2007 Spring Training: March 2007 Archives

Today was historical for a couple of reasons. First it is the final day of 2007 Spring Training for the Arizona Diamondbacks. They would face the San Diego Padres for third time in three days. This game would be played in the friendly confines of Chase Field in an afternoon contest. The second and perhaps more important reason is that today marks the tenth anniversary of the first regular season game against the Colorado Rockies on March 31, 1998. There has been so much baseball played since that first game that sometimes it seems as though the Diamondbacks have been around forever (at least according to my wife Trina). Of course I am more of a glass half full type of guy so I think it feels like the top of the first in a hopefully extra inning game. I can never get enough of this team. With all the special significance of today I definitely wanted to get to the stadium early. Well honestly I always want to get to the stadium early but that’s just me. So with seat cushions packed, Tiffany and I made the trek to Chase Field to see the Arizona Diamondbacks finish out their six weeks of Spring Training as both team and fans prepared for the season to start on Monday April 2.

I have extensively chronicled my love/hate relationship with the Diamondbacks Sedona Red color change. I’ve vowed to give the new colors a chance and I have even purchased all 4 Authentic Diamondbacks jerseys for the upcoming season. Last night was the first Spring Training game held in Chase Field this year and of course I attended. I got off from work and rushed home to get dressed so that I could be down at the field by the time the gates opened. From my closet I grabbed a home jersey, a home hat, and my sweatshirt (I knew the Diamondbacks would be playing with the roof open and I wasn’t sure whether to expect the massive winds they were predicting or not and since the temperatures at game time were only 67 degrees I figured with a 20 mile an hour wind that would put the wind chill at a very brisk 63 degrees) and headed downstairs to begin packing my seat cushion. This was the old purple and teal seat cushion, not the new and improved Sedona Red and Black Seat Cushion 2.0 which is still in the prototype phase. Trina and the kids got home just as I was finishing. “Are you going to wear that to the game?” was the question I was greeted with by each one of them. Well that was kind of a dumb question, I nearly always wear an authentic jersey and hat to the games. Their initial question was followed up by, “But you’re wearing purple and teal. What is up with that?”

It has been an eternity since I was last at a game at Chase Field. Eternity in this context is equal to 179 days 1 hour 16 minutes. Today marked an end to the dark and dreary off-season as the Diamondbacks held one of their annual Spring Training games at home. Each year the Diamondbacks play two games at Chase Field after camp has broken at Tucson but before the opening of the regular season. In years past we have seen the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, and Los Angeles Angels. It’s usually the first look I get at the stadium before games begin to count. The crowds are usually smaller with attendance in the high four figures or low five figures so there is ample room to wander around the stadium and take note of any changes that have occurred since the end of the previous season. It’s also the first time I get to see the sight lines of my seat relocation to help me get acquainted with where I will be sitting for the 81 regular season games. And for those diehard fans such as me, it is a time to see many of the people that I spend my summer with. A lot of these guys become like family since I spend just about as much time with them as I do with my regular family. Like every year, I always try to arrive early to be there just as the gates open two hours before first pitch is scheduled. I can use the extra time to make sure I can find my seat, take pictures of the various changes I find, and get a bite to eat so that I am ready and focused when the game begins. Little did I realize what the implications would be for being early for today’s game.

It’s funny how time works. If you sit at your desk and stare at the hands of an analog clock you can barely see them move yet after 30 minutes the hands are in very different positions. With a digital clock you can get the same type of experience but it just does not seem dramatic. I tried to explain that to Trina but all she did was complain that she had asked me to take out the garbage a half an hour ago and here I was sitting at my desk staring at my Arizona Diamondbacks clock. Against my better judgment I took this opportunity to mention that we really needed a new clock. First, the hands don’t appear to move unless you don’t look at them and second the clock still has the purple and teal digits on the face and how could I possibly be expected to tell time on a clock that doesn’t include Sedona Red somewhere on the face of it. As proof to my theory that the clock was busted, when I awoke after losing consciousness from being hit in the head by a glad trash bag thrown by my less than forgiving wife I found that the hands showed I was out 2 minutes where my biological clock and the bump on my head felt more like 5 minutes. My point was somehow lost in that last paragraph. I just find it interesting how the speed of time does not appear to be constant. From October 2 through February 19 time appeared to move at the speed of an Amish farmer on his way home from a barn raising while from February 20 through March 28 time accelerated to the speed of light making the past 5 weeks become a blur. It feels like only yesterday I was dancing in the living room at the thoughts that Spring Training was upon us. Wait it was only yesterday I was dancing in the living room but it was because Opening Day was nearly upon us. Today marks the last day of Spring Training in Tucson. After the completion of today’s game against the Chicago White Sox the team will begin its trek up the treacherous Interstate 10 coming home to Phoenix to finish up the final few games before the regular season opens.

