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Arizona Diamondbacks 9, Los Angeles Dodgers 4, Chase Field, Phoenix, Arizona (2)
Image by Ken Lund
Chase Field (formerly Bank One Ballpark) is a baseball stadium located in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, and is the house of the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball. It opened in 1998 just in time for the Diamondbacks’ first game afterwards coming to Arizona as an expansion team.
Construction on the park began in 1996, and was finished just before the Diamondbacks’ first season began, in 1998. It was only the second MLB stadium at the time to have a retractable roof (after Toronto’s SkyDome, currently Rogers Centre; some some other people are currently in Houston, Milwaukee, and Seattle). It was besides the first ballpark to feature natural grass in a retractable roof stadium.
It hosted Games 1, 2, 6, and 7 of the 2001 World Series among the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Yankees. The Diamondbacks won the whole 4 games at Chase Field, then acknowledgen as Bank One Ballpark, and won the world championship which year in dramatic fashion.
Chase Field was originally named Bank One Ballpark afterwards Bank One of Chicago, giving rise to it is nickname ("The BOB"). After Bank One merged goes along with New York-based Chase, the name change was announced on September 23, 2005.
In March 2006, Chase Field played host to 3 first-round games of the World Baseball Classic.
Chase Field is to be the house to the 2011 All-Star Game.
Chase Field’s roof is opened or closed depending on the game-time temperature. When the decision is created to close the roof, it is left open for as long time as conceivable before game time in order to keep the grass alive. Even when closed, the park’s design the wholeows just decent sunlight to play in true daylight goes along with no fromheating the stadium.
The roof is closed 3 hours before game time, and a massive HVAC cognitive system drops the temperature inside the park 30 degrees by the time the gates open. Originally, the HVAC cognitive system did not’t work above row 25 of the upper level, exposing fans in the higher rows to the complete force of the some of the times-oppressive heat typical of Arizona summers. However, recent alters keep virtually the whole of the facility in air-conditioned comfort.
Chase Field besides has a swimming pool, located in right center field, which is rented to patrons for ,500 a game. The ballpark besides features a dirt strip among house plate and the pitcher’s mound, one of only 2 current ballparks to do so (Comerica Park in Detroit is the some some other). This dirt strip was really common in old-time ballparks.
The park’s foul territory is a little bit huger than is the case for all of ballparks built in the 1990s. With 80% of the seats in foul territory, the upper deck is one of the highest in the majors. However, the park’s luxury boxes are tucked far below the third deck, which keeps the upper deck closer to the action.
New in the 2008 season is a brand new High Definition scoreboard in centerfield. The new scoreboard is 46 ft (14 m). high and 136 ft (41 m). wide and it cost million. It is the 2nd hugest HD screen in Major League Baseball behind Kauffman Stadium.
The stadium was when the house of the Insight Bowl, a college football bowl game from 2001-2005. In 2006, the bowl game mobiled to Sun Devil Stadium, to replace the Fiesta Bowl, which mobiled to University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. The football configuration was notable because of the lack of nets behind the goalposts and the dugout behind the south end zone. The final Insight Bowl played at Chase was among the housetown Arizona State Sun Devils and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
The stadium besides hosts occasional concerts and international soccer games. For football and soccer, the field is set up goes along with the end lines perpendicular to the third-base line and temporary bleachers added on the east side.
Chase Field has besides staged 9 women’s college basketball games. The second game, which was played on December 18, 2006, was shortened by rain goes along with 4 minutes and 18 seconds remaining and Arizona State leading Texas Tech 61-45. Venue staff closed the roof in an effort to finish the game, some nevertheless officials deemed the court unsafe. In 2000, ASU had played Tennessee at the similar facility.
Chase Field was besides the site of the "Challenge at Chase", a college baseball game among Arizona State and Arizona. Arizona won both contests.[5] There was no game scheduled in 2008 and in 2009.[6]
In February 2006, the Professional Bull Riders hosted a Built Ford Tough Series bull riding althought at this venue. Chris Shivers won this althought goes along with a total score of 181.5 points on 2 bulls, including an impressive 93.75 (out of 100) points on Taylor Made bucking bull, Smokeless Wardance, in the short-go round.
