Diary of a Diehard

With Spring Training now nearly half over, teams are slowing starting to make personnel decisions that affect the players. Those going to be on the Major League roster will start to need more playing time as they build stamina towards Opening Day. The extended playing time for starters means less time for others. All of the players in camp have skills and will be playing the season at some level so they too will need extended playing time. For this reason, teams will begin reassigning players to their minor league camps so that they can work with their starters to build the stamina necessary to be prepared. The Arizona Diamondbacks began making these decisions today when they sent nine players to their minor league facilities. One of those reassigned was 2005 first round draft pick and first overall pick Justin Upton. Upton is a 19 year-old kid just one year removed from worrying about who to take to the homecoming dance or whether his parents would let him take the car out for his date. No one should have expected that Justin Upton would come into Spring Training before starting his second year of professional baseball and crack the 25-man roster. Well no one except Justin Upton.

Continue reading ‘The Future Moves On’ »

It was just four short days ago that I had ventured out of the friendly confines of diamondbacks.com and went to the darks side to the purple of coloradorockies.com. I have to admit, I miss the purple. The Rockies web site had no teal but they did have purple. It wasn’t the friendly “come sit by the pool we have in right field” purple the Diamondbacks used. It is more of a “we are a mile high and freezing cold and we rule because we are now the only team with purple” shade. Anyway, four days ago I went over to see about tickets to Opening Day against the Diamondbacks and found two tickets that were just begging to be bought. Today I went down to get the mail and found an envelope from the Rockies containing the two tickets I had purchased. I was so excited about it that I completely forgot that I hadn’t told Trina that I really was going to Opening Day in Colorado during the time that her family was coming to visit. Well that would be a dilemma for most married men but not me. Nope, I am so oblivious to what a normal husband would do that I’ll just continue on in my naive state thinking Trina will just understand. I mean seriously, wouldn’t we all be better off keeping me away from her family? I’m kind of like Drain-o. A little bit will remove clogs and get your pipes moving but if you poor a whole bottle of me down your sink I could destroy your pipes requiring massive amounts of plumbing expense and a visit from a really fat guy that has pants that are too small and doesn’t own a belt. I have no idea what that analogy means and quite frankly the thoughts of butt crack turn my stomach so I am not going to try and analyze what was meant by my statement. I think you get the point though that putting me in a room with in-laws for several days is a recipe for something explosive. Yeah I think it would be wise for me to be out of town if for no other reason than to try and save my marriage. Trina will buy that story won’t she?

Continue reading ‘Have Tickets Will Travel’ »

While updating my Now Hitting web site I realized that I have somehow misplaced the results of the Diamondbacks 1998 Spring Training games. I have the schedule and I have the score cards from the game on February 27, 1998 in Tucson and the March 29, 1998 game at then Bank One Ballpark but the remaining games I don’t have results for. In the margins of one page I have written 16-15-1 as the record of the team but I can’t seem to find the individual game results. This of course is driving me insane (so many things seem to be in the driver’s seat for that journey). I figured the Diamondbacks web site would have to have that information wouldn’t they? Opening up my FireFox browser (you just have to love FireFox don’t you?) I surfed over to diamondbacks.com and began my research.

Continue reading ‘Enter Now, No Purchase Necessary’ »

I always enjoy Spring Training games. You are so close to the action that at times you feel like you could reach out and touch the players. The stadiums in the Cactus League are well maintained and relatively new. Most of them have easy access from all parts of the Valley of the Sun. And how many places can you spend an afternoon or evening in March watching baseball without fear of frost bite? Of all the venues in the Cactus League I find myself going to Tempe Diablo Stadium or Maryvale the most. It is not that I am a big fan of either the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim or the Milwaukee Brewers, each has their strengths. Tempe was recently remodeled where they eliminated most of the bleachers replacing them with seats similar to Chase Field without the leg room. Tempe is also closest to work and home so it is easy for me to get to the stadium quickly when I just have to have a baseball fix. The Maryvale stadium is kind of out of the way and if you happen to waver with your directions you can find yourself in a less favorable neighborhood. That fact works to the advantage of the diehard baseball fan. The tendency of tourists to be nervous leaving the beaten path coupled with the fact that Milwaukee is not a huge fan favorite across the country means that you can usually get great seats even up to game time most days, unless it is today when you really want to go and see the Brewers and the Diamondbacks.