When outfielder Scott Hairston arrived in the clubhouse at Tucson Electric Park this morning he was summoned to manager Bob Melvin’s office. This was an all too familiar trek for Hairston as he had made that same walk each of the three previous years during this week only to be told that he would not be making the trip with the Diamondbacks to Phoenix and he would be sent to the minors to work on some aspect of his game. That news would always be followed by a pep talk where he would be told how he should keep his head up and not let this news get him down. He was still a highly valued part of the organization and that with hard work he would be given a chance to make the team. Scott would be told that over the course of the season things happen and if he would stay prepared he could find himself playing for the Diamondbacks during the year. All those things are meant to put a young player’s mind at ease and minimize the disappointment they feel when they didn’t make the team. On paper it all sounds good but in practice it’s never easy. So it was understandable that Hairston was nervous making that familiar trip into the office where the door would be closed and news delivered. This year was different. Melvin didn’t greet him with a stern face but instead was all smiles. For the first time in his career Scott Hairston would begin the season on the opening day roster for a Major League baseball team.

On March 31, 1998 the Arizona Diamondbacks welcomed their fans to the first Opening Day of Major League Baseball in Arizona. There was a sell out crowd who had tickets to that historic game and there were countless others without tickets who came down to Bank One Ballpark to soak in the atmosphere of that first game. Trina and I had season tickets to the 1998 Diamondbacks and we were downtown early so that we didn’t miss a moment of the festivities. As the gates opened I felt like one of the children who had a golden ticket granting them entrance into Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory. This though was so much more important than chocolate, it was baseball. As we walked through the turnstile we were greeted by smiling Diamondbacks employees who welcomed up to the game and gave each of us a seat cushion. The cushions were made of purple vinyl with teal piping and had the opening day logo screened across the seat. We were excited to receive this gift since neither of us had thought about needing a seat cushion. For the next 20 games that seat cushion would be my constant companion attending every game held at Bank One Ballpark. One of the things about baseball is that it gives you time to think. And when you are watching an expansion franchise struggle to try and become a team it seems like you have extra time to ponder life. My focus during that first quarter of the season was on that seat cushion. It was ok for a casual fan but for someone who attends every game and keeps score, I had “special needs” that the Opening Day seat cushion just could not seem to handle. So while the games would drag as the Diamondbacks were on their way to lose a heartbreaking game, Trina and I would sit and talk about seat cushions and how we would change them to be better. During an extended Diamondbacks road trip, our family made a trip to Idaho to visit our parents. It is a 14 hour drive which again gave us time to talk and that talk seemed to revolve around baseball and our seat cushions. By the time we reached our destination I had completed a design that I thought was perfect. Trina and I went to several places and found the materials to make my design a reality. Trina and my mother spent their vacation sewing as we put two seat cushions together. They were awesome. The cushions were made of purple and teal Cordura and included special pockets for water bottles, scorebooks, pencils, and treats. They had carrying handles, Velcro, zippers, and shoulder straps. The design came out even better than I had anticipated. When we got home I carefully tucked the Opening Day seat cushion away never to be used again. For the next 62 games I had my custom seat cushion. They were incredible and still are. They have gone through the struggles of expansion and saw the Diamondbacks reach the play-offs in just their second season. They accompanied us to every home game of the World Series and watched as the Diamondbacks were crowned champions. They suffered through injury ridden seasons and were a source of comfort during a season of 111 losses. They watched fan favorites and future Hall of Fame players come and go. And while the foam inserts are starting to slightly wear, the rest of the seat cushion looks as good as the day it was made. But in one brief moment, these seat cushions went from being a constant companion to one destined to join the inaugural seat cushion. When the Arizona Diamondbacks changed their team colors on November 8, I knew the era of the purple and teal seat cushion had come to an end. I thought I was taking it hard but my emotions were nothing compared to those exhibited by Trina. I tried to comfort her by saying how much I loved purple and teal too. She wasn’t crying at the changing of the colors, she was crying because she knew I was going to request new seat cushions in Sedona Red and Black and she wasn’t sure she could handle my design criteria again. Now with the home opener for the 2007 Diamondbacks only 2 weeks away, it was time to get started.

