Diary of a Diehard

One of the more interesting promotions that Major League Baseball did for the 2006 season was one they called Hometown Heroes. In a vote similar to that of all-star balloting, fans were asked to choose a player they felt best represented the franchise. For teams such as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays or the Arizona Diamondbacks, they had a relatively short historical period from which to choose. The promotion was further complicated by the fact that it was unclear how these players were nominated. Some teams took it upon themselves to nominate players to recognize their accomplishments. Other teams decided to pass and allow Major League Baseball to choose the nominees. The Arizona Diamondbacks did not publicly acknowledge how their nominees were chosen so we have no way of knowing how the players were selected. I wrote about the five candidates in the Hometown Heroes entry posted in late August. The votes were all tabulated and in September the 30 winners were announced during a three part series produced and broadcast on the ESPN network.

Continue reading ‘Hometown Heroes – The Book’ »

Today the Chicago Cubs announced that they had signed former Washington Nationals outfielder Alfonzo Soriano to a reported 8 year contract with a value of $136 million dollars. This contract is the sixth largest in Major League Baseball history and the largest contract ever offered by the Chicago Cubs. Soriano’s signing marked the sixth free agent signing by the Cubs this month following Aramis Ramirez, Kerry Wood, Henry Blanco, Wade Miller, and Mark DeRosa. The team also traded for left-hander Neal Cotts making their roster look like a revolving door. Club officials stated that they are not through yet and anticipate signing a center fielder and at least two starting pitchers.

Continue reading ‘Did I Miss Something?’ »

I’ll be the first to admit I am not up on the latest fashion. To me, the closest thing to hip would be wearing an Eric Byrnes dirty t-shirt from the game. I don’t read the fashion section of the newspaper. In fact, if the Diamondbacks unveiling of their new color scheme had not appeared in the sports page I may not even have heard about it until I went to the team shop. So with my complete lack of fashion sense it should not come as a surprise to hear that I own two pair of shoes. I have my sneakers that I wear pretty much full time and then I have a pair of dress shoes. If I thought Trina would let me get away with wearing my sneakers with dress pants when we go to church or out for a nice night on the town I would probably only have one pair. By the way, a nice night on the town is defined as going anywhere there is not a retractable roof and where dinner does not consist of an Italian sausage from the Hungry Hill stand near section 112 (this obviously is not my definition).

Continue reading ‘Nike Shoe Geek-dom’ »

I have been eagerly awaiting today all week. After a horrendous five days of work I definitely was looking forward to the weekend. But this was not going to be just any weekend, this was the mother of all weekends this month. Oh sure, most people would say the weekend after Thanksgiving is filled with activities and the traditional opening weekend of Christmas shopping but that lacks the importance associated with this weekend. Yeah I bet you are thinking I was looking forward to today because it marked the ninth anniversary of the expansion draft where the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks finally filled out their roster with major league caliber players. Granted, that was a pretty cool day and I do have November 18 listed as Expansion Draft day on my calendar but that was not the reason for my excitement. No the reason I found it hard to sleep last night was that today is Chase Field open house day.

Continue reading ‘Open House, Literally’ »

The General Managers meeting concluded yesterday in Naples Florida. Each year shortly after the World Series, the General Managers from each of the 30 Major League Baseball franchises get together to discuss several topics and receive guidance from the commissioner’s office. This meeting also marks the official beginning of the free agent feeding frenzy as agents and player representatives show up to sell the services of their clients to the highest bidders. There are also assorted trades that are made but normally the blockbuster variety are saved until the owner’s meetings in December. I was interested to see what if anything the Diamondbacks would do at the meetings. They are in desparate need of starting pitching but so are the other 29 clubs so with demand greatly out distancing supply the cost of pitchers will climb faster than Barry Bond’s hat size after a dose of the “cream”. Arizona has roughly $10 million to sign a free agent if they wish to maintain the stated payroll that management has given. With the market going the way it is, that may not even buy a case of rosen bags for the pitcher’s mound. I would therefore anticipate that any changes that are going to be made will be first through the trade market with likely candidates being some of the young talent that labored in Tucson and Tennessee last season and Johnny Estrada the disgruntled starting catcher who made his feelings known on his way out of town that he didn’t want to be here. The meetings were not just about player movement though.

