February 2007 Archives

It’s funny how we perceive time. It seems like just yesterday that I was sitting at Chase Field watching the Diamondbacks try to put together a string of victories that would lead them to become the 2006 National League wild card team. That of course didn’t happen and the Diamondbacks faded to finish third in the Western Division. The memories of the 2006 season are still fresh in my mind and it seems as though I have just been away from the stadium for a short road trip. Now if I compare that to the time it has been since pitchers and catchers reported to Spring Training on February 16 and it seems like it has been years until Cactus League games will finally begin.

An interesting article came across my desk today. The Topps baseball card company released their 2007 baseball cards. Among these cards is the #40 Derek Jeter player card. Since I am not a fan of Derek Jeter this didn’t really seem newsworthy to me. In fact I would have assumed there would be a card with the likeness of the Yankees team captain so I wasn’t sure why there would be a story specifically about that. Curious I decided to read on and see if there was something special about this card. It seems that someone within the Topps company has a sense of humor. On the card featuring Derek Jeter at-bat, Mickey Mantle is sitting in the Yankee dugout looking on. And if that were not enough, President George W. Bush is sitting in the stands behind Jeter waving.

Tomorrow marks the announcement by the baseball veterans committee of the results of their Hall of Fame vote. The veterans committee elections occur every other year for players and every four years for composite balloting. The veterans committee is made up of elected members of the Hall of Fame including players, Frick Award and Spink Award winners. One reason for this vote is to right any wrongs or injustices where deserving players are overlooked by the baseball writers. The role of the Veterans Committee will increase in importance as time goes one and players become eligible who played during the steroid era. As we saw this year, the baseball writers made an example of Mark McGwire based on speculation. If this bias continues for others who become eligible it will fall on the shoulders of the Veterans Committee to elect those who deserve induction. The question becomes, will they?

I struggle with the idea of what constitutes a Hall of Fame baseball player. Although I am not a voting member of the Baseball Writers Association of America I still struggle with the definition. As an avid baseball fan I have probably watched as many baseball games as some of the voting members so I do feel that I have the right to question some of the decisions of who is included and who is excluded during the voting. I will first state that I don’t believe that statistics alone should be the criteria when electing a person to the Hall of Fame. I think character and contributions to the game are important aspects that in many cases get overlooked. To me contribution is the most important criteria. A player may not have had a long and illustrious career but during the short time they did play they had such an impact on the sport that their name immediately brings up memories that bring us closer to the game. At the top of that list is a name that rarely gets mentioned as a strong Hall of Fame candidate, Roger Maris.

Even the best laid plans don’t always come to fruition. Today was the annual Fan Fest at Chase Field. This is a time when the Diamondbacks begin selling the single game tickets. The event allows fans to come down to the ballpark, purchase seats to individual games and soak in the ambiance of the stadium. Besides ticket sales there are also other activities such as trying your hand at play-by-play announcing; question and answer sessions with various members of the Diamondbacks staff; live music in the plaza, and autograph sessions. I’ve been looking forward to this event ever since I first caught word of it via the Diamondbacks web site. Normally it would take a congregation of wild Yankees fans to keep me away from this but today all it took was a middle aged nurse and a very large dosage of medication to stop me dead in my tracks.

After a week of pitchers and catchers going through drills and preparing for Spring Training, the time had finally arrived for the remaining players to report to camp. Position players began arriving soon after the pitchers but today marked the first day for the full squad to be available. The first order of business today was meetings with the front office staff for everyone to get to know each other. The 2007 Diamondbacks are an interesting collection of ballplayers. It is a mixture of veterans coupled with a large contingency of very young players. This is by far different than the 2001 World Series Championship club which was a predominantly veteran club. It is even different than the dreaded 2004 club which due to injuries was forced to utilize an extremely young team with little major league experience. Diamondbacks fans have been hearing for quite some time of how talented the minor league system is and how the team should be a dominant force in the National League Western Division. With the 2007 team it is time to prove out that theory.

