Time to head for Pink Taco Stadium. Okay, so Pink Taco Stadium doesn't really exist. But it could have. In 2006, the owners of the Hard Rock Café made a bid to name what is now the University of Phoenix Stadium after their new restaurant, Pink Taco. But it turns out that slang references to ladies' nether regions aren't very family-friendly. Don't assume, however, that G-rated stadium names sound any less ridiculous: Dick's Sporting Goods Park, FedEx Field, Comerica Park, Network Associates Coliseum and Jobing.com Arena. But perhaps the Jenny Craig Pavilion at the University of San Diego takes the …

It's the 100th anniversary of the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." The story of the backroom deal between the song's lyricist, Jack Norworth, and the Cracker Jack people has been little told. But a 100-year product placement? Talk about your added value. Okay, so maybe not. Maybe Norworth made the plug as an honest lover of caramel-covered popcorn, but rest assured: When it comes time for the Pepsi Party Patrol T-shirt launch at Shea Stadium, it's not going to be goodwill that propels those Hanes Beefy-Ts into the loge section. It's cold, hard cash.

In the early 1930s, Brooklyn clothier Abe Stark took some unwanted ad space in Ebbets Field and turned it into a sideshow. HIT SIGN, WIN SUIT, read the billboard, which stood about 4 feet high and cost $200 for the entire season. Versions of the story differ, but most agree Stark didn't have to give away many suits - just the occasional pair of slacks to right fielder Carl Furillo in appreciation for all the line drives he intercepted. What Stark did do is spawn a new kind of advertising - what most people refer to today as "engagement," as …