Say what you want the name “Guaranteed Rate Field”—at least it uses proper capitalization.
The same cannot be said for loanDepot park, the new home of the Miami Marlins. Team chief executive officer Derek Jeter announced the move on Wednesday, the day before Opening Day, calling it “beneficial to our organization” and citing the company’s belief in the Marlins and greater South Florida community.
“I think you’ve seen what we’ve been trying to do here in the community and our involvement in the community and saying that this is the community’s team,” Jeter said, per MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola. “And (loanDepot CEO Anthony Hsieh) is on board with that. He wants to make an impact here as well.”
The 11-year-old mortgage company was founded by Hsieh, who had previously started and sold other mortgage companies to E*Trade and LendingTree. Its slogan, “Home means everything,” is being embraced by the Marlins as a season-long RBI campaign. The company will donate $25 for every regular-season RBI to Boys & Girls Clubs of America, plus $250 per RBI on Opening Day.
The initiative is certainly a noble pursuit worth commending, but back to the name. I’m quite certain this will be the first Major League ballpark whose words begin with lowercase letters, creating a real pop artist track listing feel. It’s a style Hsieh believes “looked pretty cool,” but it also breaks conventional rules of capitalizing proper nouns. If the goal was to come up with a name that stood out from its peers, mission accomplished. If the goal was to also choose a name guaranteed to be the most mis-capitalized, a job well done on that front as well.
Whatever your feelings on lowercase letters, loanDepot park joins the ranks of the previously-lambasted Guaranteed Rate Field (White Sox) and RingCentral Coliseum (Athletics) as the league’s worst-named venues. Baseball stadiums are built like cathedrals—let’s try to avoid naming them like used car dealerships and strip-mall payday lenders.
