Just a guy from Section 132 Row 9 Seat 9
There are two questions that consistently come up whenever I am attending an Arizona Diamondbacks game at Chase Field. What are the Diamondbacks doing to fix the broken bullpen? Why is the Diamondbacks mascot a bobcat?
The first question I have no answer and based upon the moves the Diamondbacks have made so far this season neither do they. As for the second question, I have a lot of answers to that.
Through the years some of the most popular stadium giveaways at Chase Field have been the bobble head dolls. In the early days people were so obsessed with player bobble heads, they would camp out waiting for the gates to open to make sure they were among the lucky few to receive one.
I know this for a fact because I was one of those insane fans who did the camping out. It would usually start eight to ten hours before the gates were to open. We would make our way down to Chase Field and set up an umbrella and chairs to wait.
When Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Miguel Montero went down with a knee injury that required surgery, it was not only a blow to the beleaguered offense but also a loss in the clubhouse. In his short time with the Diamondbacks Montero has quickly become a leader on the team.
Maybe it’s the fact that I grew up watching the Chicago Cubs or that I am from a generation when day baseball was something more than a novelty kept alive to facilitate cross-country flights. No matter what the reason, there is something special about skipping out of the office on a sunny summer day to go to the ballpark for a game.
With the bright blue cloudless sky overhead I can even forget that my team is 12 games under .500 and mired in a slump that has lasted the better parts of three season. It just doesn’t seem to matter, I am still on my way to a ballgame.
Continue reading ‘Afternoon Delight – Day Baseball at Chase Field’ »
The MLB first-year amateur concluded today for the Arizona Diamondbacks. During the three day draft, the Diamondbacks hoped to reload a depleted farm system. In the 2009 draft the team focused on position players restocking the lower levels of the system with hitting prospects that should pay dividends for the team.
Tonight was a milestone in Arizona Diamondbacks history and it went by relatively unnoticed. When Diamondbacks pitcher Edwin Jackson threw a first pitch fastball to Omar Infante for a ball, it marked the beginning of the 1000th home game in franchise history.
The team who began play on March 31, 1998 had now played the equivalent of a millennium of games at a combination of Bank One Ballpark and Chase Field. The accomplishment was very low key for the organization.
Less than two weeks ago the Arizona Diamondbacks announced a post-game concert with Hall & Oates to be held during the Independence Day home stand. It would be the beginning of a three game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers which was being termed the “All-American Celebration”. Today the Diamondbacks issued a statement that the concert had been canceled.
Continue reading ‘Hall & Oates Cancel Diamondbacks Concert’ »
On the eve of the Major League Baseball Amateur First-Year Draft, I began looking over past drafts to see how well the Diamondbacks had fared with their picks. I was especially interested in the 2009 draft where the Diamondbacks had seven picks in the first two rounds.
When the Colorado Rockies began play in 1993, trips to Mile High Stadium and later to Coors Field were met with equal parts dread and fear by opposing pitching staffs. Baseballs seemed to leap off the bats of hitters flying further than any other stadium in Major League Baseball.
The barrage of long fly balls and home runs were blamed on the thin air at altitude. Pitching statistics became skewed as the ballparks in Denver played completely different than anywhere else in baseball.