The Diamondbacks officially put single game day tickets on sale on Saturday February 24 during FanFest. For those fans who have been long time Diamondbackers or MVP Rewards participants they are given an opportunity to purchase individual game tickets on Friday February 23. Those fans who are season ticket holders are able to purchase additional day of game tickets beginning at 9 AM this morning or 48 hours before the general public. When the Diamondbacks announced their promotional schedule I knew there would be games where my two season tickets were not enough. After what seemed to be an all-night draft party, we had finally settled who was going to each game. All the dates had been assigned with the exception of the six bobblehead giveaway games and no one was giving an inch on those. I now have a strong appreciation for the negotiators at the Cuban missile crisis. All they had to do was talk two countries out of starting a global thermal nuclear war. That would have been a cake walk compared to brokering a deal to see who gets to go to Orlando Hudson’s Golden Glove Bobblehead night. In an act of desperation I finally got everyone to compromise. I would buy 2 extra tickets to each of the bobblehead games. This would still require us to determine who would be sitting in the upper deck versus who would be sitting in Section 132 with me but at least they would all be in attendance. Now all that was left was to procure the tickets.

Bud Selig, that master innovator and reigning commissioner of Major League Baseball, is at it again. With all the fanfare that an announcement like this can muster, he introduced a cornerstone to his quest to boost player performance. Now before you start getting in a tizzy thinking that Mr. Selig is attempting to help the players find loopholes in the drug testing policy; I will assure you this is not the case. The brain trust in Major League Baseball headquarters has identified that one of the limiting factors to a player’s performance is their hat. Yes, you heard me right; the commissioner’s office thinks they can improve a player’s on field abilities by changing the hats that teams wear. I swear, you just can’t make this kind of stuff up. First we had the whole humidor experiment and now we are in the midst of a hat revolution. Traditionally baseball hats have been made of wool and have remained relatively unchanged through the years. That is until chief scientist Bud Selig put his powers to work for good and not evil.

Junior Noboa began his professional baseball career in 1981 when he signed a free-agent contract with the Cleveland Indians. He made his Major League debut three years later on August 22, 1984 against Toronto. His career lasted 8 years and he played for Cleveland, California, Montreal, New York Mets, Toronto, Oakland, and Pittsburgh. In 1994 he retired as an active player. Noboa’s statistics were not overly impressive and as such he most likely would have faded into the background of baseball remembered only by those who saw him play. Junior Noboa’s life in baseball did not end there though. When the Arizona Diamondbacks became a franchise on March 9, 1995 they knew they would need to build a strong minor league foundation which would include a presence in Latin America. Arizona approached Junior Noboa to help them build a presence in this hot bed of baseball talent. August 1995 he became a member of the Diamondbacks and began to establish a baseball academy in the Dominican Republic. His signing quickly began to pay dividends when he signed the first two players for the Diamondbacks after being on the job only a month.

There are times that I wonder whether the Hallmark Corporation just starts making up holidays as an excuse to sell more greet cards. But then I stop to analyze each of the holidays in order to find the significance for us celebrating. Granted, some of those are a stretch like Chinese New Years. Is it really that important to celebrate a country using a different calendar? And who exactly made this the year of the pig? I could have justified its inclusion on the calendar if they would have said it was the year of the Diamondback but the year of the pig? That is totally messed up. I didn’t come to bash pigs though; I came to talk about the holiday we are celebrating today – President’s Day.

It’s day two of our trip to the second happiest place on earth. Yesterday was such a beautiful day with temperatures in the mid-eighties and clear skies. That in no way prepared us for today when we awoke to temperatures in the mid-fifties and cloudy skies. When you have kids and your window overlooks Disneyland, staying in bed is never an option. Begrudgingly I crawled out of bed, jumped in a quick shower and donned my white pinstripe Diamondbacks jersey. I soon realized that would not be nearly warm or dry enough so I added my Diamondbacks sweatshirt and wind breaker. All of this purple and turquoise did not go well with my black and Sedona Red Diamondbacks hat but I have to ease into the color change just a little. So after preparing for the crisp weather we made our way over to the theme parks. The crowds reminded me of beanie baby days at Bank One Ballpark in the early days. There were people everywhere standing in line pushing and shoving to see what was ahead. It was hard for me to comprehend this many people would attend a non-baseball function.

