Remember when the Reds opened their new park in 2003? They chose what seemed like the perfect sponsor to grace it’s name, too: Great American Insurance Company. Well, maybe not anymore.

Apparently, there was an office fire in Texas that killed 3 people. The company had insurance through Great American. When it came time to pay the claim, Great American went to court, reportedly claiming “smoke that killed three people was “pollution” and surviving families shouldn’t be compensated for their losses since the deaths were not caused directly by the actual flames.”

Wow. The trial is still pending, but it will make me have less favorable impressions when next I see or hear about Great American Ball Park. There are risks in signing away your company’s main image to another, as the Astros found out with Enron fairly painfully.