McCovey Cove renaming hoax angers Giants, confuses Willie McCovey

Mike Oz
McCovey Cove renaming hoax angers Giants, confuses Willie McCovey

SAN FRANCISCO — In the history of sports-related viral marketing stunts, this has to be one of the all-time worst. A national boat rental company put out a press release Friday — the first day the San Francisco Giants were playing at home in the 2014 World Series — saying it had secured the naming rights to AT&T Park's famous McCovey Cove and would rename it.

Boats patrol the cove in pursuit of homers, so it sort of makes sense. Except it was a total hoax.

The Giants fumed as word started to make its way around the Internet and through local news outlets. And Willie McCovey, the Giants great after whom the cove is named, called the Giants because he was confused. Was the name really being changed?

From the San Jose Mercury News' Daniel Brown:

A handful of local news outlets were duped by a company purporting to buy the rights. Among those to see the erroneous report on television was Willie McCovey himself. The Hall of Famer called a Giants executive wondering what was up.

"Have you heard this?" McCovey asked.

"It's not true! It's ridiculous!" Mario Alioto, the Giants' senior vice president, assured him.

The Giants also refuted the McCovey Cove renaming claims on Twitter:

Later, a Giants executive told the Mercury News that the team wasn't even interested in the boat rental company's apology. Staci Slaughter, the team's senior vice president for communications, spoke to the newspaper on the condition that the boat company went unnamed, as to not give it the attention it's seeking. The Stew likes that notion too.

"Don't mess with McCovey on the day of the World Series!'' Slaughter said. "I usually don't lose my cool with people, but I completely lost my cool with this ... It's so stupid."

Yeah, this idea definitely wasn't a home run.

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Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!