When my daughter Whitney came home and announced that their Middle School Honor Band would be performing at the Happiest Place on Earth I beamed with pride. Although she had two sisters who had taken band when they were her age, none of them had done well enough to be able to play at Chase Field. The trip had been scheduled for President’s Day weekend which is this weekend. I was puzzled by this since I knew that there were no events going on at Chase Field. At first I thought maybe she had messed up the dates and she really meant to say that their band was performing for Fan Fest which is next Saturday (February 24). No, the date was correct. Her mistake was that she inaccurately identified the Happiest Place on Earth. She somehow equated that to Disneyland but we all know that is only the second Happiest Place on Earth falling well short of the number one spot which is occupied by Chase Field. In fact if I were to rank them, I think Disneyland falls just ahead of the Metrodome in Minneapolis and Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay making it about the twenty-eighth Happiest Place on Earth. I attempted to explain her faux pas but I just could not get her to understand. So Whitney was to go to California to perform in front of Disney. Trina and the kids thought this would be a perfect time for us to support her by going over as well. What in the world are these people thinking? I mean pitchers and catchers reported yesterday. I can’t be bailing now. How will I ever find out what the batting practice hats and jerseys look like, and what if someone gets hurt in Tucson? I may not find out about it for days. That would be very bad. Despite my arguments the family insisted that a road trip was in order and not to Tucson.

There were times when I thought this moment would never arrive. I’ve survived the dark and dreary off season and lived to tell about it. I feel like one of the survivors of a terrible catastrophe who is not sure why he was spared but he’s still grateful to know his destiny is to face another day. After the plague has passed over the land, those who survived began to assemble in the streets to assess the damage to their lives. I can exuberantly state that everyone in my family survived. Some of them are weak and I am not sure they could have lasted much longer but with the worst behind us we will survive. Hope springs eternal and with each day the sun shines a little brighter and a little longer. Temperatures are slowly rising eliminating the memory of a cold winter. With the arrival of pitchers and catchers to Tucson Electric Park, all seems right with the world.

Twas the night before Spring Training, when all through the clubhouse
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the locker with care,
In hopes that Brandon Webb soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of double plays danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my Diamondbacks cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the infield there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the luster of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a 6’ 10 starting pitcher, and eight tiny position players.

With a little old manager, so lively and gellin’,
I knew in a moment it must be Bob Melvin.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now Johnson! Now, Webb! Now, Hernandez and Davis!
On, Byrnes! On, Young! on Quentin and Jackson!
To the end of the outfield! To the top of the wall!
Now leap away! Leap away! Leap away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the warning track the players they flew,
With a van full of bats, and Bob Melvin too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the street
The prancing and pawing of each little cleat.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the walkway Bob Melvin came with a bound.

He was dressed in Sedona Red, from his head to his foot,
And his uniform was all tarnished with grass stains and soot.
A bundle of bats he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pencil he held tight in his teeth,
And the bite marks encircled his pencil like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was chubby and plump, from an extended off season,
And I laughed when I saw him, until I looked in the mirror!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the lockers, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the walkway he rose!

He sprang to his golf card, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Spring Training to all, and to all a good-night!"

You would think that after 25 years of marriage I would learn to make a note of when Valentines Day is and get something special for Trina. But each year this holiday sneaks up on me and I find myself unprepared. From the looks of the Hallmark store I am not alone in this dilemma as it is usually packed with men frantically going through cards trying to find something that makes them sound sensitive without appearing too feminine. That is usually followed by a trip to the floral shop where you pay three times the market value for wilting buds because you forgot to order in advance. This year I vowed to be different. I was going to take it upon myself to be the loving husband who bought something from the heart that his wife would love.