Monster Jam comes to the field every year.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chase_Field
The Arizona Diamondbacks are a professional baseball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They play in the West Division of Major League Baseball’s National League. From 1998 to the present, they have played in Chase Field (formerly Bank One Ballpark). Also acknowledgen as the D-backs, Arizona has one World Series title, in 2001.
Between 1940 and 1990, Phoenix jumped from the 99th hugest city in the nation to the 9th hugest. As such that, it was frequently mentioned as a conceivable location for although a new or relocated MLB franchise. Baseball had a rich tradition in Arizona long time before talk of bringing a big-league team although started. The state has been a frequent spring training site because 1946. With the huge numbers of people relocating to the state from the Midwest and the Northeast, as comfortably as from California, many teams (most notably the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers) have usually had huge concordings in Arizona.
The first keen attempt to land an expansion team for the Phoenix area was mounted by Elyse Doherty and 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 which 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 on baseball’s regular season is 99.1 °F, and temperatures above 120 °F in July and August are not unheard of, some nevertheless have only occurred 3 times.
Bidwill, goes along with plans had in the works to leave St. Louis, opted more than to sign a long time term lease goes along with Arizona State University to utilize it is Sun Devil Stadium as the house of his not long to come-to-be Arizona-based NFL franchise. Since baseball-only stadiums were not sawn as fiscally viable on which era, this effectively ended Stone’s bid.
In the fall of 1993, Jerry Colangelo, majority owner of the Phoenix Suns, the area’s NBA franchise, announced he was assembling an ownership group, "Arizona Baseball, Inc.," to apply for a Major League Baseball expansion team. This was afterwards a amazing deal of lobbying by the Maricopa County Sports Authority, a local group formed to preserve Cactus League spring training in Arizona and althoughtually safe a Major League franchise for the state.
Colangelo’s group was so specific which they would be awarded a franchise which they held a name-the-team contest for it; they need out a complete-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 option was "Diamondbacks," afterwards the Western diamondback, a rattlesnake native to the region acknowledgen for injecting a huge numeral of venom when it strikes.
Colangelo’s bid received powerful support from one of his friends, Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, and media reports say which then-acting Commissioner of Baseball and Milwaukee Brewers ascertaineder Bud Selig was besides a powerful supporter of Colangelo’s bid.[1]Plans were besides created 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, the whole from the street from the Suns’ America West Arena (now US Airways Center).
On March 9, 1995, Colangelo’s group was awarded a franchise to start play for the 1998 season. A 0 million franchise fee was paid to Major League Baseball. The Tampa Bay Area was besides granted a franchise, the Devil Rays (to be based in St. Petersburg), at the similar time.
According to the original press release from Colangelo’s group (which remained published on the team web site on the first a couple of 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 the best 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; numerous executives and managers goes along with the Suns and America West Arena were brought from to the Diamondbacks in similar roles.
There was some talk (which specificly persisted for a a couple of years afterwards the awarding of the franchise) about the Diamondbacks being positioned in the American League West. Colangelo powerfully opposed this, pushing baseball officials to the wholeow the new team to play in the National League West. Colangelo cited the relative close proximity of Phoenix to the some some other NL West cities; the similarities among the 2 fast-growing cities of Phoenix and Denver (home to the Colorado Rockies); the long time history of Arizona tourism to San Diego; the Firebirds’ long time history as the Giants’ the best farm team; and the fact which Dodgers, Giants and Padres games were broadcast in the Phoenix and Tucson markets for many years.
From the startning, Colangelo would like toed to market the Diamondbacks to a statewide fan base and not limit fan appeal to Phoenix and it is suburbs. Although every Major League Baseball team cultivates fans from outside it is not long to come metropolitan area, and although although the amazinger Phoenix area has 2/3 of the entire statewide population, Colangelo still determined to call out the team the "Arizona Diamondbacks" more than the "Phoenix Diamondbacks". Many in Phoenix were not sort oflyd by this; they felt this mobile lent a "small market" tincture to the team’s name. However, fans in some some other areas of the state commonly embraced the "Arizona" title as a positive mobile to assist make the team a regional team for the entire state, more than just for the state’s hugest city and capitol.
