So how exactly does a diehard fan spend the baseball equivalent of Christmas morning?
12:00 AM - It is officially Opening Day. I am pacing the floor watching the clock. It is only 11 hours and 10 minutes until first pitch is scheduled to be thrown at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati Ohio.
12:20 AM - Check US Airways to see if there are any flights from Phoenix Arizona to Cincinnati Ohio that would arrive before first pitch is thrown.
12:40 AM - Go upstairs and wake Trina up to verify that she was serious when she said I could not go to Opening Day in Cincinnati Ohio.
12:55 AM - Go downstairs with my pillow and a Diamondbacks blanket after being banished from the bedroom for waking Trina up to ask her again if I could go to Opening Day in Cincinnati Ohio.
1:30 AM - Go to Expedia.com to see if there are any last minute deals on airfare and lodging in Cincinnati Ohio
1:55 AM - Briefly considered going upstairs to tell Trina I might have found a good deal on airfare to Ohio but then decided that might be bad since I am not sure where I would be banished after the couch.
After last night's game the Arizona Diamondbacks began packing up for their first road trip of the 2008 season. Tomorrow is Opening Day for the snakes as they visit Cincinnati Ohio to face the Reds in a three game series. For months I have tried to find a reason to go to Cincinnati so that I could just happen to attend a baseball game too. But oddly enough I could find absolutely nothing that I could justify going to that city for. That's not necessarily a slam on Cincinnati Ohio, I am sure it is a very nice place. It's just that other than baseball I can't find anything to do in that town. And since Trina seems to believe that 81 regular season games and 2 Spring Training games at Chase Field is quite enough baseball that means I'll be sitting out this road trip. That means I am going to need to find another way to follow the Diamondbacks at least for the first six games of the season.
Yesterday was an emotional rollercoaster ride at Chase Field. While exciting to finally be back "home" enjoying my first game in Section 112 it was also filled with disappointment and in some cases fear as news continued to come out about Doug Davis and his impending battle with thyroid cancer. But while there seemed to be a darkening cloud on the horizon of last night's game today seemed quite the opposite. That doesn't mean there were not a few challenges. For example, today in downtown Phoenix not only are the Diamondbacks playing at Chase Field but there is also a home show across the street at the Phoenix Civic Plaza. That alone would not cause a problem with traffic but there was one other small event going on. At US Airways center the NCAA was holding an Elite 8 basketball game to determine who would be going to the Final 4. The game featured the UCLA Bruins versus the Xavier Bulldogs.
Today is a day I have been looking forward to for a very long time. After what seemed like forever there is once again baseball at Chase Field. Today marks the first of two Spring Training games that will be held at Chase. These are usually a lot of fun and give the fans and the team an opportunity to a tune up to get ready for when baseball counts and the regular season begins. With the gates beginning to open you would think this would be the perfect day but that is not necessarily the case. When I was a kid my brother and I used to play this game called Good News and Bad News. It went sort of like this. "Hey, I got good news. You don't have to go to school today!" My brother would reply, "Wow that really is good news!" Then I would respond with something like, "Yeah but I have some bad news, you have to go to the dentist." At that point he would get all bummed out. It was fun messing with his head that way. Well today's Diamondbacks game brought back memories of that goofy kid's game that went something like this.
Within the last week Major League Baseball modified their web site to give it an updated look and feel. I have not been a big fan of their site for quite some time but it was a necessary evil considering that is where most of the official baseball news is reported you had to go there. I immediately liked the new layout as it seemed like things were more logically placed (at least they were more logical to me; your mileage may vary). I did question why they would allow you to select your favorite team under the Headlines section and display the first three stories from the team web site. This seems counterproductive to the idea of driving visitors to the team web sites. Considering that MLB now controls all of the web sites for the various teams this doesn't make a lot of sense. Still, it looks more content driven and less advertising driven than the previous incarnation which is a very good thing. And since as I said MLB controls the team web sites I was anticipating that the Diamondbacks web site would soon follow suit with a new look and feel that would mimic that of MLB.com
In Spring Training 1999 the Arizona Diamondbacks had just finished their inaugural season and had been very active in the free agent market. They had signed or traded for several big name players including such notables as Greg, Colbrunn, Luis Gonzalez, Steve Finley, Tony Womack, Todd Stottlemyre, and of course Randy Johnson. The team had immediately gone from an expansion franchise to a play-off contender. There was a lot of excitement surrounding this club as fans began to wonder how good these players and this team could be. And while there was a lot of buzz around baseball around the Diamondbacks and their major league team they were also garnering press about some of their minor league players.