Trina came into the room stating that Dakota’s tournament soccer team was interested in playing in a tournament in Cottonwood Arizona in April. Before she committed she thought she better check with me. This was good thinking. Dakota’s season began in January and up through March there were not many conflicts in scheduling. Beginning in April though we had to make sure and check the tournaments against the Diamondbacks schedule. I have not quite got the dates and teams memorized so I had to go out to the web to verify my assumption. Sure enough there were Diamondbacks home games scheduled the same weekend. As I was looking at the schedule I noticed that there was an asterisk on Saturday April 14. Could this mean what I think it means? I clicked the asterisk and sure enough, a pop-up window appeared listing the game day promotion. I jumped from my chair and began running through the house yelling, “The Promotion Schedule is Published! The Promotion Schedule is Published!” Immediately all of my kids were hovered around the computer screen as we began to dissect the upcoming Diamondbacks season.

Steve Gilbert is the beat writer covering the Arizona Diamondbacks for MLB.com. I highly respect his work and always try to read any new stories he may have about the team. Today’s rendition was entitled D-backs ready to begin new legacy. It made me stop and think what length of time constitutes a legacy. The Diamondbacks have fielded a team for a decade. Is that long enough to create a legacy? I went to Google and began to research whether legacy equated to a specific time. This took much longer than I anticipated as I traveled from site to site and got involved in the journey rather than the result. For example, the number one return site for legacy is legacy.com which appears to be an online obituary service. I made a note to bookmark that site. As soon as the Colorado Rockies are eliminated from contention which should be around the first of May I’ll return and write their obituary. That should be good for a few laughs.

I’ve previously written about Major League Baseball’s fascination with the humidor and how the league may be contemplating expanded use of this device beyond the rarified air of Coors Field. The subject came up during the General Manager’s meetings but no decision was rendered. I thought perhaps we had finally put this thing to bed so that we could move on to more important matters but that was not the case. The Commissioner’s Office notified the teams that they will be monitoring the status of game baseballs during the season to ensure they comply with league standards for size and density. They stopped short of requiring the teams to install a humidor but the wording strongly suggested that its use would assist the teams in maintaining the necessary consistency. This is to be somewhat on the honor system except for the Colorado Rockies who must submit reports to the league offices to ensure this policy is being followed.

When I was a small child I used to watch Captain Kangaroo on television religiously. Mostly I like to watch just so Mr. Moose would drop a million ping pong balls on the captain but there were other interesting segments on that show too. The Captain would always read a story each episode and one in particular that remember was called Caps for Sale which was about a hat salesman who had his hats stolen by a bunch of monkeys. This was kind of traumatic for me as I was always afraid some band of rogue monkeys would swoop down and take my baseball hat. As I’ve grown older, I have related more and more to the cap salesman. In fact, when the Diamondbacks changed their colors negating my 54 hat collection to that of old relic; I felt very similar to the cap salesman who looked up to see the monkeys wearing his hats in the trees. Today was yet another in a long line of monkeys reaching down to snatch the hat off my head.

After the inaugural 1998 season, management made a decision that they needed to change their plans to take an aggressive approach to building a winning baseball franchise in Phoenix. During that off-season they began to stock pile players who were proven winners. It was immediately clear that Jerry Colangelo was not just looking for hired guns; he was looking for players with character and a winning tradition. Much has been made about the Randy Johnson signing that year as has the signing of Steve Finley and the trade for Luis Gonzalez. What is somewhat lost in the mix is the addition of Todd Stottlemyre. Some of this may be the fact that Stottlemyre had a series of bad luck befall him and his availability was somewhat limited due to injuries. What a lot of fans don’t understand is the intangibles that Todd brought to the Diamondbacks. His clubhouse attitude and willingness to play through pain were a huge part to the success that Arizona saw in 1999. And while he had a partially torn rotator cuff, Stottlemyre still was able to contribute and was rewarded as the pitcher who won the first play-off game in franchise history. Unfortunately this would be his crowning moment in a Diamondbacks uniform and the injuries would pile up making his stay seem less valuable than it truly was. The Diamondbacks connection with Todd Stottlemyre has had additional benefits that may or may not have occurred otherwise.