It has been almost two weeks since my tickets arrived for Opening Day in Colorado against the Rockies. Trina was still not budging on her stance that I could not take the kids out of school to take them to a Diamondbacks game in Colorado when the team would be back in Phoenix just a week later. Fortunately for me my friend Mitch Jarvis was more than willing to drop everything he was doing and make the road trip to see the first regular season game in Sedona Red. Since we had the tickets and since it was only a week away I knew we probably needed a place to stay otherwise we would find ourselves camped out in the Coors Field parking lot and the last time I looked at the Weather Channel they were still saying there was a chance that there could be snow that weekend. Personally I think I have developed an allergy to snow since every time I am in it I end up getting sick. So I was all for finding somewhere nice to stay. My idea of roughing it is staying at a hotel where you have to go up or down the elevator to get ice. I have done my share of camping and outdoor stuff but this is baseball and you should be comfortable the night before Opening Day. I was in charge of finding our accommodations for the trip.

Spring Training will soon be over and then the games start to count for real. While the Diamondbacks have had a successful spring, you still have to wonder how much of this success will carry forward into the regular season. At the same time you have to wonder how many of the struggles that the Rockies, Padres, and Giants are facing are indications of the type of year that those teams will have. In the case of the Diamondbacks it is easy to start buying into the positive stories and press that the team is receiving. The young position players that the Diamondbacks have brought up through the system look ready for a full Major League season. That’s the thing about March; hope springs eternal in the spring. With the exception of maybe the Tampa Bay Devil Rays or the Washington Nationals you could make an argument that any of the other 28 teams could reach the post season. Last year the Florida Marlins with a miniscule payroll found themselves in contention for the National League Wild Card with less than a month left in the season. The Detroit Tigers showed that a team could go from challenging the 1962 Mets record for futility to win an American League pennant. The Minnesota Twins and Oakland Athletics show that building from within can produce a perennial winner and compete with the big market clubs so why can’t the Diamondbacks be the next Cinderella story?

After yesterday and the arrival of my personalized Sedona Red jersey and my Saturday home alternate Black jersey with the red “A” logo I was just about set for the season to begin. I had just one thing left to get before Opening Day, a personalized authentic road gray jersey. I would then have all four new jerseys and even though two of them still needed personalization I could live with that. This of course meant just one thing; it was time for a road trip down to Chase Field and to the team shop. This would not be the first time I had been down to the team shop this off-season. Quite the contrary, I had probably been down there 6 times or roughly once a month since the season ended. The more accurate question would be, how many times have I been to the team shop this off-season when they were actually open? That six quickly becomes once. It seems like every time I make the trek downtown I am greeted by closed and locked doors when I attempt to enter. I am beginning to take it quite personally thinking maybe with the new color scheme the team doesn’t want me near the place. After getting over my initial paranoia I chalked the experiences up to just bad timing. Who could have anticipated that the day I went down to the team shop would be the day they were closed to replace the purple and teal cabinetry for Sedona Red? Or who could have known that there would be a massive accident on the freeway causing me to make it to the stadium just minutes past closing time on a Saturday? Well, I was not taking any chances today. I went to the office very early so that I could leave mid-afternoon to pick Trina up from school and go directly to the team shop. I had mapped out 4 alternative routes to the ballpark and at the first sign of traffic I would switch paths to make sure I would get there on time.