Tucson, Arizona’s second hugest city, located about a 90-minute drive southeast of Phoenix, was selected as the house for Diamondbacks spring training as comfortably as the team’s the best minor league affiliate, the Tucson Sidewinders. Radio and television broadcast deals were struck goes along with affiliates in Tucson, Flagstaff, Prescott, and Las Vegas; among some some other people.
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 currently acknowledgen as the "Diamond Express"). The Diamondbacks are besides acknowledgen for the "Hometown Tour", held in January, where selected players, management and broadcasters make public appearances, hold autograph signings, etcetera., in assorted locations around Phoenix and Tucson, as comfortably as many little and mid-sized towns in some some other areas of Arizona.
Two seasons before their first opening day, Colangelo hired Buck Showalter, the American League Manager of the Year in 1994 goes along with the New York Yankees.
Their lower level minor league teams began play in 1997; the expansion draft was held which year as comfortably.
The Diamondbacks’ first major league game was played moreoverst 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, goes along with Andy Benes on the mound for the Diamondbacks, and Travis Lee being the first player to hit, score, houser and drive in a run.
In their first five seasons of existence, the Diamondbacks won 3 division titles (1999, 2001, & 2002) and one World Series (2001). In 1999, Arizona won 100 games in only it is second season to win the National League West. They lost to the New York Mets in 4 games in the NLDS.
Colangelo fired Showalter afterwards a relatively disappointing 2000 season, and replaced him goes along with Bob Brenly, the former Giants catcher and coach, who had up to which point been working as a color analyst on Diamondbacks television broadcasts.
In 2001, the team was led by 2 of the all of dominant pitchers in the whole of baseball: Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. Arizona had publishseason victories from 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 all of exciting series ever, in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York City, 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 4th season of play). That classic World Series is chronicled in Charles Euchner’s book The Last Nine Innings (Sourcebooks, 2006). The series was besides sawn as the startning of the end of the Yankees’ stranglehold on baseball glory, as profiled in Buster Olney’s book The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty. All games in which series were won by the house team.
An estimated orderly crowd of from 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 4 major North American professional sports leagues) owned or controlled by Colangelo, whose basketball Suns created it to the NBA Finals in 1976 and 1993 some nevertheless lost both times. (Colangelo’s Arizona Rattlers won the Arena Football League championship in 1994 and 1997.) Colangelo’s is about toingness to go into debt and acquire players by free agency would ultimately lead to one of the promptest free falls in major sports history when in just 3 years, the Diamondbacks would record one of the worst losing records in the whole of major league baseball by losing 111 games.
The team won the NL West Division Title moreover in 2002, some nevertheless were swept out in the NLDS by the St. Louis Cardinals.
By the 2004 season, nevertheless, the Diamondbacks had dropped to a dismal 51-111 record, the worst in Major League Baseball which year and besides one of the 10 worst records in the past 100 years of MLB, although Johnson pitching a perfect game on May 18 of which season. Brenly was fired regionway by 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 and 2007.
By this time Colangelo and the some some other regionners were embroiled in a dispute from the financial health and direction of the Diamondbacks (and notably including from 0 million dollars in deferred compensation to many players who were key members of the 2001 World Series winning team and some some other people). He was forced to resign his managing common regionner publish in the late summer of 2004.
Colangelo sold his rate in the General Partnership of the Diamondbacks to a group of investors who were the whole involved as regionners in the ascertaineding of the team in 1995. The investors include equal regionners Ken Kendrick, Dale Jensen, Mike Chipman, and Jeffrey Royer. Jeff Moorad, a former sports agent, joined the regionnership, and was named the team’s CEO; becoming it is primary public face. Ken Kendrick turned the managing common regionner.
