In S.F., Enron’s ‘E’ Stands for Embarrassing

The San Francisco Giants asked a federal bankruptcy judge to force Enron Corp. to remove a scoreboard sign featuring the fallen energy company’s tilted “E” logo from the baseball team’s Pacific Bell Park.

San Francisco Baseball Associates and its affiliate China Basin Ballpark Co., owners of the major league baseball team and its stadium, said that “Enron’s negative reputation alone” gave the franchise the right to cancel the 1998 sponsorship deal.

The Giants are “experiencing negative reaction from fans and the media due to the continued presence” of the 17-foot-by-33-foot centerfield scoreboard sign, the team said in a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. The team said it needed to start looking for a new sponsor for the sign.

A hearing has been set for Sept. 26 before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur J. Gonzalez in Manhattan.

“We continue to get calls and comments from customers, sponsors and the media asking why our Enron sign was still on the scoreboard and were we supporting Enron in some way,” said Elizabeth Murphy, a vice president of the Giants, in the filing.

Mark Palmer, a spokesman for Houston-based Enron, was not immediately available to comment.

In February, the Houston Astros baseball team paid $2.1 million to buy back the naming rights for its home stadium, Enron Field, from the energy company. Four months later, Coca-Cola Co. agreed to spend more than $100 million over 28 years to rename the stadium Minute Maid Park.

Shares of Enron rose 2.5 cents to 22.5 cents in over-the-counter trading Friday. Enron filed what was then the largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy case in history on Dec. 2.