This week has been an emotional roller coaster ride. I feel like I have just finished a marathon session on Space Mountain and I thought the ride was over. There were the tremendous lows associated with my tickets not arriving last Friday, Saturday and Monday. Then there was the meteoric high when my tickets arrived on Tuesday. Then there was the low that Spring Training is nearly over followed by the high that Opening Day is only 11 days away for the Diamondbacks. Then there was the low that the Diamondbacks would open on the road against Colorado only to be countered with the high that I got my tickets to Opening Day in Denver so I would still be there. Finally there was the low that I didn’t have the appropriate clothing to wear for Opening Day. It would just be embarrassing if I showed up to the party sporting a Purple and Teal jersey that said Diamondbacks across the front. I’ve seen how brutal those announcers are along the red carpet at the Academy Awards and I didn’t want them talking about me that way. No, something had to be done and there wasn’t much time to do it. I was going to need a new jersey to take with me on this road trip and it had to be authentic. There is nothing quite like putting on an authentic jersey with the patch on the sleeve and the buttons strategically placed around the team logo on the chest. Nothing quite like sliding that shirt on and looking in the mirror to assess how you look. If I thought I could get away with it I would wear Diamondbacks jerseys every day just to remind me what its like to be at a game. Trina of course doesn’t agree with that last part. She puts her foot down whenever I suggest going to an all jersey wardrobe. That’s why her actions were so inconceivable to me today.

A story was posted on the MLB.com web site that described an eBay auction. Normally Major League Baseball does not advertise for eBay so curiosity just got the best of me and I had to see what the story was about. The MySpace/Cliff Notes/PDA version of the story is basically that Boston Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez has decided to sell his gas barbeque because he just doesn’t have time to use it. Wow, now that is a shock. Ramirez is home all summer every night so you would think he could make some time to go out on the back patio and fire up the grill. And it’s not like this is one of those cheesy charcoal grills that you have to mess with lighter fluid, oh no, he has one of the state of the art 5-burner propane stainless-steel grills. This is one of those like you see every time you go into Home Depot and you try to explain to your wife why you just have to have a 55,000 BTU cooking appliance in your back yard. You tell her about how you have always dreamed of putting a half a cow on the rotisserie and then use your side burners to make a delicate sauce for basting. Now I don’t blame Manny for trying to recoup some of his costs on the grill. We have all made impulse purchases that we wished we could unload so we could forget about the lapse in judgment we had when we bought it. I know personally I am saddled with a Nordic-Flex home gym system that sits mockingly off my bedroom reminding me that I will never look like Chuck Norris and the closest thing to a six-pack stomach I will ever have will be when I rest a six-pack on my stomach while I reach for my wallet at the grocery store. No, my issue is in how Manny is going about his little auction.

Four long days and even longer nights I have been patiently waiting for the delivery of my 2007 Arizona Diamondbacks season tickets. Well maybe patiently should not be the adjective I should use. The saga began on Friday March 16 which was the date identified on the postcard the Diamondbacks sent me as to when I would receive my tickets. To be precise the postcard said Friday March 16 or Saturday March 17 so I shouldn’t have been surprised when the tickets were not delivered Friday. On Saturday I waited for the mail to arrive but again I was disappointed when the mailman came and went without delivering my tickets. I thought for sure that they would arrive on Monday which is why I developed a plan just in case they showed up while I was at the office. My day ended again in disappointment and I headed to bed very depressed. I laid there in bed counting the revolutions of the ceiling fan trying to get to sleep. Sleep though was far from my mind. I felt like one of my children had run away from home and I was helpless not knowing where they were or even if they were safe. At that moment I realized how helpless I was and that I was going to need some divine intervention to be safely reunited with the season tickets that I loved so deeply.

Day 3 of the mail marathon began the same as Day 2 which was the same as Day 1. As the first rays of sunlight cast over the horizon I sat at the window looking to see if the mail truck was coming. Trina came down the stairs rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “What time is it?” she asked. “It is 6:32 AM and the mail isn’t here yet.” I stated not moving my glance from the window. Trina mumbled something about addiction or mental health insurance or something and walked out the room leaving just me, the window, the neighbor’s cat, and that little Hispanic guy cutting the lawn across the street as the only things moving this morning. Slowly the neighborhood began to come alive; people wandering out to their driveway in their bathrobes to retrieve their newspapers or young school children snickering and pointing at the adults in their bathrobes as they walk towards their bus stops. Time and traffic seemed to inch along ever so slowly and none of the vehicles remotely resembled a mail truck. I signed deeply causing my breath to fog up the window briefly before disappearing.

