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ARIZONA
2001 WORLD CHAMPIONS! Visit my WORLD SERIES 2001 page, with photos from Game 1! 2002 National League
West Division Champs
11/03: Since Arizona got its first major league baseball team, the whole state has been going crazy over the Diamondbacks! As a lifelong Red Sox fan, it was strange for me to suddenly be following another team, but like millions of other Arizona residents, I have made a transition to becoming an ardent fan of this upstart team! The Diamondbacks' owner, Jerry Colangelo, seems to be committed to putting a winning team on the field, as he demonstrated during the 1998-99 offseason. Bank One Ballpark may not have the special traditional charm of Fenway, Wrigley Field and Camden Yards, but it is a beautiful place to take in a baseball game. Also, it's got a retractable roof, a dire necessity in the summer Arizona sun! And hey, I was never able to get strawberries and cream at Fenway Park :)....This is just my little page to cover the Diamondbacks and maybe talk (or vent) about how they're doing! 1998 My Diamondbacks had the typical season for an expansion team, finishing 65-97 and avoiding losing 100 games. The Diamondbacks led baseball in attendance, and Bank One Ballpark opened with one number already retired; Jackie Robinson's 42. The Diamondbacks selected Brian Anderson as their first ever draft pick, and he's still with the team and doing very well! Some of the other names, though...are any of them still in baseball?? :) 1999 What a great season!! I can't remember how many games I went to, but let's just say I've sat in practically every area of the park except the swimming pool and the blimp! I even tried a buffalo hot dog once...never again! I'll stick to the strawberries and cream, and the regular Diamondback Dogs! The stadium is a lot more homey now, I really enjoy hanging out there. It's gotten christened, too...Mark McGwire smashed a batting practice pitch off the "Friday's Front Row" restaurant sign in left field. It knocked out most of the "R", so it now reads "Friday's Front Ow". Very fitting. Luis Gonzales, Steve Finley, Matt Williams and Jay Bell all had GREAT seasons, Randy Johnson lost a few games when the team couldn't manage a single run for him, but he still won the Cy Young award! Matt Mantei arrived in June and stopped the bleeding when the bullpen couldn't get anyone out... Tony Womack led the league in stolen bases....Jerry Colangelo wasn't afraid to spend the money for a winning team, and he put together a GREAT bunch of players. After winning 100 games and pretty much stunning all the prognosticators, who said the team would need years to gel, the D'backs season ended somewhat abruptly in 1999 at the hands of the New York Mets. In the playoffs, Arizona had trouble with almost everything. Pitching was sub-par, hitting was awful except in Game 2 of the series, and although the Pinch-Hitting was wonderful, there were few clutch plays made. Unfortunately I think managerial decisions had a lot to do with the losses as well. Passing over Matt Mantei in Game 1 for Bobby Chouinard in the 9th inning, simply because the score was tied (if it were 5-4 Arizona, Mantei would have pitched) was crazy, and the D'backs paid for it. A 'save' doesn't always mean getting the last 3 outs, it can mean "saving the game for your team" as well... 2000 How many baseball teams these days return the same 8 batters and 5 starting pitchers to their roster for a second season? Arizona's 2000 lineup: Tony Womack, SS; Jay Bell, 2B; Luis Gonzales, LF; Matt Williams, 3B; Steve Finley, CF; Erubiel Durazo, 1B; Travis Lee, RF; Kelly Stinnett, C. Arizona's Rotation: Randy Johnson, Todd Stottlemeyer, Brian Anderson, Omar Daal, Armando Reynoso; (see ya Andy Benes, who opted to pitch with his brother in St. Louis again). 11/24/00 - Ok, so Omar Daal lost 19 games and Curt Schilling wasn't very helpful as a midseason pickup...maybe next year. I think one of the things I enjoy most about the Diamondbacks is their spirit! It's fun watching this team play, sometimes there's a different hero each night. They're an exciting team! 11/24/00 - Let's amend that above statement to "They were an exciting team up until September". They really packed it in after the Giants got hot. It got depressing watching the lethargic, disinterested play of my D'backs. This season I've already been to a game where I saw Mark McGwire hit into a triple play, a great pitching matchup between Randy Johnson and Kevin Brown, Alice Cooper singing the National Anthem and winning the great hot dog race wearing a T-Shirt that said, "Hi, I'm Mustard", and I nearly caught a ball! Nearly had my arm ripped out of its socket, too :). 2001 I think my Diamondbacks are already getting off on the wrong foot. With all the needs the team has, i.e. leadoff hitter, pitching, bullpen; and with the team apparently in financial trouble, I was pretty surprised to hear Arizona was about to sign Cubs slugger Mark Grace. Grace is a big clubhouse favorite, but hey, he's 36, he plays first base, where the D'backs already have TWO capable first basemen, and he's going to cost several million dollars over 2-3 years! Very strange move, I think. I think if it happens, it's happening because the D'backs are hoping to attract all the Cubs fans in Arizona to the ballpark to see their hero. For years the Cubs were big here, especially with WGN broadcasting nationwide and no team in Arizona until 1998. (Update Nov.2001: What was I thinking???)