October 13, 2009
When the Arizona Diamondbacks traded Jon Garland to the Los Angeles Dodgers the deal was for the proverbial “player to be named later”. Within hours of the announced deal there were rumors that the Diamondbacks would receive infielder Tony Abreu. This would potentially fulfill the Diamondbacks need for a second baseman.
Abreu is a highly touted 25 year-old second baseman that has had a lot of success at the minor league level similar to some of the other Diamondbacks young core players such as Chris Young, Chris Snyder, and Gerardo Parra.
Continue reading ‘It Must Be Later Because the Player Was Named’ »
October 12, 2009
Arizona Diamondbacks’ seat relocation is an awful lot like the water-powered torture machine built by Count Rugen in the movie The Princess Bride. That machine was built to rob men of years of their life. It came with a lever that would allow the torturer to select how many years they wanted to take away from their victim.
The torture machine utilized by the Diamondbacks for seat relocation is powered by the calendar. Season ticket holders are strapped into the device when they begin filling out the forms notifying the team that they would like to change seat locations. On the surface the forms look relatively painless but as you begin to delve into them in more detail they become diabolical in nature.
Continue reading ‘Facing Torture in the Pit of Despair’ »
October 11, 2009
It has been a week since the Arizona Diamondbacks played their final game of the 2009 season and it has been two weeks since the last game of the year at Chase Field. During that time I have come to grips with the fact that there are still 175 days 16 hours and 2 minutes until Opening Day 2010.
The first three weeks of the off-season are always the hardest. This is a time when the playoffs are going on which is a constant reminder that we are not in the post season. The National League Divisional Series is the hardest since two teams from the NL West that are not the Diamondbacks are involved.
Continue reading ‘Security! Security!’ »
October 10, 2009
I am often asked, “Why do you buy season tickets to the Arizona Diamondbacks?” That usually results in me staring at the person asking with the same incredulous look that I gave the guy who asked me why I thought it necessary to constantly breathe. I am not suggesting that baseball tickets are as necessary as breathing, baseball tickets are much more important that that.
I’ve briefly considered having a bumper sticker created that simply states, “You can have my Diamondbacks tickets when you pry them from my cold dead fingers”. That’s not necessarily a true statement though. I plan to disprove the myth that you can’t take them with you. After all, what kind of God would He be if He didn’t let you go to a game even if you are dead? If heaven really is paradise then it will have Major League Baseball. And after living through the 2004 and 2009 Arizona Diamondbacks seasons I can’t imagine hell would be much worse.
Continue reading ‘An Unexpected Bonus’ »
October 9, 2009
I will be the first to admit that I have been rather critical of the new ownership of the Arizona Diamondbacks. The way the team changed leadership was an area that I was less than comfortable with. I have met with Jerry Colangelo and his team on occasion during the early years of the Arizona Diamondbacks and had a lot of admiration for how they conducted their business.
I liked the competitive nature that Colangelo brought to the Diamondbacks and to a certain extent I stood behind his decisions in 1999 to change the plan and build a team of veterans that could make a run at the play-offs and ultimately a World Championship.
Continue reading ‘The Fan – Owner Partnership’ »
October 8, 2009
A day after the Arizona Diamondbacks parted ways with two of their coaches, General Manager Josh Byrnes and manager AJ Hinch met with the media at Chase Field. While the press conference did not unveil anything earth shattering, it was interesting to hear what areas the team will focus on during this off-season.
The underlying theme of the press conference was clearly that the front office was not accepting any excuses for the poor play that doomed the Diamondbacks to the National League Western Division cellar.
Continue reading ‘Is There a Leak in the Diamondbacks Think Tank?’ »
October 7, 2009
Nearly everyone has heard the baseball cliché, “the season is a marathon” that is used to describe the way teams approach a season. It is usually called out to try and talk the fans or the media off the ledge when a team is not living up to expectations. I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard that phrase used in connection with the 2009 Arizona Diamondbacks. I would have enough money to renew my season tickets for free.
Normally I don’t stop and ponder that quote, it is like the boy who cried wolf. You just get so used to hearing it you begin to tune it out much like my wife tunes me out when I begin discussing the needs for upgrading our Diamondbacks tickets to a better location.
Continue reading ‘My Thoughts on the Post Season’ »
October 6, 2009
With the smell of jet fuel still lingering from their trip back from Chicago, Arizona Diamondbacks manager AJ Hinch had already set in motion his plans for next season. Shortly after returning on Sunday night Hinch met with third base coach Chip Hale and first base coach Lorenzo Bundy. Each coach was told he would not be returning for the 2010 season. And so began the rebuilding project that will ultimately become the Arizona Diamondbacks.
When Hinch took the job on May 7 he inherited a coaching staff from Bob Melvin with the exception of pitching coach and hitting coach. Given the way the Arizona Diamondbacks played this season it was probably inevitable that there would be additional changes to the coaching staff. After all, it is easier and cheaper to change coaches than it is to change players.
Continue reading ‘The Only Constant is Change’ »
October 5, 2009
Yesterday did not just mark the end of the 2009 Major League Baseball season, it also marked the end of being able to accumulate points on your Fry’s D-Backs Rewards card. For the past three years the Arizona Diamondbacks have teamed up with Fry’s grocery store chain for their fan loyalty program. For those of you unfamiliar with the program let me give you a little background.
Fry’s, a Kroeger branded grocery chain, has a value card that if used when buying groceries at one of their stores, the shopper is given a break on the price of some items. In many cases the items are store-branded merchandise that they are hoping consumers will try. My wife is a firm believer in these shopper cards and she has a full deck of frequent shopper cards from all of the food stores in the area.
Continue reading ‘D-Backs Rewards Redemption’ »