If I have learned anything during the 12 years that I have followed the Diamondbacks it is this, “you never know what you may find and everybody has a story.” As I have been doing for the past month, I was again working on the Now Hitting web site trying to get things moved from the old site to the new and update those areas that had gone neglected far too long. Today I was working on the draft picks for the Diamondbacks. I began with the inaugural draft of 1996, the first ever in Diamondbacks history and continued on through the 2006 draft just last June. Each year got its own page so that visitors to the site could see a progression of draft strategy and also to see which current Diamondbacks came up through the system and where they were drafted. Each year for the past 12 I have made careful notes of who was picked in each round and other tidbits of information. Some of this data is gathered through Major League Baseball, some through Minor League Baseball, and some through the hometown newspapers and fan sites that crop up now and again about a player. The majority of these draft picks were once stars on their high school or college teams and they have very dedicated fans that provide all kinds of information. This can be interesting reading and sometimes very helpful. For example, I have a personality flaw that causes me to freak out if my data is incomplete or inaccurate. This manifest itself today when I realized that several of the sources I used for the 2006 draft had missing data specifically the weight of some of the draft picks. That sounds trivial and inconsequential and I should have just put “N/A’ in the field like others had done. I couldn’t do that though. I had know what the weight of these players were so I began what amounted to several hours of research as I went through each draft selection of the Arizona Diamondbacks that was missing a number for their weight. I didn’t think it would take me too long and I thought my search would be relatively trivial. What I didn’t expect was where this journey would take me.

I found it very difficult to sleep last night. I must have woken up nearly every half hour. I would roll over and look at the clock only to realize that morning was still hours away. According to astrophysicists and others in the scientific community the shortest day of the year and hence the longest night of the year always occurs at the winter solstice which typically occurs in the third week of December. Given the way this night has been I would have to disagree with these scientific minds, tonight is definitely the longest night I have ever had to endure. I am thinking maybe global warming has caused the seasons and the earths orbit around the sun to somehow drift to the point where tonight is when we must endure the endless night. Of course there may be another much simpler explanation; it may just be that I am too excited to sleep knowing what lies ahead for me once daylight arrives.

According to most calendars, tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day. I’m not Irish though but I have used Irish Spring soap before so I try to join in on the festivities however I can. In our house that means two things. First, it is the one time each year that I get to wear my green Diamondbacks hat. Back in 1999 the team sold this hat and wore it for St. Patrick’s Day during Spring Training. I of course bought one of the hats because I can’t pass up a Diamondbacks hat. I keep it neatly tucked away and bring it out once a year just for this occasion. The second thing St. Patrick’s Day means at our house is that I get to make breakfast. The kids both look forward to this event and dread it’s coming at the same time. I try to make a breakfast that will get everyone in the mood for the festivities. You may be wondering, what is it that he could possibly make to get into the spirit of the holiday? Way back in my youth I obtained a recipe from an old doctor that made the perfect breakfast for March 17 and I have diligently fixed it each year to commemorate whatever it is that St. Patrick’s Day commemorates. Our traditional mean consists of light and fluffy eggs whipped more than the 2004 Arizona Diamondbacks combined with a dash of sparkling water and nine drops of McCormick’s green food coloring. These are cooked until firm and gently folded onto a plate and served with a slice of spiral cut honey-baked ham. The plate is then served at the table inside of an ornate box. My doctor friend called it “green eggs and ham”. I think he also suggested that you eat this with a good looking woman but since I have gotten married, that part of the recipe seems to have been torn off by my wife. You are probably asking why am I telling you this a day before the big holiday?

After a rare off day during Spring Training the Diamondbacks are back with a game against revived Slammin’ Sammy Sosa and the Texas Rangers. I will be one of the first to admit that I didn’t think there was any way that Sosa would be able to return to a point where he could be realistically considered for a roster spot. Instead he is proving me and all of his critics wrong putting on a display that is reminiscent to 1998 when he and Mark McGwire captured the hearts and minds of America as they chased Roger Maris and his magical number 61. It’s funny how time warps our reality. At the time baseball was struggling to return after the numerous work stoppages and labor troubles. Fans were staying away from the ballparks in droves and it looked as if baseball would lose its mystic and distinction as America’s Pastime. During these darkest times two men took the sport on their broad shoulders and carried them back to prominence. At the time we were so involved in the chase to 61 home runs and the sense of adventure that involved that we didn’t care about anything else. Television programs were interrupted to provide coverage of individual at-bats putting baseball on par with other monumental news stories. Usually when television programs are interrupted viewers get frustrated and angry that reality is intruding upon our diversions but in this case we didn’t mind. Even non baseball fans began talking about the game and about these two players.