!!! 5/1/01 - Ok, the first month of the season is over and the D'backs are a .500 team. I guess it could be a lot worse. Luis Gonzalez was on fire this past month. 13 home runs! Tying the major league record for April is pretty impressive. I also stand by my opinion of the signing of Mark Grace. Hello!!!! Erubiel Durazo has FOUR pinch-hit home runs! He'd be playing every day on any other team. In Arizona, they're actually talking about having him do some work at AAA Tucson to practice right field. If I were him, I'd tell the Diamondbacks to take a flying leap and trade me! (Which he did following the World Series championship - 11/01) Injuries again are a problem, especially with the pitching. This team is on thin ice. Still, some of the hitters are finally coming around, including Steve Finley, who had a totally dismal start to his year. A lot of the players also had some salary deferred to help out Jerry Colangelo with the financing of the team. Attendance is sagging below 30,000 per game. I remember daily numbers hitting 45,000 or better almost every day in 1998 and 1999, then down to about 35,000 last year. I went to a game with the Dodgers a few weeks ago. By the 4th inning it was 11-0, LA, and the Diamondback pitcher had been tossed from the game. I drove 100 miles each way to see this? Arrgh. I think it might be a long year in Phoenix. 9/12/01 - The Diamondbacks are in first place, by 1 1/2 games, but nobody is really thinking about that right now. With the tragedies in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington DC, all the baseball games (and pretty much everything else) are on hold for a while. This is one of those times you start hearing everyone say "it's times like this you realize what's really important, how insignificant sports are, etc.". Still, it'll be nice to have baseball to turn to in a few days, to get my mind off the turmoil it's going through, a mixture of depression, anger, sadness and grief over the terrorist attacks. On a lighter note, the Diamondbacks have been doing very well. The pitching, specifically, has been great. Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling are a two-man machine. If they make the playoffs, they'll have a potent 1-2 punch. Their other pitchers are keeping runs allowed low. The problem seems to be that the D'backs can't score a run if their lives depended on it sometimes. They have an atrocious scoring ratio with a man on 3rd base and less than 2 outs. Something like 25%. Luis Gonzalez has cooled off a little bit after a torrid, awesome season. 51 home runs? You have to be kidding! Hopefully the D'backs can hold out over the final 18 games of the season. 11/5/01 - WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!!!! Woohoooooo!!!!!! CHECK OUT MY WORLD SERIES 2001 PAGE ONLINE! 2002 Summer and the Work Stoppage...At this point I guess the biggest question has to be....Will there be baseball after August? Will I be able to use my ticket for August 23 (Cubs vs. Diamondbacks, 4 rows behind home plate!) or will I have to stand in line in Phoenix for a refund? I guess time will tell. Fans are lemmings though, they could strike and kill the World Series again, and we'll still be back next year. There's no denying it. What's the alternative? Start following minor league baseball? People won't be willing to support an inferior product in large numbers. The millionaires and billionaires will always have the fans, no matter how much we claim to hate 'em :). This would be a bad time to strike too, considering Arizona is now 5 games ahead of LA and San Francisco for 1st place in the NL West. Do I foresee waiting overnight in line for World Series tickets again? You bet I do :). 10/02 - Well....it's over. Mercifully, for Arizona. I was afraid they were going to need a M*A*S*H unit out there for a while. After losing four key players to season-ending injuries, the Diamondbacks had nothing left in the tank as they faced the Cardinals in the NLDS. Look for wholesale changes for 2003. I can't imagine Jay Bell, Todd Stottlemyre or Greg Swindell will be back, and a bunch of others including Matt Williams and Steve Finley are doubtful as well. I hope they offer Steve Finley a contract....Williams can go retire with the Giants as far as I'm concerned. I think Arizona will dump a lot of dead weight and salary this winter, but they may try to get a power hitter and a starting pitcher as well. Look for Erubiel Durazo to be prime trade bait, as Mark Grace grooms Lyle Overbay for first base in 2003. 2003 Well I have to admit, I had high hopes going into the 2003 season, and was disappointed almost from day one. It seemed the Diamondbacks were descending deeper and deeper into a hole they'd be stuck in for the entire season. Players went down with injuries at an alarming rate. How many teams start the season healthy and send 19 players to the disabled list BEFORE the All-Star Break?? Guess I underestimated the team that plays in my own city, Tucson, and its amazing athletes.... Brandon Webb... may very well go into the All-Star break as the Major League Leader in ERA; Webb has been lights-out with ground-ball pitches this year. Talk about having a huge burden to bear, he was brought in to replace Randy Johnson in the rotation, and he's become the first solid #3 starter for this team in its history. Robby Hammock ... aside from being really cute, he can play catcher, outfield, first base, third base...amazing! And he's hitting well to boot. Matt Kata... where did this guy come from? Hitting over .370, playing stellar second base... I wonder what's going to happen to him and others when players start getting healthy again. Alex Cintron... It was about time this guy got a chance to be an everyday player. Very impressive so far. Jose Valverde... What can you say about a guy who's 9 for 9 in his first 9 save opportunities in the big leagues?? Andrew Good... Good is right, very good... brought in to fill the big shoes of Curt Schilling, he may still find a spot in the pitching rotation once Randy and Curt come back... Stephen Randolph... 