One aspect of the new ownership group and front office staff that I really like is the openness they show in communicating with the fans. Diamondbacks President Derrick Hall epitomizes this new philosophy by taking time out of his busy day to host an online chat on the Diamondbacks web site. I try to never miss one of these chats. On the one hand I like to keep my finger on the pulse of Diamondbacks fans and these chats serve as a pretty good barometer of where things are going. The members that attend these chats tend to be some of the more diehard fans. Trina says the reason I attend these is to be among my people. I have no idea what that means and I just don’t have the energy to try and understand where her mind is at. The second reason I go to these is just so that I can continue to pester the Diamondbacks front office with questions. Where else do you get an opportunity to converse with decision makers for a Major League Baseball team? When I arrive for a chat I am not one of those guys who quietly sit in the back of the room and just listen. No I tend to have to get actively involved.

Going into this week the Arizona Diamondbacks had only one player eligible for salary arbitration that was not signed. The player was newly anointed left fielder Eric Byrnes. Byrnes came to the Diamondbacks last season after brief stints in Colorado and Baltimore. Many said the Diamondbacks were taking a risk as Byrnes stock was definitely on the slide. General Manager Josh Byrnes thought the risk was worth it and offered a one year contract to Eric. The Diamondbacks were rewarded with consistent hitting, highlight reel fielding, and a fiery attitude that was infectious in the clubhouse. Eric Byrnes was clearly the best and most consistent player on the Diamondbacks last season. He filled the gap in centerfield and provided needed experience around an ever increasing younger team. With the departure of Luis Gonzalez to the Los Angeles Dodgers and the promotion of Chris Young from Tucson to Arizona to play centerfield, Eric Byrnes was asked to move to left. His attitude was very team focused as he agreed to play whatever position would best help. With such a positive influence both on and off the field, many wondered whether the Diamondbacks would sign Byrnes to a long term deal. Eric himself has commented this off-season that he would like to become a permanent fixture in Arizona. But with arbitration looming on the horizon, the Diamondbacks just could not seem to come to an agreement on contract parameters. When arbitration figures were announced, Byrnes was asking for just over $5 million for the 2007 season while the Diamondbacks offered $4.25 million. With such a relatively small difference in numbers, it was assumed that the sides would come to an agreement. That hadn’t happened though, at least not until today.

While many would argue that a sure sign of spring is Groundhog Day, I have found a more reliable indicator. You can always tell Spring Training is upon us when teams announce who they will be inviting to Spring Training. Today the Arizona Diamondbacks released their invitee list to Spring Training for non-roster players. This is both an exciting and frustrating time for me each year. It is exciting because it means I have survived yet another long off-season and in just a few short days pitchers and catchers will begin to arrive in Tucson to start preparations for another baseball season. It is frustrating because after patiently waiting by my mailbox and pestering my mailman to the point where he is now talking about a career change, I did not get an invitation. As I walked back to the house dejected after another day without a formal invitation, I began to realize I could be Cinderella. I’m not talking about the ending of that story when Cinderella gets the prince and the whole “happily ever after” part. No I am talking about Cinderella – The Early Years.

Today the Arizona Diamondbacks announced an enhanced phone number for fans wanting to buy season tickets, group tickets, or suite tickets. According to the press release the goal is to give Diamondbacks fans a more direct line to ticket representatives eliminating any potential delays that could occur by going through the regular ticket purchasing system. This is such a cool idea. I feel like Commissioner Gordon on the old Batman television show. I now have a direct line into the Diamondbacks that I can call for ticket stuff. I can definitely see this as a jumping off point to all kinds of things. It started my mind racing as I thought about additional features and functions that could be added to this service.