Usually there are one or maybe two days during Spring Training when a team does not have a game. For the Arizona Diamondbacks that anomaly occurs today. From a fan’s perspective, this is a brutal day to endure. After being without baseball for one-third of a year we are being asked to please do without it for another day. That is like asking someone to please stop breathing for one-third of the day or roughly 8 hours. Have you ever tried to hold your breath for 8 hours? I did, once. As a kid at one time or another we have threatened to hold our breath if we didn’t get our way. Little did I realize that the body just will not allow that to happen. Even if I had successfully held my breath until I passed out, my body would immediately take over to preserve life and begin breathing involuntarily while you are unconscious. It’s the same thing with baseball.

With Spring Training now nearly half over, teams are slowing starting to make personnel decisions that affect the players. Those going to be on the Major League roster will start to need more playing time as they build stamina towards Opening Day. The extended playing time for starters means less time for others. All of the players in camp have skills and will be playing the season at some level so they too will need extended playing time. For this reason, teams will begin reassigning players to their minor league camps so that they can work with their starters to build the stamina necessary to be prepared. The Arizona Diamondbacks began making these decisions today when they sent nine players to their minor league facilities. One of those reassigned was 2005 first round draft pick and first overall pick Justin Upton. Upton is a 19 year-old kid just one year removed from worrying about who to take to the homecoming dance or whether his parents would let him take the car out for his date. No one should have expected that Justin Upton would come into Spring Training before starting his second year of professional baseball and crack the 25-man roster. Well no one except Justin Upton.

It was just four short days ago that I had ventured out of the friendly confines of diamondbacks.com and went to the darks side to the purple of coloradorockies.com. I have to admit, I miss the purple. The Rockies web site had no teal but they did have purple. It wasn’t the friendly “come sit by the pool we have in right field” purple the Diamondbacks used. It is more of a “we are a mile high and freezing cold and we rule because we are now the only team with purple” shade. Anyway, four days ago I went over to see about tickets to Opening Day against the Diamondbacks and found two tickets that were just begging to be bought. Today I went down to get the mail and found an envelope from the Rockies containing the two tickets I had purchased. I was so excited about it that I completely forgot that I hadn’t told Trina that I really was going to Opening Day in Colorado during the time that her family was coming to visit. Well that would be a dilemma for most married men but not me. Nope, I am so oblivious to what a normal husband would do that I’ll just continue on in my naive state thinking Trina will just understand. I mean seriously, wouldn’t we all be better off keeping me away from her family? I’m kind of like Drain-o. A little bit will remove clogs and get your pipes moving but if you poor a whole bottle of me down your sink I could destroy your pipes requiring massive amounts of plumbing expense and a visit from a really fat guy that has pants that are too small and doesn’t own a belt. I have no idea what that analogy means and quite frankly the thoughts of butt crack turn my stomach so I am not going to try and analyze what was meant by my statement. I think you get the point though that putting me in a room with in-laws for several days is a recipe for something explosive. Yeah I think it would be wise for me to be out of town if for no other reason than to try and save my marriage. Trina will buy that story won’t she?

While updating my Now Hitting web site I realized that I have somehow misplaced the results of the Diamondbacks 1998 Spring Training games. I have the schedule and I have the score cards from the game on February 27, 1998 in Tucson and the March 29, 1998 game at then Bank One Ballpark but the remaining games I don’t have results for. In the margins of one page I have written 16-15-1 as the record of the team but I can’t seem to find the individual game results. This of course is driving me insane (so many things seem to be in the driver’s seat for that journey). I figured the Diamondbacks web site would have to have that information wouldn’t they? Opening up my FireFox browser (you just have to love FireFox don’t you?) I surfed over to diamondbacks.com and began my research.

