Diary of a Diehard

The General Managers meetings begin in Naples Florida tomorrow. It is a chance for all 30 teams to come together and it officially signals the beginning of the off season trading period. From now until February baseball fans everywhere will surf the internet, scan the sports pages, and spend countless hours digging through any communications they can find from their favorite team to try to try and understand what they are doing to be better than last season. But it’s not all parties and talking to players agents at the GM meetings, there is some serious business to be conducted by groups within the commissioner’s office. One such item is being led by former Diamondbacks general manager Joe Garagiola Jr. Joe Jr. is to address all of the clubs to discuss the potential addition of a humidor in each stadium.

Continue reading ‘I Find No Humidor in That’ »

Each November a day is set aside to recognize the valuable service that veterans have sacrificed for our benefit. On this day the citizens of the United States take a moment to recognize all that they have and to show their appreciation for the freedoms they have. Veterans come in many different forms, shapes and sizes. They all have one thing in common, their love and dedication for their service. Recognizing veterans is nothing new; it has been going on for as long as anyone can remember. Baseball seems to have a special place in their hearts for veterans. You cannot go to a stadium within Major League Baseball and not hear someone talk about the sacrifices that veterans have made to make the team and sport a better place to be. This has never hit home quite as hard as it did this year.

Continue reading ‘Veteran’s Day’ »

I’ve been pretty nervous all week. First there was the whole color thing then there is the fact that I still do not have my season ticket renewal and relocation package. I’ve written about the timeline before in What’s Taking So Long? when the Arizona Diamondbacks had stated that the renewal process would begin on October 13 which just so happened was a Friday. Personally I am just grateful that they changed their minds on that one. I am not sure how much success I would have had picking new seat locations on Friday the 13th. I would have ended up in the upper deck right behind Rally Sally and I would have been forced to push her and her flags over the edge and no good could come from that. According to the initial timeline, fans had until November 1 to complete their relocation package and mail it back to the Diamondbacks. When I had not gotten my relocation forms I called the Diamondbacks and I was told that there was a delay and that the forms would actually be mailed out on November 1. The day after Halloween seemed like a good day so I patiently waited.

Continue reading ‘The Postal Blues’ »

The Diamondbacks unveiled their new color scheme and merchandise last night at an invitation only event at the Valley Ho Hotel and resort. You were able to buy merchandise on-line last night or beginning this morning it would be available at team shop valley locations. I had contemplated buying a new hat online. Trina questioned the need for yet another Diamondbacks hat so I had to explain to her that this was strictly for evaluation purposes. That and I wanted to conduct my own market research by seeing how many people would comment on the new colors if a fan were to wear the merchandise around town. By now she has learned that I seem to be able to justify just about anything. In the end all she asked was that I try to contain myself since Christmas was coming and the kids needed something to get me. After all, my Christmas wish list consisted pretty much entirely of items that began with “Arizona Diamondbacks –“, followed by some type of merchandise description. So, given the green light to go and check out the new Sedona red gear I headed down to the team shop.

Continue reading ‘Color Me Pink – I Mean Sedona Red’ »

Today is a red letter day in Arizona Diamondbacks history, literally. After 12 years, 3 National League West Division titles, a National League Pennant, and a World Series championship the Diamondbacks have decided to change their color scheme. The change is not coming completely unannounced. It was leaked on the Internet a couple of months ago and has been discussed here in an entry entitled How Could They Do This? and then again in I Wish I Were Color Blind. When news was first leaked, it came with a color chart that showed some of the proposed changes that we could expect. The graphics were small and the quality was poor so we were forced to wait until the actual unveiling of the new color scheme and that was scheduled for November 8. Well looking at the calendar that would be today so I was eagerly waiting for the unveiling.