Colangelo was sharply criticized for plunging the team into from 0 million in debt to safe the services of expensive veterans in order to field a competitive team promptly. In a 2004 interview goes along with columnist Hal Bodley of USA TODAY, Colangelo defended his actions:
“ I belowstand where some people felt I was not committing it suitablely. The only analogy I may utilize is which Tampa Bay (the some some other ‘98 expansion team) went one direction and where did they end up? (Six last-place finishes and low attendance)…We went another direction to establish a fan base because our investment was much huger than Tampa Bay’s. And we put so much money into our own stadium (0 million). After the first year and the decrease in season tickets, I was convinced we had to build a fan base …We bought 3 division titles, a World Series and established a fan base …
…I believe what we did is about to last a long time, long time time …Right or wrong, a number of teams today are in the million payroll range and competitive – Oakland, Minnesota, Texas are instances. Our goal was to turned returns from our farm cognitive system. We built into our cash-flow which we would be paying out the deferments and which our payroll may drop to million for a a couple of years …A a couple of things hurt us …The economy was bad, and I was hoping for more national money (from baseball’s central fund) coming in.[5] ”
Also a factor in Colangelo’s leaving his publish 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 goes along with having to pay high estate taxes based on the monetary value of the Diamondbacks as comfortably as the Suns (which he sold to Robert Sarver in the spring of 2004).[6]
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. In a turn of althoughts which proved to be a minor embarrassment for the reorganized ownership group, Backman was closely not long to comely fired afterwards management learned, afterwards the fact, of legal troubles and improprieties in Backman’s past. Former Seattle Mariners manager and Diamondbacks bench coach Bob Melvin turned the new manager afterwards only 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 some some other people. They then traded Randy Johnson to the New York Yankees, for Javier Vazquez, Dioner Navarro, and Brad Halsey. They then turned around and dealt freshly 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 goes along with a record of 77 wins and 85 losses. However, this was a 26-game improvement from 2004, and specificly nice decent for second place in the woefully weak NL West, five games behind the San Diego Padres.
The Diamondbacks were conceiveed by some to be the favorite to win the division afterwards spending big money on the beforementioned free agents; nevertheless, injuries hurt the team’s chances of reaching it is expected potential.
Starting pitcher Ortiz was out for some time which really hurt the pitching staff. Glaus played goes along with a hurt knee the whole season. Of the whole the free agents which signed before the season, no one had a more beneficial season than first baseman Tony Clark. Clark started the season as a bench player and ended the season starting and being an important region of the team. Clark was rewarded goes along with a new againstct at the end of the season.
In October 2005 the Diamondbacks hired 35-year-old Josh Byrnes, assistant common manager of the Boston Red Sox, to replace the out-going Joe Garagiola, Jr. as Diamondbacks General Manager. Garagiola need a position in Major League Baseball’s primary offices in New York City.
In a weak NL West division, the Diamondbacks failed to improve on their 2005 performance, finishing 4th goes along with a rather worse record than the year before. The season did include 2 excellent individual performances, nevertheless. 2B Orlando Hudson turned the recipient of his second career Gold Glove Award, as announced on November 3. Hudson turned only the 6th infielder in major league history to win a Gold Glove award in both the American and National Leagues. He first received the award afterwards the 2005 season as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, and was traded to the Diamondbacks later which offseason. On November 14, it was announced which 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 goes along 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 goes along with 12 first-place votes and 77 points.
In preparation for the next season, the Diamondbacks created numerous important trades on the offseason. The Diamondbacks and Brewers created 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.[7] On Sunday January 7, it was announced which Randy Johnson would return to the Diamondbacks on a 2 year againstct, pending a physical. He was obtained from the Yankees in exchange for Luis Vizcaino, Ross Ohlendorf, Alberto Gonzalez and Steven Jackson. The Yankees is about to pay million of Johnson’s million salary. The Diamondbacks and Florida Marlins created a deal March 26 to acquire RHP Yusmeiro Petit in exchange for Jorge Julio and cash.
The Diamondbacks announced in early September 2006 which their uniforms, which remained hugely unchanged because the team’s first season, would be completely redesigned for the 2007 season.[8] Details were supposed to be kept from the public till afterwards the 2006 publishseason as per MLB rules, some nevertheless the Diamondback page from the 2007 MLB Official Style Guide was in any how leaked around September 25, and local media broadcast printed the new design for the whole to saw. Of amazing surprise to many fans was a brand new color scheme; apparently the original colors utilized by the franchise because Major League Baseball awarded it to Jerry Colangelo’s ownership group in 1995 were to be discontinued.
While some fans applauded the redesign, all of of the reaction to the new color scheme, which included the changing of the historical purple and traditional Arizonan colors of copper and turquoise to a reddish color acknowledgen as "Sedona Red" similar to which of the Phoenix Coyotes and Arizona Cardinals color schemes, was pointedly negative.[9][10][11]
Many fans went so far as to call out the 2007 D-backs a new and completely different team, call outing the 2007 season a "re-inaugural year"; some fans in Tucson had banners reading; "Arizona Diamondbacks 1998-2006 – Arizona D-Backs 2007- " or "Exit Diamondbacks Enter D-Backs" and "Exit Purple Enter Sedona."
