Diary of a Diehard

On Saturday February 11 the Arizona Diamondbacks will host their annual FanFest at Chase Field. This open house features several activities for the whole family. From going down onto the actual Chase Field playing surface to wiffleball games featuring your favorite Arizona Diamondbacks players to backstage tours of places such as the Diamondbacks clubhouse the FanFest has something for everyone.

Subway is again a primary sponsor of the event as they have been for the past several years. Leading up to the event the team and sponsor have several tie ins to get the fans excited for this fun event. Today is the first of these events and features three members of the Diamondbacks starting rotation.

Continue reading ‘Diamondbacks Become Sandwich Artists?’ »

When Major League Baseball awarded a franchise to Arizona on March 9, 1995 it set the ball in motion (no pun intended) that would have lasting effects on the city of Phoenix and the downtown area. In a rundown part of town that was largely filled with unsavory characters one man had a vision; to build a start of the art stadium for baseball and create a vibrant place for residents and visitors to go.

That visionary was former Arizona Diamondbacks and Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo who worked his magic with state officials to find a baseball stadium that featured a then revolutionary retractable roof and a swimming pool beyond the outfield wall. It would be a place where when the Arizona weather cooperated could act as a traditional outdoor stadium but in the sweltering summer months it could be cooled by air conditioning while still allowing the playing surface to be natural grass.

Continue reading ‘Diamondbacks Win DREAMR Award’ »

I recently chronicled the departure of former Diamondbacks that have now found their way with new teams. While writing that piece I became just a little nostalgic reminiscing about the players who have come and gone during the history of the Arizona Diamondbacks. It used to be a novelty to see players on other teams who had played for the local team. That’s what happens when you are an expansion team.

There is no history, nothing to relate to. The team was not there and suddenly it was. Discussions about the “dead ball” era or comparing great players from the past to the present were relatively meaningless since there really were no players from a bygone era.

Continue reading ‘Baseball and the Passage of Time’ »

Let me begin this by saying that I am absolutely, positively not a football fan. I probably couldn’t name more than three players from each team that is playing today. To me football is a television filler to give the networks something to air during the baseball off-season. So if you think by reading ahead that you are going to uncover some hidden gem of football knowledge that will allow you to pick the winner of today’s game or make you sound smarter at your favorite Super Bowl party you should probably stop reading now.

Like many American sports fans I have been eagerly looking forward to Super Bowl Sunday but for an entirely different reason. To me it signifies the end to a brutally long season that started during the baseball pennant race and will finally be finished today. The reason I am so looking forward to Super Bowl is not for the game but for the game to be finished.

Continue reading ‘Now On Deck – Baseball’ »

With Spring Training just over two weeks away teams are frantically making final adjustments to their roster. Players who have been free agents are now starting to be concerned if teams have not been calling with contract offers.

This is usually the time when teams can find those one or two players that may help their club without having to spend a tremendous amount of money. Most of the transactions coming across the wire generally include the phrase “signed to a minor league contract”.

Continue reading ‘Former Diamondbacks Finding Homes’ »

When Derrick Hall took over as President of the Arizona Diamondbacks he began to hold monthly online chats with the fans to allow them to ask questions of the front office. This has become a widely popular outlet where fans are able to gain some insight into the inter-workings of the team and provide feedback to those leading the team.

It is not always Hall who conducts these web chats. In the past the manager or the general manager has been put on the spot of answering questions from the fan base. This month’s chat featured General Manager Kevin Towers who took time out of his preparations for Spring Training to sit down for 30 minutes and field questions.

Continue reading ‘Towers Chats With Fans’ »

One of my favorite non-baseball movies of all time is Groundhog Day. I know what you are thinking; yes I do sometimes watch something that is not baseball related. In most of those cases I am either in route to an emergency room or am suffering from some kind of disease that requires massive amounts of prescription medication to overcome but there are those rare occasions when something non-baseball disrupts my life.

It is traditional in our house to celebrate Groundhog Day in a very traditional sense. I try not to go outside for fear of seeing my shadow, I attempt to hibernate under my covers for at least six more weeks, and I have a meal consisting of ground hog meat. It is important to note that I wrote “ground” and “hog” separately. You miss just one little space between those words and you find yourself eating road kill. The evening ends with the family curled up on the couch watching the 1993 movie starring Bill Murray (who incidentally is a huge baseball fan and a minor league baseball owner to boot).

Continue reading ‘Groundhog Day’ »

The last time the Arizona Diamondbacks went to the post season in 2007 they did so with a lot of help from rookie starting pitcher Micah Owings who was an important part of the team not just with his throwing arm but also with his bat. That season the Diamondbacks slugging pitcher won a Silver Slugger award and found himself with pinch hitting opportunities those days when he wasn’t pitching.

The next year there were big expectations for Owings who struggled a little in 2008 with his control and found himself shipped off to Cincinnati as part of the deal that brought Adam Dunn to the desert for a late season surge to make the playoffs. That of course didn’t happen and the Diamondbacks slid behind the Los Angeles Dodgers finishing out of the post season.

Continue reading ‘Micah Owings, San Diego Is Your Padre’ »

Last year the Arizona Diamondbacks moved into their new Spring Training home Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. This state-of-the-art facility was the talk of the Cactus League bringing first class fan experience to the Phoenix valley after 12 years in Tucson.

Continue reading ‘Season Ticket Holder Spring Training Event’ »