By Dave Diamond

If I offered you $20 million a year to legally change your name to one of my choosing, would you do it? Yes, you would.

It would be the best thing for you and your family to take that money. After all, what is a name but a label? It is nothing more than an alias to a human being. Furthermore, you have been around long enough for all close friends and relatives to continue calling you what you prefer. And the people who don’t know you, well, they don’t matter because you are $20 million richer each year.

So why are people scoffing at CitiField, the newly announced name of the Mets’ ballpark set to open in 2009? Only because it’s different. New Yorkers, myself included, hate different. They take the same trains and parkways to work everyday, eat at the same restaurants and spend a few summer nights at Shea or Yankee Stadium. Naturally, fans were hoping this new structure remain Shea Stadium or, also implying that change is a long-lasting burden, the new Ebbits Field in remembrance of the Dodgers that left in 1957.

Instead, CitiGroup offered the Mets $20 million per, the largest contract for naming rights in league history, and the Wilpons’ took. Some fans laugh at CitiField while some are enraged. Somebody needs to explain how trivial this situation really is. The team remains; the tickets will sell, what’s the big deal?

In fact, New Yorkers should be thankful for CitiField. Think of some other monstrosities that claimed the label of beautiful new ballparks. Bank One Ballpark in Arizona, Pac-Bell in San Francisco or the infamous Enron Field in Houston. All of these examples, by the way, have fallen victim to mergers or mass legal issues and have changed their names quicker than a Mariano Rivera fastball.

At least CitiField has some sort of significance as well. The word “city,” regardless of cute spelling, is fairly appropriate for a franchise called the Metropolitans, wouldn’t you say? It is not like when they renamed the home of the Pittsburgh Penguins from the convenient Igloo to the ridiculous Melon Arena. Remember when they called the new arena in Boston the Fleet Center after tearing down the storied Boston Garden. It was as if the entire state of Massachusetts’ favorite pet died. Obviously, things could be worse.

And, of course, there’s the smugness from that other team in town. A fan called WFAN’s Steve Summers Monday night, a Yankee fan of course, to publicly announce that the Yankees would never give in to a bidder for naming rights to what will very likely be called the new Yankee Stadium, hinting that the Mets are a low-class organization for selling out. Well, congratulations! By keeping the same name, perhaps there will truly be aura and mystique, and a sense that history happens in every single game at the stadium in the Bronx. Funny, since Yankee fans claim these characteristics already describe the house that Ruth built. It’s apparent they need a new one, anyway.

The Mets gave into CitiGroup for the same reason you would change your name for a significant price. It is the best thing for the Mets family, both now and in the future. That money is nothing to yawn at, considering the team pays guys like Mo Vaughn to stay as far away from Queens as possible. Money attracts good free agents and, although we hate to admit it, usually leads to success in the baseball market.

We hate different, it’s true, but we will get over it. And if the Yankees do name their new stadium after the old one, good for them. In all seriousness, they will have accomplished something every other franchise struggles to do these days, which is pay homage to tradition. But, for the Mets, their history may be written in the next two to three years, built on young players and key acquisitions. Might as well build CitiField with it, too.

Meet CitiField, the Met’s new stadium with a catchy name to open in the spring of 2009.