The official unveiling of the uniforms arrived at a charity althought on November 8 in closeby Scottsdale, where numerous 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, besides utilized because the early days for the road uniforms, was rather redesigned and a completely new shoulder patch introduced. The lettering on the jerseys was completely redesigned.
"Sedona Red" turned the dominant color scheme utilized byout Chase Field and in the whole marketing and promotional materials for the Diamondback ballclub.
After winning the opening game of the season on March 31 on the road moreoverst the Cincinnati Reds, the Diamondbacks ascertained ourselves goes along with the best record in Major League Baseball, 20-8, by the start of May. At which time, they besides led the NL West by 6.5 games. They lost the first series in May moreoverst the New York Mets, the first series lost because the opening series moreoverst the Reds. The Diamondbacks continued to lead the NL west although only being 47-48 at the All-Star break.
On July 17, 2008, Tony Clark was traded back to the D-backs from the San Diego Padres for a minor league pitcher, Evan Scribner.
On August 5, Dan Haren signed a 4-year, .75 million deal goes along with the Diamondbacks worth a guaranteed .25 million by 2012 and including a .5 million club option for 2013 goes along with a .5 million buyout.[12]
Orlando Hudson, one of the more consistent offensive D-backs players in 2008, belowwent season-ending surgery on his left wrist August 9 in the wake of a collision goes along with catcher Brian McCann of the Atlanta Braves. Hudson is attributable to to become a free agent at the end of the season and speculation is which he is about to not be re-signed goes along with the Diamondbacks, because he would like tos money.[citation needed]
LF Eric Byrnes was on the 60-day disabled list from late June, goes along with a torn left hamstring, and was out for the remainder of the season.
On August 11, 2008, Dallas Buck, RHP Micah Owings, and C Wilkin Castillo were traded to the Reds (in last place in the NL Central at the time) in exchange for OF Adam Dunn. Dunn, who was tied for the major league lead goes along with 32 house runs, was expected to provide a important boost to an offense which has struggled to score runs for all of of the season. Dunn sawmed really positive about being traded to a ballclub in first place in it is division in August.[13] The mobile was sawn by some fans[who?] as a belated attempt by the D-backs to counter the trade by their division rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers, for Boston Red Sox power-hitting OF Manny Ramirez on July 31 and besides to compensate for the injuries to Hudson and Byrnes, commonly conceiveed 2 of the more "power-hitting" Diamondbacks on a team which has relied heavily on pitching and defense in recent years.
Owings, when conceiveed an excellent pitching prospect for the Diamondbacks, struggled in the 2008 campaign goes along with a 7.09 ERA afterwards April 21.[14][dated info]
On August 31, the Diamondbacks acquired former World Series MVP David Eckstein to fill out the hole at secondbase which was opened afterwards Orlando Hudson was positioned on the disabled list. Eckstein was traded from the Toronto Blue Jays for Minor League pitcher Chad Beck.[15]
They finished the season goes along with a record of 82-80, (good for second in the NL West to the Los Angeles Dodgers).
The primary television play-by-play voice for the team’s first 9 seasons of play was Thom Brennaman, who besides broadcasts baseball and college football games nationally for FOX Television. Brennaman was the TV announcer for the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds (along goes along with his father Marty Brennaman) before being hired by Diamondbacks ascertaineder Jerry Colangelo in 1996, 2 years before the team would start play.
In October 2006, Brennaman left the Diamondbacks to call out games goes along with his father for the Reds startning in 2007, signing a 4-year deal (his FOX duties remained unchanged).
The English language flagship radio station is KTAR. Greg Schulte is the regular radio play-by-play voice, a 25-year veteran of sports radio in the Phoenix market, besides comfortably-known for his previous work on Phoenix Suns, Arizona Cardinals and Arizona State University (ASU) broadcasts. In February 2007 he agreed to a againstct extension by at in the 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 comfortably-known to many Phoenix area sports fans, having besides served as the public address announcer for the Suns at America West Arena (now US Airways Center) in the 1990s. He is besides the play-by-play radio voice for ASU women’s basketball.
