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December 31,
2005 - San Antonio, TX:
In 1980 when
Federal Judge Harold Greene oversaw the
breakup of AT&T (the "phone" company) he
must have thought that things would never be
the same in the telecommunications industry.
He was
right....well sort of.
After all, as Neil Sedaka wrote, "Breaking
Up Is Hard To Do."
The historical
divestiture ruling was supposed to provide
sweeping changes to the telecom industry by
removing it's monopolistic ways, creating
competing entities that would ultimately
provide greater telecom products, and lower
prices for consumers.
Some skeptics doubted the feasibility of
such a move...how dare them. Just look at
what happened after the government
deregulated the airline industry....we all
know how that has worked out.
Twenty-five
years after the monumental breakup ruling,
dozens of start-ups and spin-offs have
collapsed back into a handful of telecom
firms that will manage to survive.
....albeit the handful is still dwindling.
The most recent
carnage was SBC's acquisition of AT&T. If
you're thinking that SBC used to be a part
AT&T, you're right. It's a new twist on the
old child/parent role reversal.
To further
confuse matters SBC (aka Bell, SW Bell,
etc.) decided they wanted to dump the SBC
moniker since, except for their original
five state RBOC (Regional Bell
Operating Company) coverage
area, no one really knew much who they were.
So, the new and enlarged version of SBC has
decided to be called AT&T.
recap: So
what was once AT&T, that begat a post
divestiture company called SBC, is
collectively now known as AT&T. Got it?
So what does all of this have to do with
golf?
Because of
the acquisition and subsequent name change,
the SBC Classic in Santa Clarita, CA, has
been changed to the AT&T Classic, and our
San Antonio based SBC Championship becomes
the AT&T Championship presented by Alcatel.
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We
kind of like the change because
the new AT&T logo looks a lot
like a golf ball whereas the old
SBC logo wasn't even close. |
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Old
SBC logo |
New
AT&T (SBC) logo |
Judge Greene,
who died in 2000 at the age of 76, is
probably looking down on us all pondering,
"What the hell was I thinking of in 1980?".
Or maybe he's just smiling and thinking, "it
is what it is".
Are we
over-analyzing the name change of these golf
tournaments?
Does anybody
know what time of day it is? Does anybody
really care?
As our buddy
would say..."just shut-up and hit the ball".
See you in
the short grass in '06. |
