Diary of a Diehard

My home stand is quickly coming to a close. In just three more days I will be away for 6 games before returning home for 3 followed by 7 away. At least that is how Trina and the kids refer to it. If the Diamondbacks are away then dad is at home. If the Diamondbacks are at home then dad is away. It feels great to know that Major League Baseball has defined my life so well for 182 days of the year. The one problem is that things tend to get a little backed-up at home so during my home stands I have even less time than I do when I am away. This is especially true early in the season since we haven’t settled into our baseball routine. At times things don’t go smoothly and Trina wants to make changes to the line-up or the rules of the game. I have to remind her that baseball season is a marathon. You can’t panic when things don’t go as planned. You have to keep an even keel and try not to panic. You just have to take it one game at a time and the good Lord willing you can help the team. (She hates it when I start quoting from Bull Durham.) During this home stand I had computer work that needed to be done (For the record I hate Microsoft just about as much as I hate the Designated Hitter and that’s a lot!) I also wanted to get working on Seat Cushions 2.0 so that I didn’t have to be embarrassed about sitting on purple and teal.

Continue reading ‘We Don’t Need No Stinking Patches’ »

A week from today will be Dakota’s tenth birthday. In case I happen to forget that fact he makes it a point to remind me every day. When he first reminded Trina and I of that fact we asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday this year. He had this incredulous look on his face as he stated matter-of-factly “Well I am going to the Diamondbacks game of course.” I had never been more proud of the boy than I was at that moment. There was never any doubt in his mind that the most appropriate place to spend a birthday (or any day for that matter) is at Chase Field cheering on the Arizona Diamondbacks. If I taught my children nothing else I can at least die knowing that I was successful as a parent to instill the proper priority in my kids’ lives. Trina merely shook her head and muttered something about father, son, warped, and hair piece. No wait it wasn’t hair piece it was therapy. I’ve noticed that Trina develops an annoying habit of muttering and mumbling. I think it is an allergy since it seems to get worse starting in April and then gets better somewhere around the end of September though from 1999-2002 the mumbling went into October.

Continue reading ‘Party Planning’ »

At the conclusion of the 2006 regular season the Arizona Diamondbacks began to make plans for the next year. This would not be a normal year where there would be a few tweaks to an already established product. No this would be almost a rebirth as the team attempts to redefine itself through new ownership, new colors, new players, and hopefully a new direction in the standings. We began to see the changes on November 8 when the team unveiled their new logos and colors at the Valley Ho resort. As Spring Training arrived we saw more and more changes become visible furthering the transformation. At the beginning of April we saw another change this one to the publications that the Arizona Diamondbacks produce for their fans. Gone is the old Diamondbacks Magazine and in its place is the new D-backs Insider magazine. This publication is designed to give the fans a look within the organization and its players. As a season ticket holder I receive a free subscription to this magazine but would gladly pay for it as it usually has great stories that you can’t find anywhere else.

Continue reading ‘D-backs Insider’ »

The first home stand of the 2007 season is now behind us. Over the past 8 games we have been given a brief glimpse of the latest version of the Arizona Diamondbacks and many of us have begun to develop a conclusion of how this team and this season will go.

I’ve decided to provide a home stand by home stand synopsis basically providing my own person state of the union address when it comes to Chase Field and the season in general.

I should probably begin this by providing some sort of warning/disclaimer stating that the viewpoints expressed in this blog entry are my own warped sense of reality and do not reflect the views of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Major League Baseball, or any other normal human being.

Any coherent thoughts either real or fictional are purely coincidental and are not meant to be taken internally. Should this happen, induce vomiting and contact medical professionals. Without further adieu I give you my thoughts on Arizona Diamondbacks 2007.

Continue reading ‘State of the Home Stand Address – April 9 – 17’ »

Tonight marked the merciful end to a brutal two game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers. If these two games are any indication of the level of intensity within the National League Western Division, this is going to be a knock-down drag out fight to the end.

Not just on the field either as Dodger fans and Diamondbacks fans began brawling in the right field stands during the game. From my count it took 7 security guards to break up the ruckus and restore peace in the outfield.

While the Diamondbacks came out on the short end of the score for both games, there were bright spots that kept a glimmer of hope alive. Over the course of a 162 game schedule it is hard sometimes to stay at an even keel.

It is so easy to attempt to draw patterns and make assumptions based on a single game or a single series. Diamondbacks history has shown though that would be a bad idea. In 1999, the first year the Diamondbacks reached the post season the team was 5-7 through April 17. During the world championship 2001 season the team was 6-8 through April 17 thanks to a 2 game winning streak on April 16 and 17.

In both those cases the team heated up like a Phoenix summer. Hopefully history will repeat itself in 2007. As I alluded to yesterday, the game was only have the story for this series. To a lot of fans Luis Gonzalez coming back to Phoenix was the real story. Now that both games are in the books I have had a little time to contemplate what this 2-day event meant.