I always enjoy Spring Training games. You are so close to the action that at times you feel like you could reach out and touch the players. The stadiums in the Cactus League are well maintained and relatively new. Most of them have easy access from all parts of the Valley of the Sun. And how many places can you spend an afternoon or evening in March watching baseball without fear of frost bite? Of all the venues in the Cactus League I find myself going to Tempe Diablo Stadium or Maryvale the most. It is not that I am a big fan of either the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim or the Milwaukee Brewers, each has their strengths. Tempe was recently remodeled where they eliminated most of the bleachers replacing them with seats similar to Chase Field without the leg room. Tempe is also closest to work and home so it is easy for me to get to the stadium quickly when I just have to have a baseball fix. The Maryvale stadium is kind of out of the way and if you happen to waver with your directions you can find yourself in a less favorable neighborhood. That fact works to the advantage of the diehard baseball fan. The tendency of tourists to be nervous leaving the beaten path coupled with the fact that Milwaukee is not a huge fan favorite across the country means that you can usually get great seats even up to game time most days, unless it is today when you really want to go and see the Brewers and the Diamondbacks.

I still remember March 9, 1995 as if it happened yesterday. Residents of Phoenix and all of Arizona for that matter had heard that Major League Baseball was planning to announce two new expansion teams during their meetings in Palm Beach Florida. Rumors were that the Arizona group would be one of the cities chosen and they would unveil their team name, logo, and color scheme at that time. I was stuck at work and I would miss the live event. 1995 was the technology dark ages before the explosion of the Internet and Tivo meaning that I was literally cut off from the world. Trina was at home trying desperately to master the VCR to make it stop flashing midnight and record the announcement. My confidence level in her success was extremely slow which was why I was on the phone trying to walk her through the steps to record and as a last resort to have her do a play-by-play of the announcement.

I always look forward to the date that Major League Baseball announces the upcoming season schedule. Like every fan you want your local team to open the season at home and end the season at home just because it means that no other baseball will happen before or after you get to watch your team. For the 2007 season neither of these events occurs for the Diamondbacks. They open the season on the road against the Colorado Rockies on April 2 and they close the season on the road against the Colorado Rockies. It’s bad enough that the Rockies fans get to see the new uniforms before the Diamondbacks fans but they also get to see our team a week after they have left the friendly confines of Chase Field. This was almost too much for me to deal with. I decided that I had to do something about it. First I thought about writing to the commissioner of baseball Bud Selig and ask him to please change the schedule but I quickly realized that probably was not going to be a realistic request. Besides it would have implications outside of Colorado and Arizona and that didn’t seem quite fair. I began to wonder, if I couldn’t get the commissioner to change the schedule what alternatives did I have at my disposal? The most realistic alternative I could think of was that I needed to travel to Colorado the first week of April. Thinking about last summer and what happened when I suggested that we make a slight side trip to Tampa Bay Florida for our 25th wedding anniversary to see the Diamondbacks play the Devil Rays; I wasn’t sure how realistic the alternative was for me to go to Colorado. I decided to take a chance though and make a proposal to Trina.

Today I continued the expansion of my sports fan universe, I attended a basketball game. I had long heard that Phoenix was predominantly a basketball city with their love affair with the Phoenix Suns. When we first moved to the Valley of the Sun in 1994 I and attest that the town lived and breathed with the Suns. That was the year immediately following their appearance in the NBA finals against the Chicago Bulls. It was impossible to get a ticket to a Suns game and when the team was playing on television the whole town seemed to go to sleep until the game had ended. During that year a friend of mine invited me to a Suns game. He had sat on the phone for 6 hours and was able to purchase tickets to a single game for that season. I accepted and we went to America West Arena. The seats were in the last row of the upper deck and were situated so that you could not sit up straight or your head would hit the ceiling of the arena. I don’t remember much from that game other than there did not seem to be much head room or leg room. Now some 13 years later I find myself once again looking forward to going to a basketball game.

It has been a very busy off-season for the Diamondbacks and their fans. By busy I am not talking about just player movement. In fact on that front it was relatively quiet compared to years past. Other than the improvement to the starting rotation through trades for Doug Davis and Randy Johnson, there was not much happening to the roster. This can be attributed to the fact that the young nucleus of players that the Diamondbacks will be relying upon are all under team control for the next several years. No, the changes causing this to be busy are mostly focused upon the changes to the Diamondbacks logos and color scheme that was introduced November 8 at the Valley Ho resort. I’ve documented my thoughts on the elimination of Purple and Teal on many occasions so I will just let it go. That change though had a large impact on my time and my closet and continues to be a driving factor in my life to this day. Besides this blog, I also have a relatively large Diamondbacks based web site Now Hitting that has been in existence since 1999 and chronicles the Arizona Diamondbacks. The graphical elements and content were all based on the team’s color scheme of Purple and Teal. That though needs to change and hence why every waking hour and some sleeping hours have been consumed this off season.