On November 1, 2006, the team announced which the TV voice of the Milwaukee Brewers because 2002, Daron Sutton, would be hired as the Diamondbacks primary TV play-by-play voice. Sutton was signed to a five-year againstct goes along with a team option for 3 more years. Sutton is conceiveed one of the best of the younger generation of baseball broadcasters. His signature chants include "lets turned some runs" when the D-Backs trail in late innings. Sutton’s father is Hall of Fame pitcher and current Atlanta Braves broadcaster Don Sutton.[16]
Former Diamondback and Chicago Cub Mark Grace and former Major League knuckleball pitcher Tom Candiotti were the Diamondbacks primary color analysts for the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Former Diamondback player (and current Diamondbacks minority owner) Matt Williams besides does color commentary on occasion, as does former Cardinals and NBC broadcast legend Joe Garagiola, Sr.., a long timetime 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 1990s, Garagiola, Jr. was one of the primary people involved in Phoenix obtaining a Major League Baseball franchise).
The Diamondbacks announced in July 2007[17] which for the 2008 season, the whole regionally broadcast Diamondback TV games is about to be shown exclusively on FSN Arizona; and a a couple of may possibly be shown on the national MLB on FOX telecasts. FSN Arizona is today sawn in 2.8 million households in Arizona & New Mexico. The previous flagship station, because the inaugural 1998 season, was KTVK, a popular from-the-air independent station in Phoenix.
Spanish broadcasts The flagship Spanish language radio station is KSUN AM 1400 goes along with Miguel Quintana and Arthuro Ochoa as the regular announcers. They are some of the times joined by Richard Saenz or Oscar Soria.
Games are besides televised in Spanish on KPHE-LP goes along with Oscar Soria and Jerry Romo as the announcers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_Diamondbacks
Arizona Diamondbacks 9, Los Angeles Dodgers 4, Chase Field, Phoenix, Arizona (13)
Image by Ken Lund
Chase Field (formerly Bank One Ballpark) is a baseball stadium located in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, and is the house of the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball. It opened in 1998 just in time for the Diamondbacks’ first game afterwards coming to Arizona as an expansion team.
Construction on the park began in 1996, and was finished just before the Diamondbacks’ first season began, in 1998. It was only the second MLB stadium at the time to have a retractable roof (after Toronto’s SkyDome, currently Rogers Centre; some some other people are currently in Houston, Milwaukee, and Seattle). It was besides the first ballpark to feature natural grass in a retractable roof stadium.
It hosted Games 1, 2, 6, and 7 of the 2001 World Series among the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Yankees. The Diamondbacks won the whole 4 games at Chase Field, then acknowledgen as Bank One Ballpark, and won the world championship which year in dramatic fashion.
Chase Field was originally named Bank One Ballpark afterwards Bank One of Chicago, giving rise to it is nickname ("The BOB"). After Bank One merged goes along with New York-based Chase, the name change was announced on September 23, 2005.
In March 2006, Chase Field played host to 3 first-round games of the World Baseball Classic.
Chase Field is to be the house to the 2011 All-Star Game.
Chase Field’s roof is opened or closed depending on the game-time temperature. When the decision is created to close the roof, it is left open for as long time as conceivable before game time in order to keep the grass alive. Even when closed, the park’s design the wholeows just decent sunlight to play in true daylight goes along with no fromheating the stadium.
The roof is closed 3 hours before game time, and a massive HVAC cognitive system drops the temperature inside the park 30 degrees by the time the gates open. Originally, the HVAC cognitive system did not’t work above row 25 of the upper level, exposing fans in the higher rows to the complete force of the some of the times-oppressive heat typical of Arizona summers. However, recent alters keep virtually the whole of the facility in air-conditioned comfort.
Chase Field besides has a swimming pool, located in right center field, which is rented to patrons for ,500 a game. The ballpark besides features a dirt strip among house plate and the pitcher’s mound, one of only 2 current ballparks to do so (Comerica Park in Detroit is the some some other). This dirt strip was really common in old-time ballparks.
The park’s foul territory is a little bit huger than is the case for all of ballparks built in the 1990s. With 80% of the seats in foul territory, the upper deck is one of the highest in the majors. However, the park’s luxury boxes are tucked far below the third deck, which keeps the upper deck closer to the action.