For the past 24 hours sports fans around the country have been frantically searching the Internet for any tidbit of information that would give them an edge in selecting their NCAA basketball picks. Yes ladies and gentlemen we have now officially entered what is lovingly referred to as March Madness. It is that one time of year when suddenly everyone is a college basketball expert. And what better way to show this new found expertise than to successfully predict who will come out victorious and be crowned as college basketball's champion. For the past week my email inbox has been flooded with invitations to join this site or that site and pick the winners. The prizes are plentiful and impressive. One site is offering $1 million to anyone who can successfully predict every winner in the tournament. Another site offers an opportunity for the winner to drive away in a brand new car. The most fascinating offer came from a farmer who had his own tournament selection contest and offered his pig to the winner. I know there is nothing that says "I know basketball" quite like winning a pig. After reading that offer I began to imagine what life would be like should I win. Placing an official NCAA collar around my pig's neck I would proudly walk down the street where everyone would stop and point. I could even hear their whispers, "hey look at that! I bet that is that basketball genius guy who won the pig! That is some pig!" At that point all that I would really be lacking is a talking spider who could spell things using spider webs and I would have all the raw materials necessary for a great children's book and a really pathetic movie. Really there is only one thing stopping this fantasy from becoming a reality.
After years of therapy I still have not quite gotten over the fact that many of my teenage formidable years were spent in the 1970's when Disco roamed the earth. Music was not necessarily a big thing in my life. Much of that is probably due to the fact that I lived in Idaho which is not necessarily the music capital of the world. The fact of the matter was that we lived in the second largest city in the state of Idaho and it was serviced by 3 FMradio stations; all of them classic country music meaning rarely did you hear a country song dating past the 1960's. It was unbearable. For the first few times driving after I got my driver's license I would take my car to the mechanic for repair because the radio was making horrific sounds. They could not find anything wrong with the radio and finally the mechanic solved the problem. "Son your radio is not broken. That noise you are hearing is country music." Well you could have fooled me, when that "music" played the radio sounded busted. I remember when I was a sophomore in high school and one of the three radio stations decided to switch formats and play Top-40. There was dancing in the streets and scenes reminiscent of V-J Day that ended the second World War. There was of course a caveat. The station only played Top-40 during daylight hours. As soon as the sun went down they went back to country music. It was like a bad vampire movie. Kids rushed to their cars and stereos as the last rays of light faded for the day to turn them off before the shrieking sounds of cow-tipping, booze-drinking, woman-cheating, dog-killing cowboy tunes filled the airways. You would have thought that all would be good now that we finally had a Top-40 radio station even if it was just part time but that wasn't the case.
There are certain subjects that are just too painful for a Diamondbacks fan to write about. There is the 2004 season when the Diamondbacks were bitten by the curse of Richie Sexson and the subsequent 111-losses that year. There is the four game sweep by the "great Troy Tulowitzki" and the hated Colorado Rockies in last year's 2007 National League Championship Series. And then there is the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Los Angeles thing takes a little bit of explaining and even I don't fully understand it completely. It's not so much a Diamondbacks versus Dodgers thing as it is a Phoenix versus Los Angeles thing.
I'm not Irish. I've never been Irish and it's a pretty safe bet that I will never be Irish. And considering I grew up in Idaho, I am probably not the most knowledgeable guy on the planet when it comes to St. Patrick's Day. About all I really know of the holiday is that if you don't wear green you get pinched a lot as a kid. After getting married Trina and I began a family of our own. Having kids is a great responsibility and one that I take very seriously. Well as seriously as I take anything with according to Trina's assessment is that I don't take anything seriously. There are some things that I do hold in high regards. The Diamondbacks for example, I take them very seriously. Ok, that is about the only thing that I can think of that I do take seriously but hey that is something isn't it?
It's funny, Spring Training baseball games have been going for a little more than two weeks and Opening Day is still over two weeks away and yet a day does not go by that I don't get asked the question, "What is wrong with the Diamondbacks?" Oh what a difference a year makes. Last season everyone was wondering how many games below .500 the Diamondbacks would be at season's end and whether the team would miss former fan-favorite Luis Gonzalez. The team was in the midst of a full-blown youth movement and expectations were relatively low. But after the Diamondbacks shocked the baseball world by accumulating the best record in the National League and making it as far as the NLCS; all eyes are on the Diamondbacks every move. That being said, the concern is just a touch premature.
Some things just seem to go together: Sedona and Red, boys and girls, peanut butter and chocolate (hey I've seen the Reeses Peanut Butter cup commercials), Spring Break and baseball. Oh sure that last one might be questionable to some especially if you have ever watched MTV. According to that "network" Spring Break is made up of equal parts college students, alcohol, and bikinis. I have yet to figure out where all those wild Spring Break parties are actually located. Even when I was in college I never could find the people that are portrayed in all those Spring Break movies. The crowds I saw more resembled Revenge of the Nerds than Malibu Spring Break. And yet the stereotype of drunk young adults in clothing optional scenarios seems to proliferate every year. So if kids aren't spending Spring Break drunk or passed out waking up trying to remember where they left their clothes then where are they going and what are they doing?