4-0 so far in the little-acclaimed middle relief role Lyle Overbay... I loved Mark Grace, he's going to make a heck of an announcer for the D'backs TV network, his sense of humor is the BEST, and I know he's been a great instructor and mentor for his teammates.. but maybe with Gracie retired, Overbay will get more playing time at first base and have a chance to start showing the consistent power he displayed at AAA level. And of course, guys like Steve Finley, Luis Gonzalez, and Miguel Batista have been just awesome since they first arrived here. Getting Shea Hillenbrand from Boston looked like a bum deal for a while, with Arizona's pitching in question while Byung-Hyung Kim took the reins in Boston, but it seems to have panned out very well for Arizona, while Kim became a head-case in Boston, especially during the 2003 ALDS. Speaking of the Red Sox, their appearance in this year's playoffs rekindled my affection for the Beantown team, maybe I'll throw together a Red Sox web site as well. And yes, it was Grady Little's fault. 2004 July... will this season EVER END for Arizona? Aside from having the worst record in the league for a team NOT playing in Montreal, they're likely to lose Randy Johnson and Steve Finley this week... and they just look awful out there. My synopsis above was fairly accurate, though I can't believe the team had as many injuries as it has so far this year. We basically traded away 7 players, if you count Curt Schilling, to be able to afford Richie Sexson, a guy who played 22 games, is out for the year, and may not re-sign with Arizona in the Spring. Nice move, Colangelo... RED SOX WORLD SERIES CHAMPS!!! 2005 A step in the right direction. A second place finish. 77 wins. That's about 20 wins more than I had expected, and a 26 game improvement over the atrocious 2004 season. Let's hope Webb can be a bona fide ace in 2006. The lineup looks fairly solid. 2006 Another decent, yet below-.500 finish. Nothing to write home about, except that Brandon Webb landed the Cy Young award with only 16 wins... he has a dominating sinker. Orlando Hudson and Eric Byrnes look like future leadership figures. Gonzo was unjustly dumped at the end of the season, although the team did give him a nice sendoff after the final game. He and Craig Counsell were honored with multiple standing ovations and highlights at the end of the game. Counsell left as well... 2007 Finally.... we have a contender in Arizona again. Now, if they could just beat some decent teams, they'd be in great shape! They're beating the teams they should win against, but their record against .500+ teams is absolutely dismal. For me, it's SO nice to see Randy Johnson back with the Snakes again. Let's hope he can get his 300th win in a Diamondbacks uniform before he retires(?) at the close of the 2008 season. His back might catch up with him before that, though. Hudson and Byrnes are leading by example, and the team's shining spot is its youth. The D'backs have to have one of the youngest lineups in baseball, and even though they don't have a slugger / home run hitter, they're right there in the pennant race. Whether or not they win, it'll be a big improvement. The only knock I have on the Diamondbacks is their fan base...or lack thereof! I went to see the Red Sox play the D'backs, and Arizona fans were drowned out, it was easily 2-1 Red Sox fans in attendance. Now, you might say 'that's just Red Sox Nation rearing its head'. Well, okay... so I went to Petco Park in San Diego, to see the Padres play the Red Sox. And although the Sox had a large fan base there, the Padres fans were louder and much more fired up than the Diamondbacks fans. They outnumbered the Sox fans. So, what's the problem in Arizona? Is it really that there are so many transplants there who put the team they grew up with first? Or is it a poor D'backs marketing machine? Maybe a little of both... In the end, Arizona had an INCREDIBLE season... 2007 National League West Champions! And they swept the Cubbies right out of the playoffs. Before they hit the machine that was the Colorado Rockies, Arizona had themselves a pretty amazing run themselves. Brandon Webb rode a 42 inning scoreless streak on his way to a 17 win season, and somehow, while giving every D'backs fan a nightly near-heart attack, Jose Valverde managed to lead the majors in saves. How did a team with no .300 hitters (other than pitcher Micah Owings, who has the potential to be phenomenal on the mound AND at the plate), a team that got outscored, and hit only .250 for the year, win 90 games and nearly get to the World Series? Just an amazing year. If only the fan base can reach the levels the team saw from 2001-2003... we'll see.
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