Exactly two weeks from now, baseball will be played in the state of Wisconsin. We at Batting Border cannot even put into words how excited we are to start covering the AA Baseball league. New updates keep coming as Opening Day draws closer, such as a six-round draft held last Tuesday for the teams. The biggest news coming from Milwaukee though is the new name for their field. Formerly Routine Field, the stadium, which is one of three host stadiums for the AA, will now be known as Franklin Field. This announcement was made in a Quote Tweet of a Milwaukee Business Journal highlighting details and reasoning for the name change.
If you want to read the article, go ahead. I tried and was very bored for most of it. The gist is that the City of Franklin, where the park is located, wants to bring in tourism. The local tourism commission is paying $150,000 a year for the naming rights. For that same price, they could have purchased 20 Wienermobiles and had enough leftover to customize all of them and get their brand out there.
While I understand the reasoning behind the name, that does not take away from the fact that it is a terrible name for a baseball temple. Think of the great names in baseball stadium history, Fenway, the Polo Grounds, Candlestick, Miller Park, etc. A field name should be unique, something that when said can capture the magic and feel of what it's like to be there. Given time, Franklin Field may grow into something that feels natural for a ballpark, but it will never be unique. If you say, Franklin, most people are going to think of the city, FDR, or an animated turtle. With that being said, pointing out a problem does not make for a good article. However, bringing forth a solution to said problem, that is how you win a Pulitzer. I will attempt to fix "Franklin Field", using my great creative skills and a knack for wordplay.
To get into the mindset of baseball I watched a quick 10-minute video on the best baseball fights, made myself a couple of hot dogs, stared at my poster of Ken Griffey Jr. until I felt worthy of such a great task, and then poured myself the biggest glass of milk I could. Before I start just launching myself into Stadium names, I need to understand my motivation. We need something catchy and unique, preferably something Wisconsin based, Alliteration is nice but we won't hang our hat on it, and it needs to have that baseball feel to it.
Milk Specific Names
The Pasture
The Barnyard
Mooller Park
The Dairy Diamond
Heiferland
Calcium Center
Pasteurized Palace
Bovine Park
Curd Club
Guernsey Dome
The Silo
Whey Station
Wisconsin History Specific Names
Rockwell Park (Charles Rockwell was one of the earliest cheesemakers in Wisconsin)
Babcock Stadium (Professor Stephen Babcock developed the first test for butterfat content in milk)
Borchert Field (Name of the park that was replaced by County Stadium, Fun Milwaukee History Lesson)
Pete Hill Park (Player Manager for the Milwaukee Bears in their only season)
Uecker Park
Farley Field (Chris Farley should have more stuff named after him in my opinion)
Others
The Biergarten
Berens Park (Charlie Berens had done more for Wisconsin tourism than 'Franklin Field' ever will)
Miller Park (No one else is using the name)
Stein Stadium
Trying to figure out whether to go with park or field was a lot harder than I thought. There is a real art to that which I did not appreciate before. Now are all of these good, probably not, but are all of these better than 'Franklin Field'? Yes, I would like to think so. I do not claim to be the Master at naming things and I fully welcome completion. If you have a better name, put it in the comments and enjoy the gratification of me saying it is better than my names.
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