ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS

The 'Arizona Diamondbacks' (also referred to as the 'D-backs') are a Major League Baseball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They play in the West Division of the National League.

Franchise history

The desire for baseball in the desert

Between 1940 and 1990, Phoenix jumped from the 99th largest city in the nation to the 9th largest. As such, it was frequently mentioned as a possible location for either a new or relocated MLB franchise. Baseball had a rich tradition in Arizona long before talk of bringing a big-league team even started. The state has been a frequent spring training site since 1946. With the large number of people relocating to the state from the Midwest and the Northeast, as well as from California, many teams (most notably the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers) have historically had large followings in Arizona.
The first serious attempt to land an expansion team for the Phoenix area was mounted by Martin Stone, owner of the Phoenix Firebirds, the city's Triple-A minor league baseball team and an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. In the late 1980s Stone approached St. Louis (football) Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill about sharing a proposed 70,000 seat domed stadium in Phoenix. It was taken for granted that a domed stadium was essential for a prospective baseball team to be a viable enterprise in the city. Phoenix is by far the hottest major city in North America; the average high temperature during baseball's regular season is 99.1 °F, and temperatures above 120 °F in July and August are not unheard of.
Bidwill, with plans already in the works to leave St. Louis, opted instead to sign a long term lease with Arizona State University to use its Sun Devil Stadium as the home of his soon-to-be Arizona-based NFL franchise. Since baseball-only stadiums were not seen as fiscally viable during that era, this effectively ended Stone's bid.
In the fall of 1993, Jerry Colangelo, majority owner of the Phoenix Suns, the area's wildly popular and successful NBA franchise, announced he was assembling an ownership group, "Arizona Baseball, Inc.," to apply for a Major League Baseball expansion team. This was after a great deal of lobbying by the Maricopa County Sports Authority, a local group formed to preserve Cactus League spring training in Arizona and eventually secure a Major League franchise for the state.
Colangelo's group was so certain that they would be awarded a franchise that they held a name-the-team contest for it; they took out a full-page ad in the sports section of the February 13 1995 edition of the state's leading newspaper, the ''Arizona Republic''. First prize was a pair of lifetime season tickets awarded to the person who submitted the winning entry. The winning choice was "Diamondbacks," after the Western diamondback, a rattlesnake native to the region known for injecting a large amount of venom when it strikes.
Colangelo's bid received strong support from one of his friends, Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, and media reports say that then-acting Commissioner of Baseball and Milwaukee Brewers founder Bud Selig was also a strong supporter of Colangelo's bid.^[1]Plans were also made for a new retractable-roof ballpark, Bank One Ballpark, nicknamed the BOB, (renamed in 2005 to Chase Field) to be built in an industrial/warehouse district on the southeast edge of downtown Phoenix, across the street from the Suns' America West Arena (now US Airways Center).
On March 9, 1995, Colangelo's group was awarded a franchise to begin play for the 1998 season. A $130 million franchise fee was paid to Major League Baseball. The Tampa Bay Area was also granted a franchise, the Devil Rays (to be based in St. Petersburg), at the same time.
According to the original press release from Colangelo's group (which remained posted on the team website during the first few seasons) the chosen team colors were Arizona turquoise, copper, black and purple. "...Turquoise was chosen because the greenish-blue stone is indigenous to Arizona, copper because Arizona is one the nation's top copper-producing states and purple because it has become a favorite color for Arizona sports fans, thanks to the success of the National Basketball Association's Phoenix Suns."^[2]
In the earliest days, the Diamondbacks operated basically as a subsidiary of the Suns; several executives and managers with the Suns and America West Arena were brought over to the Diamondbacks in similar roles. ^[3]

Preparing for launch: AL or NL?

There was some talk (which actually persisted for a few years after the awarding of the franchise) about the Diamondbacks being placed in the American League West. Colangelo strongly opposed this, pushing baseball officials to allow the new team to play in the National League West. Colangelo cited the relative close proximity of Phoenix to the other NL West cities; the similarities between the two fast-growing cities of Phoenix and Denver (home to the Colorado Rockies); the long history of Arizona tourism to San Diego; the Firebirds' long history as the Giants' top farm team; and the fact that Dodgers, Giants and Padres games were broadcast in the Phoenix and Tucson markets for many years.^[4]

