January 31, 2008 [LINK / comment]
Bogus stadium names
As part of my general upgrade of baseball reference pages, I have revised the Stadium names page. This was prompted by the news that Jacobs Field will be renamed "Progressive Field." Also, Stephen Poppe recently reminded me that the Texas Rangers renamed their home stadium "Rangers Ballpark in Arlington" last year, so I finally got around to updating (and renaming) that page. The Rangers terminated their naming-rights contract with the (now defunct) Ameriquest Mortgage Company last March. Oddly, the Rangers' Web site makes no mention of the name "Ameriquest Field." (Erased ... from existence!).
The mail bag
From Mike Zurawski comes news that the St. Louis "Ballpark Village" which will occupy the land where Busch Stadium II once stood will probably not be completed in time for the 2009 All-Star Game. It's a complicated arrangment involving several parties; see stltoday.com.
As for the Marlins, a business man has filed a legal challenge to the proposed new stadium financing deal; see sun-sentinel.com. The wealthy plaintiff, Norman Braman, is the former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, and claims he is acting on principle. The Miami Herald has some interesting background on him and his possible grudge motives. Mike comments, "This is the same genius that let Reggie White go when he was owner."
Some blueprints of the new Yankee Stadium have been posted at baseball-fever.com. Now that the dimensions have been set, I will probably go ahead and set up stadium page for it and for Citi Field in the near future, but a (preliminary) diagram may be a few months away.
Also, Mike came across some detailed photos of construction and architects' models of the Twins' future home, also at baseball-fever.com; they are very creative in squeezing that ballpark into the tight space available. The glass and stone wall design looks very good, and very unique. 
Speaking of which, Bruce Orser found more info on that at www.twinsballpark2010.com.
Finally, John Cappello pointed out an error in my narrative of when the outfield fences were moved at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, which was due to an inconsistency in the previous edition of Green Cathedrals. The new edition fixed that, and now so have I.