Diary of a Diehard

On May 27, 1968 Major League Baseball announced that two expansion teams would join the National League in the following year. Those teams would be based in San Diego California and Montreal, Quebec Canada. This would be the first time that MLB would have a franchise located outside of the United States boundaries. The Montreal team ownership group was led by Charles Bronfman who made his fortune in the Seagram’s distilling company which somehow seemed a perfect fit. The team name would be the Montreal Expos which were named after the Expo ’67 world’s fair which also seemed pretty appropriate. From the beginning this franchise had going for it someone who loved alcohol and was named after the world’s biggest carnival and midway. You fully expected to see drunk carnies wandering around the stadium hawking their wares or inviting you in to see the three legged bearded woman with gills who happened to be pitching tonight.

Continue reading ‘Expo Fan Appreciation Day’ »

Sometimes events come along to put everything into perspective. This was never more evident than September 11, 2001. At the time the Arizona Diamondbacks were marching towards the play-offs. The team seemed to be peaking at just the right moment and with three weeks left in the season all eyes were focused on continuing winning and getting home field advantage. Everyone was busy making plans for the post season and watching as Bob Brenly began to set his rotation to meet what appeared to be the St. Louis Cardinals in the first round of the play-offs. Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling were dueling each other as much as their opponents. Each player was trying to out do the other every outing. Expectations were high that year even though the Diamondbacks had only been in existence since 1998. All of that changed in one short day.

Continue reading ‘Memories From Half a Decade Ago’ »

After the first three games of this four game series with the St. Louis Cardinals the Diamondbacks had taken 2 of 3 losing only the first game of the series. After a masterful game last night by Brandon Webb the Diamondbacks would send Enrique Gonzalez to the mound to face Jeff Suppan. Worst case scenario the Diamondbacks would escape with a split. While that won’t help Arizona’s play-off aspirations it would be respectable. It would be interesting to see how Gonzalez would react after his last start where he was on the losing end of a no-hitter. It would also be interesting to see how St. Louis would react a day after being shut-out and getting only 1 hit themselves.

Continue reading ‘Uglier Than Dating Your Sister’ »

Sometimes when you look at the schedule you kind of scratch your head and wonder whether you have crossed over into some kind of alternative universe. Tonight was just that kind of time. It wasn’t like I didn’t know this was coming either. About a week ago I noticed a blip on the Bizzaro meter. When I was looking at the promotional schedule I noticed something that stated “Stitch and Pitch”. I assumed that was some kind of orthopedic surgeon appreciation day were we would have doctors attend the game and the players would show their scars of where they had Tommy John or rotator cuff surgery. Boy, was I ever wrong on that assessment. It was much worse than that.

Continue reading ‘Knit One, Turn Two’ »

After a horrendous road trip where the Diamondbacks went 1-5 after leading in all but one of the games it was time to come home and hopefully get on the right track. That of course would not be easy as the Diamondbacks began the home stand with a 4 game series against the National League Central Division leading St. Louis Cardinals. This is the second meeting with the Cardinals this season. The two teams played a three game series at Busch Stadium May 12-14. At that time the Cardinals won 2 of 3 taking the first two games of the series. Since that time the Cardinals have seen their fortunes look up being in first place over the Cincinnati Reds. Given the level of play the Diamondbacks have shown lately this series had bad news written all over it.

Continue reading ‘So This is What a Playoff Team Looks Like’ »

I’ve heard my parents and grandparents talk about moments in time where they remember exactly where they were and what they were doing. I heard them tell exactly where they were at when John Kennedy was shot or when World War II ended. I never thought there would be an event in my life that would compare to that. Sure I remember where I was the day I got married; my wife would never let me forget that. The same goes for the day each of my children were born. I was told in no uncertain terms that if Trina was going through that much pain I was going to be right next to her I guess so she could smack me at a moment’s notice or something. No I am talking about major life events here and three in particular will forever stand out in my mind.

Continue reading ‘Say It Ain’t No’ »

In the days leading up to the July 31 trade deadline speculation ran ramped that the Arizona Diamondbacks were interested in acquiring Dontrelle Willis from the Florida Marlins. This would have been seen by the Florida fans as yet another classic move by an organization with little class. Willis is only 24 and has three years of Major League service. He has established a name for himself which usually equates to being paid star money. Given the Marlins commitment to having the lowest payroll not only among other MLB teams but I think they are now striving to have a payroll similar to the concession workers at Joe Robbe stadium. Florida would no doubt be looking for low cost high ceiling prospects in exchange for D-Train. Given the depth of the Diamondbacks farm system; they would seem to be a natural fit for just such a transaction. The question is, would you try and make a trade for Dontrelle Willis?

Continue reading ‘How Much for Public Transportation?’ »

With all the drama of the series in Washington and the first game against Florida I had not had an opportunity to talk about the expanded roster. As September arrived, Major League Baseball rosters expanded from 25 to 40 allowing teams to bring up players who are on the 40-man roster. It’s always interesting to see how teams utilize this to their benefit. In previous years the Diamondbacks have been very conservative in bringing up rookies to fill roster spots. While Buck Showalter was managing the team you could probably count on one hand the number of players from Tucson to make the trip to Phoenix. This year though there is a flurry of activity and names being bantered around who might be called up.

Continue reading ‘September Call-Ups’ »

After an absolutely brutal series in Washington, the Diamondbacks continue the road trip to Miami where they will take on the surprisingly scrappy Florida Marlins. The Marlins have the youngest team in baseball yet find themselves with a better record than the Diamondbacks and they are playing much better than Arizona as of late. I contribute this feat to the coaching of Joe Girardi. In his first season has made himself a serious candidate for manager of the year which makes it even more of a mystery why his name keeps being mentioned as being fired at the end of the year. Granted, we are talking about the Florida Marlins front office who dismantled the Montreal franchise before moving their sites to a more sunny location to see what kind of damage they could do to a second franchise.

Continue reading ‘Fish Sticks’ »