A regional team

From the beginning, Colangelo wanted to market the Diamondbacks to a statewide fan base and not limit fan appeal to Phoenix and its suburbs. Hence, he decided to call the team the "Arizona Diamondbacks" rather than the "Phoenix Diamondbacks." Tucson, Arizona's second largest city, located about a 90-minute drive southeast of Phoenix, was selected as the home for Diamondbacks spring training as well as the team's top minor league affiliate, the Tucson Sidewinders. Radio and television broadcast deals were struck with affiliates in Tucson, Flagstaff, Prescott, and Las Vegas; among others. A series of team-sponsored fan motorcoach trips from Tucson to Bank One Ballpark were inaugurated for the opening season and are still in operation to this day (it is now known as the "Diamond Express"). The D-Backs are also known for the "Hometown Tour", held in January, where selected players, management and broadcasters make public appearances, hold autograph signings, etc., in various locations around Phoenix and Tucson, as well as many small and mid-sized towns in other areas of Arizona.
Two seasons before their first opening day, Colangelo hired Buck Showalter, the American League Manager of the Year in 1994 with the New York Yankees.
Their lower level minor league teams began play in 1997; the expansion draft was held that year as well.

1998-2002: Early success and a World Series championship

The Diamondbacks' first major league game was played against the Colorado Rockies on March 31, 1998, at Bank One Ballpark before a standing-room only crowd of 50,179. Tickets had gone on sale on January 10 and sold out before lunch. The Rockies won, 9-2, with Andy Benes on the mound for the Diamondbacks, and Travis Lee being the first player to hit, score, homer and drive in a run.
In their first five seasons of existence, the Diamondbacks won three division titles (1999, 2001, & 2002) and one World Series. In 1999, Arizona won 100 games in only its second season to win the National League West. They lost to the New York Mets in four games.
Colangelo fired Showalter after a relatively disappointing 2000 season, and replaced him with Bob Brenly, the former Giants catcher and coach, who had up to that point been working as a color analyst on Diamondbacks television broadcasts.
In 2001, the team was led by two of the most dominant pitchers in all of baseball: Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. Arizona had postseason victories over the St. Louis Cardinals (3-2 in the NLDS) and the Atlanta Braves (4-1 in the NLCS) to advance to the World Series where, in one of the most exciting series ever, they beat the reigning champions, the New York Yankees, 4 to 3, to become the youngest expansion franchise to win the World Series (in just their fourth season of play). That classic World Series is chronicled in Charles Euchner's book ''The Last Nine Innings'' (Sourcebooks, 2006). The series was also seen as the beginning of the end of the Yankees' stranglehold on baseball glory, as profiled in Buster Olney's book ''The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty''.
An estimated orderly crowd of over 300,000 celebrated at the Diamondbacks victory parade, held at Bank One Ballpark and the surrounding downtown Phoenix streets on November 7, 2001. This was the first major professional sports championship for the state of Arizona and the first for a team (in the four major North American professional sports leagues) owned or controlled by Colangelo, whose basketball Suns made it to the NBA Finals in 1976 and 1993 but lost both times. (Colangelo's Arizona Rattlers won the Arena Football League championship in 1994 and 1997.) Colangelo’s willingness to go into debt and acquire players through free agency would ultimately lead to one of the quickest free falls in major sports history when in just three years, the Diamondbacks would record one of the worst losing records in all of major league baseball by losing 111 games.
The team would win the NL West again in 2002, but would be swept out in the NLDS by the Cardinals.
For a detailed look at the 2001 series please see 2001 World Series.

2003-2005: Tough times and the end of the Colangelo era

Original Diamondbacks logo, used from 1998-2006. The purple was influenced by the Phoenix Suns, also owned by Colangelo.