Continue reading ‘GM Meetings Review’ »

Spring Training in Arizona is always a lot of fun. The stadiums are much smaller than a Major League Baseball venue and the stands are much closer to the playing field. Nearly all of the games are afternoon contests so the crowds are generally laid back and relaxed. It is not usually too hot so it’s a great chance to get a tan and catch some baseball. Not long ago, everyone wondered whether spring training would continue in Arizona. Many of the facilities were old and dated and teams were looking for more state-of-the-art complexes that would house the major league and minor league players. Teams were leaving Arizona heading for new spring training headquarters in the Grapefruit League in Florida. Forward thinking civic leaders in the various Arizona municipalities along with state officials developed a plan to try and save what remaining teams were left training in Arizona. They began to remodel existing complexes and build brand new ones. With each field came new hope as teams began migrating back from Florida to Arizona. Recently the Cleveland Indians became yet another team to choose the Cactus League. A new stadium and training facility is being built in Goodyear on the west side of Phoenix for the Indians to train in. Cleveland was a long time Arizona based ball club but headed to Florida to greener pastures only to find that the facilities and proximity to other teams in Arizona was much better for them so now they will be back in 2009. Today marks another milestone in Cactus League history.

Continue reading ‘Cactus League Chaos’ »

Each day it is the same routine. A little white minivan comes into our subdivision and parks down the street in front of a metal box. A sweet little old lady gets out of the car carrying a tub of envelopes and she proceeds to move the envelopes from the tub to the metal box. Approximately half way through her daily exercise I will begin walking from my house down to the metal box. When I get half way she begins to frantically move envelopes from the tub to the slots. She almost gets finished when I arrive and ask her the same question, “Did I get anything from the Arizona Diamondbacks?” Everyday I hear the same answer, “I’m sorry Mr. Summers but still nothing from the team. I’m sure that it is coming; you just need to be patient. With that I retrieve what other items may be in our mail slot and trudge home dejected again. Today was different. Today when I began walking she saw me and didn’t rush to try and beat me thereby eliminating the need to give me the bad news. Today she started approaching me and in her hand was a gift from the baseball gods.

Continue reading ‘Big Red Envelope’ »

The Arizona Diamondbacks just completed their ninth season as a franchise. During the first eight from 1998 – 2005 the team had won an unprecedented four Cy Young awards. These four were won consecutively from 1999 – 2002 by Randy Johnson. You could make a strong case that if he had received better run support during the abysmal 2004 season that he would have won an additional Cy Young award. I’m not bitter, just extremely annoyed that wins play such an important part of the Cy Young balloting system. It is a bogus stat in my opinion since the pitcher rarely has control over how much run support they receive unless the baseball writers of America are awarding the Cy Young based upon a pitcher’s hitting prowess. If that is the case then there should be no Cy Young award winners in the American League. But I digress just a bit. My point is that in the brief history of the Diamondbacks, strong pitching has always been a part of the plan. With the departure of Randy Johnson to New York, everyone assumed that dominating pitching would depart with him. In the 2004 and 2005 seasons I would have had to agree. But this year was slightly different.

Continue reading ‘Sigh-Young Award’ »

I remember as a kid we would celebrate Mother’s Day the second Sunday in May and then we would celebrate Father’s Day the third Sunday in June. These were always big events where my brothers and I were expected to have gifts and show appreciation for everything that mom and dad did for us. This wasn’t hard as my parents did a lot for us. They both volunteered a lot of time with the Little League while we played and were always involved in our lives making sure we could play ball. But still, as every other kid with a calendar has noticed, there is no Kid’s day listed for any month. So I had to ask my mom why that was. She gave the patented answer that ever mother always give, “Every day is kid’s day.” Every kid I ever met was given that same answer when the question was asked. I am beginning to think that when a child is born the mother is given a book of answers to kids’ questions and this one is in chapter 1 right after “There are starving children in China that would love to have the food you are wasting.” The same question probably pertains to baseball rookies as well. We have a day where we recognize veterans so why isn’t there a Rookie’s Day?

Continue reading ‘Rookie’s Day’ »