Diamondbacks Magazine
Late last week I received an email from the Arizona Diamondbacks. That event may become one of the good/bad day criteria very soon. This email happened to be from Diamondbacks Magazine. In the message the team described the changes that would be occurring with the team’s printed media. I know this is probably very difficult to imagine but I am an avid reader of this publication. I first started reading Diamondbacks Magazine in 1998 and I think I have every issue the team has produced. The magazine is a great way to keeping up with the team during the year. Diamondbacks Magazine is also the official game program so during the season I end up with multiple copies of each month’s issue since I always buy a program for each home stand to get the scorecard and player numbers for the upcoming games. When a new issue arrives at our house there is usually a fight between me and my daughter Tiffany to see who gets to be first to read it.
Whenever I get any communication from the team I spend a lot of time reading and re-reading the message just to make sure I don’t miss something. This email was from the editor Greg Salvadore who talked about upcoming changes that were going to happen with the magazine. With each description I started to get excited knowing that baseball season would be right around the corner. Part of the changes being planned revolve around the upcoming tenth anniversary of the Diamondbacks being formed. I’m already looking forward to the celebrations I am planning with my family to commemorate things we have experienced going to the Diamondbacks games. We have nothing but fond memories of the team and Bank One Ballpark/Chase Field. Well, mostly fond memories. I am still dealing with the aftermath from July 11, 1999 but that is a story for another day. As part of the events leading up to the tenth anniversary the Diamondbacks are asking fans to share their memories from special events in Diamondbacks history. The first two they have chosen are Opening Day 1998 and Randy Johnson’s 20 strikeout game on May 8, 2001. Oddly enough I was at both of those games and vividly remember the events of those nights.
Opening Day is always special anyway but more so on that magical night on March 31, 1998 when the Diamondbacks played their first game ever. Trina and I had tickets to that game and we took our son Dakota who was not even a year old. Our seats were in section 107 which is above the visitor’s bullpen. We went to the ballpark early just so we could become a part of all the festivities. My sister-in-law Darlene had a parking pass for the Phoenix Civic Plaza so we were less than a block away. As we arrived at Bank One Ballpark we were greeted by musicians who were wandering around the crowd. On the plaza was a man with a T-shirt screening machine making shirts to commemorate the event. I bought one of his shirts and it is still in my closet as a constant reminder of that night. As we went into the stadium we were given seat cushions with the inaugural game date on them. These seat cushions became my constant companion through 81 games that season finally being retired after Trina made me my own seat cushion. The atmosphere was electric inside leading up to the game. Camera flashes were a constant reminder of the historical importance of the game. We took our seats and watched the festivities unfold. The most memorable moment came when the roof began to open accompanied by the music that was commissioned for this purpose. It brought goose bumps to my arms. The game balls were brought in by paratroopers flying in through the open roof. It was an incredible night. While the Diamondbacks dropped that game 7-2 to the Colorado Rockies, no one left the stadium feeling down. We were now a Major League Baseball city and that meant more than wins and losses.
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