By the 2004 season, however, the Diamondbacks had dropped to a dismal 51-111 record, the worst in Major League Baseball that year and also one of the 10 worst records in the past 100 years of MLB, despite Johnson pitching a perfect game on May 18 of that season. Brenly was fired partway through the season and was replaced on an interim basis by coach Al Pedrique. Before the season co-MVP (with Johnson) of the 2001 World Series Curt Schilling had been traded to the Boston Red Sox, who won the World Series in 2004.
By this time Colangelo and the other partners were embroiled in a dispute over the financial health and direction of the Diamondbacks (and notably including over $150 million dollars in deferred compensation to many players who were key members of the 2001 World Series winning team and others). He was forced to resign his managing general partner post in the late summer of 2004.
Colangelo sold his interest in the General Partnership of the Diamondbacks to a group of investors who were all involved as partners in the founding of the team in 1995. The investors include equal partners Ken Kendrick, Dale Jensen, Mike Chipman, and Jeffrey Royer. Jeff Moorad, a former sports agent, joined the partnership, and was named the team's CEO; becoming its primary public face. Ken Kendrick became the managing general partner.
Colangelo was sharply criticized for plunging the team into over $150 million in debt to secure the services of expensive veterans in order to field a competitive team quickly. In a 2004 interview with columnist Hal Bodley of USA TODAY, Colangelo defended his actions:
Also a factor in Colangelo's leaving his post was his advancing age: Colangelo was 64 years of age in 2004, and had he not sold his sports franchises, upon his death, his family would have been faced with having to pay high estate taxes based on the value of the Diamondbacks as well as the Suns (which he sold to Robert Sarver in the spring of 2004).^[5]
Following the 2004 season, the Diamondbacks hired Wally Backman to be the team's manager. Backman was formerly manager of the Class A California League Lancaster JetHawks, one of the Diamondbacks' minor-league affiliates. Backman was fired after management learned of legal troubles and improprieties in Backman's past, and former Seattle Mariners manager and Diamondbacks bench coach Bob Melvin became the new manager after a ten-day tenure for Backman.
Following the Backman incident, the Diamondbacks spent heavily on free agents in order to re-build into a contender. The club signed 3B Troy Glaus, P Russ Ortiz, SS Royce Clayton, and 2B Craig Counsell, among others. They then traded Randy Johnson to the New York Yankees, for Javier Vazquez, Dioner Navarro, and Brad Halsey. They then turned around and dealt newly acquired catcher Dioner Navarro to the Dodgers for Shawn Green, and sent Shea Hillenbrand to the Toronto Blue Jays. Finally, they traded Casey Fossum to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for José Cruz, Jr.
The Diamondbacks, led by Melvin, finished the 2005 season with a record of 77 wins and 85 losses. However, this was a 26-game improvement over 2004, and actually good enough for second place in the woefully weak NL West, five games behind the San Diego Padres.
The Diamondbacks were considered by some to be the favorite to win the division after spending big money on the aforementioned free agents; however, injuries hurt the team's chances of reaching its expected potential.
Starting pitcher Ortiz was out for some time which really hurt the pitching staff. Glaus played with a hurt knee all season. Of all the free agents that signed before the season, no one had a better season than first baseman Tony Clark. Clark started the season as a bench player and ended the season starting and being an important part of the team. Clark was rewarded with a new contract at the end of the season.
In October 2005 the Diamondbacks hired 35-year-old Josh Byrnes to replace the out-going Joe Garagiola, Jr. as General Manager. Garagiola took a position in Major League Baseball's main offices in New York City.

The 2006 season: Rebuilt and reloaded

In a weak NL West division, the Diamondbacks failed to improve on their 2005 performance, finishing fourth with a slightly worse record than the year before. The season did include two excellent individual performances, however. 2B Orlando Hudson became the recipient of his second career Gold Glove Award, as announced on November 3. Hudson became only the sixth infielder in major league history to win a Gold Glove award in both the American and National Leagues. He first received the award after the 2005 season as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, and was traded to the Diamondbacks later that offseason. On November 14, it was announced that RHP Brandon Webb was the recipient of the Cy Young Award for the National League. Webb, a specialist in throwing the sinkerball, received 15 of 32 first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Webb went 16-8 with a 3.10 ERA and in the 2006 season was named to his first All-Star team. San Diego Padres relief pitcher Trevor Hoffman was second place in the voting with 12 first-place votes and 77 points.
In preparation for the next season, the Diamondbacks made several significant trades during the offseason. The Diamondbacks and Brewers made a trade on November 25, 2006. Johnny Estrada, Greg Aquino, and Claudio Vargas were dealt to the Milwaukee Brewers for Doug Davis, Dana Eveland, and Dave Krynzel.MLB.com On Sunday January 7, it was announced that Randy Johnson would return to the Diamondbacks on a two year contract, pending a physical. He was obtained from the Yankees in exchange for Luis Vizcaino, Ross Ohlendorf, Alberto Gonzalez and Steven Jackson. The Yankees will pay $2 million of Johnson's $26 million salary. The Diamondbacks and Florida Marlins made a deal March 26 to acquire RHP Yusmeiro Petit in exchange for Jorge Julio and cash.

2007 season: A new look

Alternate logo 2007-present.