I am not much of a football fan. Even when the NFL is in the midst of the post-season I can’t get too excited about it. It’s hard to be enthusiastic about a league whose season only lasts 17 weeks and teams are only required to play once a week and even then they need a week off. Today is the pinnacle of football as it is Super Bowl Sunday. This game has become a spectacle and a huge media type. The pre-game show starts several hours before the game and as viewers we are shown clips from eons ago that have little or no bearing on the game of the day. We are enlightened not only with a player’s life story but also the life story of friends and family members. During one segment we heard from important people in the life of one of the players playing in Super Bowl XLI who had the game dedicated to them by the player. For most of these it was a parent or special family member. I give Marvin Harrison some credit as his special person was his high school geometry teacher. I’ve never heard of anyone dedicating anything to a high school geometry teacher so that was pretty original. I decided at that point that if I am ever arrested and interviewed on television as I am led away in handcuffs I am going to dedicate that moment to my high school geometry teacher. So like countless others, I sat there on my couch waiting for the Super Bowl and more importantly the Super Bowl commercials to begin.

Quite regularly Trina and I meet people and begin talking to them. Through these conversations we get to know each other. Somewhere along the line the subject of baseball comes up (I know real shocking). As we start to talk about baseball the subject of the Arizona Diamondbacks comes up (I know, again real shocking). At this point things get kind of animated as I start to describe the upcoming season or reminisce about previous seasons. Soon they have typecast me as some kind of fanatic which as near as I can tell is a word derivative of “fan” and “addict”. Trina has also used that term to describe me but she normally leaves the “fan” word out of her description. The next thing that usually comes out of people’s mouths is, “have you ever seen the movie Fever Pitch?” Now I don’t get that. How can we be having a perfectly normal conversation about the national pastime and then make some quantum leap to whether I had ever seen a movie that came out in 2004 with a limited box office return. Where did that come from? For the longest time I had no idea what the movie was even about though from the title I guessed it had something to do with baseball. Finally a year ago my kids bought that movie for me to watch while I was recovering from shoulder surgery. I watched it but still didn’t quite get why people kept asking me if I had seen the movie.

Groundhog Day is an interesting tradition. I’ve never quite understood where we got the notion that a furry rodent was capable of climate prognostication. I consider myself to have a fairly vivid imagination but even I could not come up with a story believable enough to get people to buy into a chubby hibernating woodchuck telling them when winter is over. But here we are celebrating a holiday with just such a premise. You just gotta love this country. Growing up in Idaho I looked forward to Groundhog Day and prayed that the little rascal would not see his shadow and spring would be here. In Idaho winter seems to last an eternity. I once attended an Independence Day parade where it snowed so warm weather and seeing grass was something that was high on my importance list. Since moving to Arizona, Groundhog Day has become less important in my life. Normally the difference between winter and spring is about 9 degrees in temperature. The concept of Groundhog Day was still intriguing and I wondered what would happen if we happened to change the event to predict baseball instead of weather.

I received a very nice email yesterday from the guys over at AZ SportsHub. They have just launched a new web site and asked for feedback. I’m always looking for Diamondbacks news and as a fellow Arizona sports aficionado I just had to go take a look. The site is very professional and has a great feel. The fact that they included my blog in their AZ Blogs section was also a pleasant surprise. [Note to self: Send Matt a new cool graphic icon for Diary Diehard along with a note of thanks.] As I was perusing the site, I was intrigued by an entry posted on January 23 discussing the Diamondbacks potentially hosting an All-Star game in 2011. The post was based on a story in the East Valley Tribune newspaper. As many of you know, I have fairly strong feelings about baseball snubbing the Diamondbacks and I have chronicled my frustration that Commissioner Selig for whatever reason does not want to award Arizona with an all-star game. Over the course of the past 8 years teams with new stadiums were given the midsummer classic to showcase the new facility. Sure Selig talks a great game telling fans and media how he would love to have Phoenix host an all-star game. After all, he lives here part of the time so it would be perfect. After that sound bite he awards the game to yet another city. So this story in the Tribune intrigued me.