When the Arizona Diamondbacks traded for Randy Johnson in January 2007 everyone wondered what they were thinking. Here was a pitcher who had health issues and questionable success while in New York and was characterized as a surly personality that was not a good clubhouse presence. I happened to be in the minority on that. I felt like Randy had reached a point in his career that he valued family and would be very beneficial in the clubhouse offering to help some of the young players as they began their big league careers. Whenever I mentioned my opinion it was usually met with skepticism and laughter. I felt somewhat vindicated when Randy found success after starting the season on the disabled list. That triumph was short lived when Johnson's season ended with another surgery to repair his ailing back.
March 9, 1995 was a big day. Some would say it was a life changing day. Ok nobody would say it was a life changing day except maybe me. We can probably all agree that is was a good day or at least an interesting day. While many will celebrate March 31 as the day the Arizona Diamondbacks were born in 1998 it was actually March 9, 1995 that saw the birth of a baseball franchise. At the owners meetings in Florida the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays were introduced as the newest franchises in Major League Baseball. This was a huge story in Arizona and even more so in our house.
It's funny how your perception of age changes as you get older. I remember as a kid I thought anyone who was in their 20's had reached middle age. My parents were ancient when they were in their 30's. As a kid I remember asking my grandparents what it was like to live without electricity and indoor plumbing because they were so old when in their 50's. Now as I have a birthday coming up in the next few days I am constantly reminded of how old I am getting. My son firmly believes that I was first mate on the ark with Noah and more than once he has asked me which of the animals were hardest to take care of while we were stuck on that boat. Trying to correct him has become pointless as he will never believe his dad isn't that old. Now when he brings that subject up I just politely remind him that I am younger than his mom so if I'm that old just think how ancient she is. Trina of course finds very little humor in any of this and makes a conscious effort to remind the kids that while dad is technically correct, the age difference is only three months. Hey, three months is three month and I need any advantage I can get.
I have a love/hate relationship with DirecTV. Maybe hate is too strong a word. I don't hate DirecTV in the sense that I do the "great Troy Tulowitzki" my winner for attitude rookie of the year. It is more of a "I can't stand being bullied about by a media conglomerate" displeasure. I've been a satellite user for 25 years. Wow, that sounds so dirty when I say it that way. My love affair with satellite programming began while I was in college. In order to help support myself in school I installed satellite dish equipment. At that time the dishes were between 8 and 10 feet in diameter and had to be moved with a crank by hand. There was no such thing as paid programming and encryption had not even been considered. Not only did you get standard programming on a satellite dish but you also got to see what happens during the commercial breaks when the camera is not live. That is of course good and bad. (No one should ever be exposed to Dan Rather picking his nose.) As technology has evolved my viewing habits have changed to follow suit.
I completely understand the Arizona Diamondbacks thinking when it came to establishing their Spring Training base. Tucson seemed very logical. First it would be the home to their Triple-A Affiliate the Tucson Sidewinders. Second it would allow them the opportunity to extend their fan base to be expanded to a more state-wide basis than it would be if they were based in the Phoenix valley. Third, it does allow the anticipation to build towards the regular season. While I would have no problem seeing the Diamondbacks every day during Spring Training and continuing the excitement throughout the regular season; I am not a typical fan (and so I have been told on numerous occasions).
Today the Arizona Diamondbacks face their National League Western Division nemesis the Colorado Rockies. This is the second time these two teams will have met this spring. The first game was February 28 and ended in a 5-5 tie which is kind of like taking your sister to the prom and giving her a good-night kiss. You had fun at the dance but it ended kind of creepy and will undoubtedly become a subject of conversation with your therapist. The starting pitcher for today's contest is right-hander Micah Owings. This is Owings second start of the spring having started the game against Colorado earlier. During that contest he faced 10 batters in 2 innings allowing 2 runs on 2 hits with 2 walks and 2 strike-outs. If he keeps that up Micah is going to get a new nickname as people start calling him the "Deuce Coupe". With Micah Owings his pitching is only part of the story.
One of the nuances of Spring Training is the concept of Split Squad contests. For those who have never been to Spring Training this term may not be completely familiar. Split squad allows a team to divide and play two games in a single day. This gives player development personnel an opportunity to view players in a game situation. It also gives more players an opportunity to impress the coaches. The Diamondbacks typically have three or four split squad games every spring. The first split squad is normally scheduled during the first week of Spring Training. The final split squad game is normally just before the team breaks camp to begin the regular season. The value of the first split squad game is to allow the team to assess which players should be assigned to minor league camp. It also gives the regulars a chance to limit their work this soon into the beginning of Spring Training which will hopefully keep them healthy.