The Diamondbacks announced in early September 2006 that their uniforms, which remained largely unchanged since the team's first season, would be completely redesigned for the 2007 season.^[6] Details were supposed to be kept secret until after the 2006 postseason as per MLB rules, but the Diamondback page from the 2007 MLB Official Style Guide was somehow leaked around September 25, and local media broadcast printed the new design for all to see.
While some fans applauded the redesign, some of the reaction to the new color scheme, which included dropping the historical purple and traditional Arizonan colors of copper and turquoise for a reddish color known as "Sedona Red", has been pointedly negative.^[7]^[8]^[9] The official unveiling of the uniforms came at a charity event on November 8th in nearby Scottsdale, where several of the players modeled the uniforms on a runway, and posed for publicity photos.
The distinctive "A" design remained unchanged save for the colors. The stylized snake-like "D" logo, also used since the early days for the road uniforms, was slightly redesigned and a completely new shoulder patch introduced. The lettering on the jerseys was completely redesigned.
Not only did the Diamondbacks uniforms change, but many faces of the organization changed as well. In addition to the trades detailed above:

★ Fan favorite and Diamondbacks stalwart Luis Gonzalez did not return as the left fielder for the Diamondbacks. The most popular player in franchise history, "Gonzo" signed a one-year contract worth just under $7 million on December 7 to play for the rival Los Angeles Dodgers for the 2007 season.

★ Craig Counsell, another popular player, signed a two-year contract with his hometown Milwaukee Brewers and did not return to the Diamondbacks in 2007.

★ Pitcher Miguel Batista did not return in an Arizona uniform (he signed a three-year contract with the Mariners in December 2006).

★ Jay Bell, a longtime Diamondback as both a player and coach, relinquished his duties as bench coach to spend more time with family; he will remain in the organization as an adviser to Bob Melvin.

★ The original Diamondbacks play-by-play man Thom Brennaman moved on to the Cincinnati Reds organization to work with his father Marty Brennaman in the booth.
As of August 2007, the Diamondbacks are enjoying a relatively high degree of success so far with a young team including Brandon Webb, Conor Jackson, Stephen Drew, Carlos Quentin, Chad Tracy, Chris Young, Miguel Montero, Mark Reynolds (called up from Double-A in May) and Justin Upton (called up from Double-A in August). As of August 25 the Diamondbacks held a 2 game lead in the National League West over the Padres, and were 1 game behind the Mets for the best record in the NL.

Diamondbacks broadcasters

The primary television play-by-play voice for the team's first nine seasons of play was Thom Brennaman, who also broadcasts baseball and college football games nationally for FOX Television. Brennaman was the TV announcer for the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds (along with his father Marty Brennaman) before being hired by Diamondbacks founder Jerry Colangelo in 1996, two years before the team would begin play.
In October 2006, Brennaman left the Diamondbacks to call games with his father for the Reds beginning in 2007, signing a 4-year deal (his FOX duties will remain unchanged).
'The Daron Sutton era'
On November 1, 2006, the team announced that the TV voice of the Milwaukee Brewers since 2002, Daron Sutton, would be hired as the Diamondbacks primary TV play-by-play voice. Sutton was signed to a five-year contract with a team option for three more years. Sutton is considered one of the best of the younger generation of baseball broadcasters. Sutton's father is Hall of Fame pitcher and former Atlanta Braves broadcaster Don Sutton.^[10]
'Diamondbacks radio voices and color commentators'
Greg Schulte is the regular radio play-by-play voice, a 25-year veteran of sports radio in the Phoenix market, also well known for his previous work on Phoenix Suns, Arizona Cardinals and Arizona State University (ASU) broadcasts. In February 2007 he agreed to a contract extension through at least the 2011 season.
Jeff Munn is a backup radio play-by-play announcer; he served as the regular public address announcer at Chase Field in the early days of the franchise. He is well-known to many Phoenix area sports fans, having also served as the public address announcer for the Suns at America West Arena (now US Airways Center) in the 1990s. He is also the play-by-play radio voice for ASU women's basketball.
Former Diamondback and Chicago Cub Mark Grace and former Major League knuckleball pitcher Tom Candiotti are the Diamondbacks primary color analysts for the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Former Diamondback player (and current Diamondbacks minority owner) Matt Williams also does color commentary on occasion, as does former Cardinals and NBC broadcast legend Joe Gargiola, Sr., a longtime Phoenix-area resident and father of Joe Garagiola, Jr., the first GM of the Diamondbacks (as head of the Maricopa County Sports Authority in the early 1990's, Garagiola, Jr. was one of the primary people involved in Phoenix obtaining a Major League Baseball franchise).
Starting in 2008 the Diamondbacks announced that all TV games will be on Fox Sports Net Arizona.
The team's games are currently broadcast on KTAR radio in Phoenix; roughly half the games are televised on KTVK 3TV and half on Fox Sports Arizona. The team is also seen and heard in other Southwestern markets such as Tucson, Flagstaff, and Las Vegas, Nevada.
For the 2007 season, the Diamondbacks will supply a high definition video feed to KTVK-DT for home games only.
Miguel Quintana and Oscar Soria are the Spanish-language broadcasters. Spanish-language games can be heard in Phoenix on KSUN-AM 1400.
The last few games of the 2006 season were heard on both KTAR-AM and the new KTAR-FM, but for 2007 games will be heard on AM radio only, on "Sports 620."

