eriqjaffe

...and two years later they introduced Busch Beer. Sneaky!

But they did that in 2003 when they signed the deal with U.S. Cellular, although it had been kind of weird the last few years since U.S. Cellular hasn't served the Chicago market since 2012. The biggest problem with Guaranteed Rate is the down arrow logo, which is just kind of embarrassing imagery for a sports team.

...and this is stretching the thread a bit, but here's a picture of the 1932 NFL Championship game, which had to be held indoors at Chicago Stadium due to a blizzard and forecast cold temperatures. The Bears and Cardinals had played an exhibition game at the Stadium a couple years prior, but this is the first (and only) game that actually counted played on an 60-yard field (80 including the end zones). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1932_NFL_Playoff_Game

I think the gimmick works well enough when the venue has some sort of history or something special about it, like Fenway or Wrigley. Yankee Stadium kinda counts, but only because they mimicked old Yankee Stadium in the design. Places like Tropicana Field have a lot less to lean on there.

Here's Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati... And more recently, here's NIU playing a home game at Guaranteed Rate Field. I think it was the first event the park hosted after the name change - there's no other signage visible in the park, but check out the top of the third base dugout:

You can't see the football markings, but here's BC Place hosting a Toronto Blue Jays exhibition game:

Josh Phegley's "PTBNL" nickname was also great, even though he was on the DL during the Players' Weekend.

As the crow flies, the Los Angeles Angels play 26 miles and change from downtown Los Angeles and a little under 20 from the city limits at its closest point (waaaaay down by Long Beach). Yeah, yeah, "of Anaheim," and all, but they went through great pains to shoehorn Los Angeles into their name.

Even that doesn't look like that any more.

On the bright side, Hawk only worked about half the games this year. Jason Benetti called the other half, and he's actually pretty good. The White Sox radio team of Ed Farmer and Darrin Jackson is pretty brutal. Farmer is a goofball who was good when he was the color guy working alongside John Rooney and Jackson learned how to be a broadcaster by working with Harrelson. It's just terrible.

The grandaddy of them all...one letter backwards and one letter incorrect.

The scale is odd. Is it a short sword, or a long dagger?

My high school (well, one of two, but the one I spent the longest at) got knocked out in the first round, but not by much.

Since the Bears took the inspiration from their name from the Cubs, one could argue that they're still kind of named after a business.