After Rainier Brewing Company resumed producing Rainier Beer after the end of Prohibition and its advertisements became ubiquitous in the Seattle-Tacoma area, a rumor began circulating that the brewery's owner, Emil Sick, had bribed a Washington state committee with free beer to name the local mountain Rainier. This, however, is an urban legend and can still be heard today among Tacoma residents who preferred the alternate name of Mount Tacoma. Sick did, however, purchase the local baseball team and named them the Seattle Rainiers for this purpose.