are in terrible shape. They’re in dead last, with little hope of not earning 100 losses for the first time in franchise history, and they can afford to make drastic changes.

Some might suggest that these drastic changes would come in the form of trades, or giving the “youth movement” a serious chance and benching fatty Carlos Lee. However, I have a few other (somewhat crazy) ideas that I think should be given a fair chance, especially because Brad Mills would never let those more-rational ideas fly. This is basically the optimal time to try ridiculous ideas because there’s nothing to lose. Part one is my first crazy idea:

Five-Man Rotation – Every team now has a five-man rotation, it’s been standard for quite some time. Each day, the next pitcher in the rotation starts the game, lasts five to seven innings on average, and then the bullpen takes over. But what if this rotation pitched every day, for one inning? Consider the Astros starting pitching:

The obvious immediate con is that pitchers might tire from pitching every day, but the average innings pitched over five games would actually lessen per starting pitcher. The other major con would be that this forces four innings of bullpen work, something not really realistic for teams like the Astros. To fix this, one pitcher should pitch a second consecutive inning. If a great outing has not occurred before the fifth inning, the fifth inning pitcher will pitch in the sixth.

The pros are manifold: pitch counts won’t skyrocket (who cares if a pitcher pitches thirty plus pitches in an inning if that’s their only inning?), pitcher stats (W/L) will still be affected, on average, in the same manner: whoever gives up the Loss gets the L, and if they can hold a W, whoever pitches in the 5th is likely to earn it.

Basically you no longer have to worry about the times when you get less than five innings (or less than six in the case of my first fix proposal) from your starting pitcher. You’re guaranteed six solid outings of starting pitching every game. When a starter falters a bit, no worries: they’ll be out at the end of the inning. Opposing teams won’t get into a rhythm with the pitchers because they’ll face so many different pitchers.

It might be crazy, but it’s worth a try. Tomorrow I’ll detail my next crazy idea. Stay tuned.