There’s something about a classic, old ballpark name that still thrills the senses.
Lambeau Field. The Polo Grounds. Dodger Stadium. Boston Garden. Wrigley Field. They roll off the tongue and have a mystique, a magic, a purity to them.
And they are disappearing like phone booths and video stores. Boston Garden became the Shawmut Center more than 20 years ago, then Fleet Center, then TD Banknorth Garden, and now TD Garden, named after TD Bank, a subsidiary of Canada’s Toronto-Dominion Bank.
Has a real poetry, doesn’t it? But it’s the modern sports world, where income sources and revenue streams are paramount, and tradition is for sale to the highest bidder.