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.
I am sure that at some point Derrick Hall is probably sitting there with a pad of paper noting which attendees are completely out in left field. I am also pretty sure that my user ID is meteorically rising to the top of that list of potential team stalkers. I am not purposefully trying to be a nuisance; I am just really interested in the team and baseball in general. I try to come prepared to these meetings and sit down the morning of the chat to jot down questions I may have. This list is usually over a page in length so I spend the next little while prioritizing the questions and coming up with my top 9. The chat room usually opens up about 15 minutes before the actual event begins so I will submit all of my questions and then sit back and try to assess how pertinent my inquiries were compared to others online. It also becomes a game with me to try and guess how many of my questions will actually be answered. Some of the questions are what I would call softball toss. By that I mean these are easy feel good questions that can be answered to bring the chat back into a positive light. I started including at least one of these questions after the November chat when the fans kind of went crazy about the color change. This month’s fluff question was “which of the 4 new jerseys is selling the best.” I was pretty sure that question would get answered. I wasn’t sure how many others that I asked would make the cut. It was a good month, two of my nine made the cut and two others were asked by someone else so I basically hit .444 which would put me in the fan Hall of Fame if that we a lifetime average.
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