Continue reading ‘Messing With the Brew Crew’ »

I still remember March 9, 1995 as if it happened yesterday. Residents of Phoenix and all of Arizona for that matter had heard that Major League Baseball was planning to announce two new expansion teams during their meetings in Palm Beach Florida. Rumors were that the Arizona group would be one of the cities chosen and they would unveil their team name, logo, and color scheme at that time. I was stuck at work and I would miss the live event. 1995 was the technology dark ages before the explosion of the Internet and Tivo meaning that I was literally cut off from the world. Trina was at home trying desperately to master the VCR to make it stop flashing midnight and record the announcement. My confidence level in her success was extremely slow which was why I was on the phone trying to walk her through the steps to record and as a last resort to have her do a play-by-play of the announcement.

Continue reading ‘Happy Birthday Diamondbacks!’ »

I always look forward to the date that Major League Baseball announces the upcoming season schedule. Like every fan you want your local team to open the season at home and end the season at home just because it means that no other baseball will happen before or after you get to watch your team. For the 2007 season neither of these events occurs for the Diamondbacks. They open the season on the road against the Colorado Rockies on April 2 and they close the season on the road against the Colorado Rockies. It’s bad enough that the Rockies fans get to see the new uniforms before the Diamondbacks fans but they also get to see our team a week after they have left the friendly confines of Chase Field. This was almost too much for me to deal with. I decided that I had to do something about it. First I thought about writing to the commissioner of baseball Bud Selig and ask him to please change the schedule but I quickly realized that probably was not going to be a realistic request. Besides it would have implications outside of Colorado and Arizona and that didn’t seem quite fair. I began to wonder, if I couldn’t get the commissioner to change the schedule what alternatives did I have at my disposal? The most realistic alternative I could think of was that I needed to travel to Colorado the first week of April. Thinking about last summer and what happened when I suggested that we make a slight side trip to Tampa Bay Florida for our 25th wedding anniversary to see the Diamondbacks play the Devil Rays; I wasn’t sure how realistic the alternative was for me to go to Colorado. I decided to take a chance though and make a proposal to Trina.

Continue reading ‘One Step Closer’ »

Today I continued the expansion of my sports fan universe, I attended a basketball game. I had long heard that Phoenix was predominantly a basketball city with their love affair with the Phoenix Suns. When we first moved to the Valley of the Sun in 1994 I and attest that the town lived and breathed with the Suns. That was the year immediately following their appearance in the NBA finals against the Chicago Bulls. It was impossible to get a ticket to a Suns game and when the team was playing on television the whole town seemed to go to sleep until the game had ended. During that year a friend of mine invited me to a Suns game. He had sat on the phone for 6 hours and was able to purchase tickets to a single game for that season. I accepted and we went to America West Arena. The seats were in the last row of the upper deck and were situated so that you could not sit up straight or your head would hit the ceiling of the arena. I don’t remember much from that game other than there did not seem to be much head room or leg room. Now some 13 years later I find myself once again looking forward to going to a basketball game.

Continue reading ‘Basketball Versus Baseball’ »

It has been a very busy off-season for the Diamondbacks and their fans. By busy I am not talking about just player movement. In fact on that front it was relatively quiet compared to years past. Other than the improvement to the starting rotation through trades for Doug Davis and Randy Johnson, there was not much happening to the roster. This can be attributed to the fact that the young nucleus of players that the Diamondbacks will be relying upon are all under team control for the next several years. No, the changes causing this to be busy are mostly focused upon the changes to the Diamondbacks logos and color scheme that was introduced November 8 at the Valley Ho resort. I’ve documented my thoughts on the elimination of Purple and Teal on many occasions so I will just let it go. That change though had a large impact on my time and my closet and continues to be a driving factor in my life to this day. Besides this blog, I also have a relatively large Diamondbacks based web site Now Hitting that has been in existence since 1999 and chronicles the Arizona Diamondbacks. The graphical elements and content were all based on the team’s color scheme of Purple and Teal. That though needs to change and hence why every waking hour and some sleeping hours have been consumed this off season.

Continue reading ‘I’ve Been Working on the Web Site’ »

When Shortstop Craig Counsell went down with an injury last season the Arizona Diamondbacks called Tucson Sidewinder Shortstop Stephen Drew up to take his place. Over the remainder of the 2006 season Drew showed why the Diamondbacks had drafted him in the first round. His hitting and fielding amazed even his most ardent fans. Drew’s performance led to the Diamondbacks not renewing Counsell’s contract and basically handing the starting job over to the rookie. While Drew exhausted his rookie status last season by collecting 209 at-bats; he is still viewed as a rookie for all intents and purposes. The question on everyone’s mind was how would Drew begin the 2007 season? Would he continue his hot hitting or would his statistics suffer when pitchers began making adjustments? The larger question though was defensive. Scouts and player personnel contacts all felt Drew’s offense would never be a question. Many thought Stephen would be an average fielder at best but given his plate discipline defense would be overlooked slightly.

Continue reading ‘Triple the Fun’ »