Continue reading ‘Dodger Blues’ »

On October 1, 2006 the Arizona Diamondbacks said farewell to two of the most charismatic and loyal players: Luis Gonzalez and Craig Counsell. The parting of ways was not the most amicable especially in the case of Gonzalez. Gonzo had played in Arizona for the Diamondbacks since 1999 and had become the face of the franchise for both his on-field performance and his off-field persona. It was an emotional good-bye for both players and fans. The Diamondbacks painted a number 20 in left field and a number 4 behind second base. Fans came in droves to the last game of the season to wish Gonzalez the best and to thank him for everything that he had done for the team and for the community. Gonzalez wanted to remain a Diamondback and was willing to accept a lesser role with the team to stay in Arizona. The team had no interest in picking up Gonzo’s option for 2007 nor were they willing to discuss Luis coming back as a bench or part-time player. The team was opting to give their young prospects an opportunity to make their mark in the major leagues. It was merely an added benefit that the team would save money going young at this juncture. So in the end it became a business decision to part ways with the most recognizable person in Diamondbacks history. Gonzalez was not prepared to retire and wanted to play a couple of more years. Since his team did not want him, Gonzo wanted to sign a free agent contract with a National League team preferably one in the Western Division so that he could play the Diamondbacks regularly and hopefully show them that they made a mistake by passing up on his services. In the off-season Luis Gonzalez signed a contract to play with divisional rival Los Angeles. Tonight’s game marks the first meeting of the 2007 season between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks. A mere half game separates these two teams in the standings with the Diamondbacks in first place and the Dodgers right behind them as if this game needed any more drama.

Continue reading ‘Return of a Hero?’ »

In the movie Back to the Future it seems that November 5, 1955 is the center of the time space continuum. All events future and past all seem to be connected by that one day. It started innocently enough when Doc Brown was describing to Marty McFly how the DeLoren time machine works. That tutorial was cut short when Libyans arrived at the Twin Pines Mall seeking vengeance against Doc Brown for stealing their plutonium. This sequence always made me wonder whether a simple somewhat trivial event in my life could somehow become the defining moment in the timeline of the universe. Based upon the events of today, I am wondering if April 14, 2007 may just be that day.

Continue reading ‘It’s What Makes Time Travel Possible’ »

There are days when you just have to wonder whether God has some sort of perverted sense of humor. There is just no other explanation in my mind. How else can you explain the series of events that I had to endure at tonight’s baseball game? Ever since the 2007 regular schedule had been released I had been looking forward to today’s game. It was the first of six bobble head giveaway nights. This one would commemorate Brandon Webb receiving the 2007 Cy Young award. Bobble head nights are big at our house. I have a full collection of all the bobble heads that the Diamondbacks have given away since their inception. They are lined across the top of my desk and stand guard over my computer. There is nothing quite as comforting as knowing that you are being protected by little guys with springs in their heads that move at the slightest amount of movement. In the early years bobble head games were a huge affair to the Diamondbacks and people would begin lining up at 7 AM waiting for the gates to open at 4:30 PM. Many a day have I spent in the glaring sun of then Bank One Ballpark hoping to be counted among the first 20,000 to arrive to collect a bobble head. Those days have been replaced with a more civilized version with lines forming only an hour before gates open relieving a lot of stress and anxiety of wondering whether you would get one of these prized giveaways. Bobble head days are one of the few games where Whitney actually doesn’t mind going to the game which is good since she is the only one capable of going to today’s game due to scheduling conflicts. Given all of the excitement and anticipation of bobble head day you would think nothing could damper my spirits. That is where you are sorely mistaken. This was like the worst flipping day of my whole life.

Continue reading ‘It’s Like My Worst Freaking Nightmare’ »

Paraskevidekatriaphobia, even the word sends chills down my spine. When the baseball schedule is released every year I go through it with a fine tooth comb looking at potential match-ups, length of home stands, comparing gameday giveaways, and in general planning out my summer. After the first five or six reviews of the schedule I finally get down to marking out the calendar so that Trina and the kids know when I will be at home and when I will be at HOME (Chase Field). It was during this last review that I suddenly realized that the Arizona Diamondbacks would be playing on April 13 which is a Friday. Friday the thirteenth? Was this some kind of joke? Who in their right minds would schedule a baseball team to play on one of the most unlucky days of the year? This had to be some kind of mistake didn’t it? This is the kind of thing that can cause you to lose an entire season. What was even more inexplicable was the fact that the Diamondbacks would have an off-day on Thursday April 12 as did their Friday opponent the Colorado Rockies. Why in the world didn’t the scheduling geniuses at Major League Baseball just move the game ahead one day to the twelfth and then give the team the day off today eliminating any potentially devastating disasters? I guess for the same reason that they scheduled home games in the middle of winter storms in Chicago, Cleveland, and New York.

Continue reading ‘Oh No, Friday the Thirteenth’ »