Today is another day and I survived another 24-hour period without baseball meaning Spring Training is one day closer. These are the kinds of thoughts that go through a baseball fan’s head during the dead of winter.

While most of the planet is out celebrating the last day of the yearly calendar I am counting down the minutes until we can put 2009 away and never speak of it again. It is not that I disliked this year, it is just that from a Diamondbacks perspective it was about the third worst year in the history of the franchise.

In just a few short hours we will no longer have to speak about Brandon Webb lasting less than one game for his whole season. We can forget that Conor Jackson was stricken with valley fever that would leave him lethargic and with no strength to play.

We can ignore the fact that outfielder Eric Byrnes struggled miserably for the second straight year. We can forget Chris Young’s fall from grace and demotion to Triple-A.

When you stop to think about all of the trials and tribulations that the Diamondbacks had to endure these past 12 months; the clock cannot move fast enough to put all of that behind us. Instead when we wake up in the morning we can look forward to 2010.

We can get excited about Brandon Webb returning to form and becoming the staff ace again. We can anticipate Conor Jackson hitting over .300 and being the hitter he is capable of being. We can look forward to seeing Dan Haren dazzle and watch Mark Reynolds hit baseballs into the far reaches of Chase Field.

So as the ball gently drops to signify the beginning of a new year and a new decade; Diamondbacks fans can lift their glasses filled with Sedona Red refreshment and propose a toast to a new year and a new chapter in Diamondbacks history.