Diamondbacks Broadcasters Year-by-Year (English)

Year	TV Play-by-Play	TV Analyst	Radio PbP	Radio Analyst
1998	Thom Brennaman	Bob Brenly	Greg Schulte	Rod Allen
1999	Thom Brennaman	Bob Brenly	Greg Schulte	Rod Allen
2000	Thom Brennaman	Bob Brenly	Greg Schulte	Rod Allen
2001	Thom Brennaman	Jim Traber and Joe Garagiola	Greg Schulte	Rod Allen
2002	Thom Brennaman	Jim Traber and Joe Garagiola	Greg Schulte	Rod Allen
2003	Thom Brennaman	Steve Lyons	Greg Schulte	Victor Rojas
2004	Thom Brennaman	Mark Grace	Greg Schulte	Ken Phelps
2005	Thom Brennaman	Mark Grace	Greg Schulte	Ken Phelps
2006	Thom Brennaman	Mark Grace	Greg Schulte	Tom Candiotti
2007	Daron Sutton	Mark Grace	Greg Schulte	Tom Candiotti

Season records

Year	Record	Win %	Place	Playoffs
1998	65-97	.398	5th in NL West-Manager-Buck Showalter (1998-2000)
1999	100-62	.617	1st in NL West	Lost NLDS to New York Mets, 1-3
2000	85-77	.525	3rd in NL West
2001	92-70	.568	1st in NL West Manager-Bob Brenly 2001-2004	Won NLDS vs St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 Won NLCS vs Atlanta Braves, 4-1 'Won World Series vs New York Yankees, 4-3.'
2002	98-64	.605	1st in NL West	Lost NLDS to St. Louis Cardinals, 0-3
2003	84-78	.519	3rd in NL West
2004	51-111	.315	5th in NL West
2005	77-85	.475	2nd in NL West Manager-Bob Melvin (2005-Current)
2006	76-86	.469	T-4th in NL West
2007	78-63	.553	1st in NL West

★ 'Regular Season 798-783 .504 '

★ 'Playoffs 12-12 .500 (3-2, .600 in Postseason Series')'

★ 'Regular and Post Season Totals 810-795 .504'

★ '1 World Series Championship'
§ As of 23:09, 06 September 2007 (PDT)

Quick facts

:'Founded:' 1995
:'Began play:' in 1998 (National League expansion)
:'Uniform colors:' Sedona Red, Sonoran Sand, Black.
:'Logo designs:' HOME: a black "D" in the shape of a snake. ALTERNATE: an "A" with one leg of the "A" alternating red and black triangles to suggest a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.
:'Team motto:' The Future Is Now (marketing); Anyone, Anytime (Player adopted)
:'Team mascot:' D. Baxter the Bobcat
:'Playoff appearances' (3): 1999, 2001, 2002
:'General Manager:' Josh Byrnes
:'Victory Song': Remember the Name by Fort Minor
:'Local Television:' FSN Arizona, KTVK (3TV)
:'Spring Training Facility:' Tucson Electric Park, Tucson, AZ
:'Ballpark: 'Chase Field, formerly Bank One Ballpark, which was referred to as "BOB" Also called the "SNAKE PIT"

Baseball Hall of Famers

★ ''none''

Retired numbers

★ '42' Jackie Robinson, retired throughout all Major League Baseball
No other numbers have yet been retired by the Diamondbacks franchise.

Current roster

Championships

Minor league affiliations

★ 'AAA:' Tucson Sidewinders, Pacific Coast League

★ 'AA:' Mobile BayBears, Southern League

★ 'Advanced A:' Visalia Oaks, California League

★ 'A:' South Bend Silver Hawks, Midwest League

★ 'Short A:' Yakima Bears, Northwest League

★ 'Rookie:' Missoula Osprey, Pioneer League

References

1. AZStarNet.com
2. AZDiamondbacks.com
3. [1]
4. AugustaSports.com
5. Phoenix.Bizjournals.com
6. MLB.com
7. AZCentral.com
8. About.com
9. AZCentral.com
10. MLB.com

External links

★ Arizona Diamondbacks official web site

★ Arizona Diamondbacks game reports, analysis and commentary

★ FutureBacks.com - Covering every level of the Arizona Diamondbacks organization

★ DiamondbacksBullpen.org - Ongoing discussions of the Diamondbacks

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