When Shortstop Craig Counsell went down with an injury last season the Arizona Diamondbacks called Tucson Sidewinder Shortstop Stephen Drew up to take his place. Over the remainder of the 2006 season Drew showed why the Diamondbacks had drafted him in the first round. His hitting and fielding amazed even his most ardent fans. Drew’s performance led to the Diamondbacks not renewing Counsell’s contract and basically handing the starting job over to the rookie. While Drew exhausted his rookie status last season by collecting 209 at-bats; he is still viewed as a rookie for all intents and purposes. The question on everyone’s mind was how would Drew begin the 2007 season? Would he continue his hot hitting or would his statistics suffer when pitchers began making adjustments? The larger question though was defensive. Scouts and player personnel contacts all felt Drew’s offense would never be a question. Many thought Stephen would be an average fielder at best but given his plate discipline defense would be overlooked slightly.

Each Spring Training there is approximately three days where the Diamondbacks will divide the team into two squads and play two different games. These split squad games are very valuable as it allows the coaching staff more opportunities to assess the players and how they handle game situations. On teams where most of the roster positions have already been defined these split squad games take on added importance to those players who are battling for the final one or two roster spots. Today marks the first split squad game for the Diamondbacks for the 2007 Cactus League schedule. It is actually a couple of days earlier than normal in years past. I’m a firm believer that the split squad games are better served being later in March after the players have had an opportunity to work out the rust from the off-season. Games this early have the players still working on nuances of their swings or delivery.

For a couple of years now we have heard various reporters and publications tout the value of the Arizona Diamondbacks farm system. Through great drafting and player development the Diamondbacks have become a deep club with young players who are destined to help the Major League club. During the 2006 season we began to see the fruits of that labor as players such as Conor Jackson, Carlos Quentin, Stephen Drew, and Alberto Callespo came to the parent club and made positive contributions. This season we should see additional help from the farm in the likes of center fielder Chris Young and catcher Miguel Montero. While these position players should have a strong impact no only during this season but in seasons to come, fans should not discount the pitchers who are on the horizon ready to make their move to the next step. Names such as Dustin Nippert, Micah Owings, Edgar Gonzalez, Enrique Gonzalez, and Evan MacLane could become regular contributors this season or next either as starting pitchers or in the bullpen. The immediate future looks promising for the Diamondbacks and their young players.

Since taking over from Rich Dozer in October 2006, Diamondbacks President Derrick Hall has made an effort to connect with the fans. He has a very open communications style and is willing to listen to comments and suggestions from Diamondbacks fans. I’m sure there are times that he receives too much feedback as fans give him countless suggestions. To his credit though he accepts each comment and makes the fans feel as though they are an important part of the team. One of the communication tools that Mr. Hall uses is the monthly on-line chat forum at the Diamondbacks web site. I always make a point to attend these chats. Some of it is to voice my suggestions and some of it is to try and put my finger on the pulse of the fans. At the end of the chat I try to assess the information provided and see how it may impact the Arizona Diamondbacks and its fan base. Sometimes I come away from these chats with a brief glimpse of what life is like from within the organization. And there are sometimes like this month when I come away with a nugget of information that I may not have otherwise uncovered.

As I awoke this morning rays of sunshine made their way across the bedroom signaling the arrival of another day. It wasn’t just another day though, today is the beginning of Spring Training games in Arizona and Florida. While I will check the box scores from the Grapefruit League to see how players in Florida are doing; I am most interested in Cactus League action in Arizona. A lot of that has to do with the Arizona Diamondbacks training in Tucson coupled with the fact that I live in Arizona and have a vested interest in the outcomes of local games. I look forward to this day each year. It is a time of new beginnings, a time when hopes and expectations are at their highest. At no other point in the season do you feel more positive about your favorite team.