Continue reading ‘Let’s Go to the Valley Ho’ »

Ah Election Day, what a great American tradition. Adults throughout the country are showing their identification to complete strangers who will in turn hand them a piece of paper and direct them to a telephone booth sized space where they will enter closing the cute little curtain behind them then spend the next several minutes coloring the piece of paper before turning it in to be graded by a machine. I for one will be glad when Election Day is over as my phone will finally quit ringing. For the past two weeks I have received countless calls from every candidate or special interest group that has ever set foot in Arizona. As time has run down on the election the message frequency has increased as has the negative aspects of the content. This has especially been the case between candidates Harry Mitchell and JD Hayworth. Both of them call me multiple times per day to let me know how bad their opponent is. “Harry Mitchell hates babies, vote JD Hayworth!” or “JD Hayworth kicks puppies, vote Harry Mitchell!” It makes you want to take both of them by the ear and put them in a room together and make them hug each other until they say they are sorry. Sorry, I digressed to my childhood for a second there. Election Day is an important premise in our form of government and it is one that I take very seriously.

Continue reading ‘Rock the Vote’ »

Some times you have to wonder where to draw the line. Well it’s not so much that I wonder where lines are drawn; I am usually the one erasing the existing line. It is Trina who normally wonders where the old line was at and why I thought it was a good idea to get rid of a perfectly good line. My life has been one that has a well defined precedence and pattern of being just slightly to the left of normal. It’s not that there is anything wrong with middle of the road kind of people, I just tend to be more interested in the strange things you find on the shoulder of the road. My passion for the Diamondbacks is a perfect example. I could have easily been one of those guys who found 5 or 6 friends and got together to purchase season tickets. We could have met and divvied up the tickets and each gone to 16 games a year. Spread over the course of a six month season that would be 2-3 games a month. Instead I chose the more obscure path and bought season tickets and attended every home game and then tried to talk my family into exotic vacation spots such as Wrigley Field or Joe Robbe Stadium just to get in a few extra games on the road. So when I began this blog I let my family help me come up with the title. They had no trouble settling on Diary of a Diehard as it seemed to best fit my personality. But exactly where should the line be drawn for team loyalty?

Continue reading ‘Baseball, It’s to Die For’ »

The first couple of weeks after the season and post season have ended; Major League Baseball tries to let the fans down gently. There is all-star traveling road show to Japan where several players go to Japan to play against their Japanese counterparts in exhibition games. Given the time differences and lack of media coverage these tend to be minor stories on the back pages of the sports page. The tour is followed by the annual awards season where baseball hands out various accolades for players or plays of the year. It starts with the comeback player of the year that is awarded during the World Series and culminates with the Hall of Fame ballot results after the first of the year. Catcher Johnny Estrada was a candidate for comeback player of the year but did not even make the finals. The awards this year went to Jim Thome in the American League and Nomar Garciaparra in the National League. It is hard to argue with those choices as both players had great years.

Continue reading ‘It’s Like Gold’ »

This is the seventh and final entry recounting the 2001 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees that started with the Five Short Years Ago entry posted on the fifth anniversary of game 1 of that World Series. With the dismantling of the New York Yankees yesterday, hopes were running high among Diamondbacks fans. The state and country was extremely interested to see how this World Series would end. It was already being counted among the top 5 World Series ever played. Tickets to game 7 were suddenly the hottest commodity around and no more so than at our house. We had 2 tickets to the deciding game 7 of the World Series. I knew there was no way anyone would ever pry these out of my fingers but the question was who would be attending with me? Each of the kids made an argument as to why they should get the tickets. Dakota had not been to a game but since he was only 4 years old it was decided that he probably didn’t get included in the ticket lottery. Whitney didn’t really care since she went mostly to play at the playhouse or play video games so she too was quickly eliminated from the drawing. Tiffany was the biggest fan so she was definitely in the drawing even though she had gone just the day before. Mallorie thought she should go since it was her turn because the last game she went to was game 2. Then Trina stepped up and said that she wanted to attend so the discussion was over. It was decided, mom and dad would go to the game and the kids would watch on television. There are certain defining moments in a person’s life and this event had all the earmarks of being one

Continue reading ‘The Greatest Experience of My Life’ »