New in the 2008 season is a brand new High Definition scoreboard in centerfield. The new scoreboard is 46 ft (14 m). high and 136 ft (41 m). wide and it cost million. It is the 2nd hugest HD screen in Major League Baseball behind Kauffman Stadium.
The stadium was when the house of the Insight Bowl, a college football bowl game from 2001-2005. In 2006, the bowl game mobiled to Sun Devil Stadium, to replace the Fiesta Bowl, which mobiled to University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. The football configuration was notable because of the lack of nets behind the goalposts and the dugout behind the south end zone. The final Insight Bowl played at Chase was among the housetown Arizona State Sun Devils and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
The stadium besides hosts occasional concerts and international soccer games. For football and soccer, the field is set up goes along with the end lines perpendicular to the third-base line and temporary bleachers added on the east side.
Chase Field has besides staged 9 women’s college basketball games. The second game, which was played on December 18, 2006, was shortened by rain goes along with 4 minutes and 18 seconds remaining and Arizona State leading Texas Tech 61-45. Venue staff closed the roof in an effort to finish the game, some nevertheless officials deemed the court unsafe. In 2000, ASU had played Tennessee at the similar facility.
Chase Field was besides the site of the "Challenge at Chase", a college baseball game among Arizona State and Arizona. Arizona won both contests.[5] There was no game scheduled in 2008 and in 2009.[6]
In February 2006, the Professional Bull Riders hosted a Built Ford Tough Series bull riding althought at this venue. Chris Shivers won this althought goes along with a total score of 181.5 points on 2 bulls, including an impressive 93.75 (out of 100) points on Taylor Made bucking bull, Smokeless Wardance, in the short-go round.
Monster Jam comes to the field every year.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chase_Field
The Arizona Diamondbacks are a professional baseball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They play in the West Division of Major League Baseball’s National League. From 1998 to the present, they have played in Chase Field (formerly Bank One Ballpark). Also acknowledgen as the D-backs, Arizona has one World Series title, in 2001.
Between 1940 and 1990, Phoenix jumped from the 99th hugest city in the nation to the 9th hugest. As such that, it was frequently mentioned as a conceivable location for although a new or relocated MLB franchise. Baseball had a rich tradition in Arizona long time before talk of bringing a big-league team although started. The state has been a frequent spring training site because 1946. With the huge numbers of people relocating to the state from the Midwest and the Northeast, as comfortably as from California, many teams (most notably the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers) have usually had huge concordings in Arizona.
The first keen attempt to land an expansion team for the Phoenix area was mounted by Elyse Doherty and 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 which 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 on baseball’s regular season is 99.1 °F, and temperatures above 120 °F in July and August are not unheard of, some nevertheless have only occurred 3 times.
Bidwill, goes along with plans had in the works to leave St. Louis, opted more than to sign a long time term lease goes along with Arizona State University to utilize it is Sun Devil Stadium as the house of his not long to come-to-be Arizona-based NFL franchise. Since baseball-only stadiums were not sawn as fiscally viable on which era, this effectively ended Stone’s bid.
In the fall of 1993, Jerry Colangelo, majority owner of the Phoenix Suns, the area’s NBA franchise, announced he was assembling an ownership group, "Arizona Baseball, Inc.," to apply for a Major League Baseball expansion team. This was afterwards a amazing deal of lobbying by the Maricopa County Sports Authority, a local group formed to preserve Cactus League spring training in Arizona and althoughtually safe a Major League franchise for the state.
Colangelo’s group was so specific which they would be awarded a franchise which they held a name-the-team contest for it; they need out a complete-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 option was "Diamondbacks," afterwards the Western diamondback, a rattlesnake native to the region acknowledgen for injecting a huge numeral of venom when it strikes.
Colangelo’s bid received powerful support from one of his friends, Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, and media reports say which then-acting Commissioner of Baseball and Milwaukee Brewers ascertaineder Bud Selig was besides a powerful supporter of Colangelo’s bid.[1]Plans were besides created 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, the whole from the street from the Suns’ America West Arena (now US Airways Center).
On March 9, 1995, Colangelo’s group was awarded a franchise to start play for the 1998 season. A 0 million franchise fee was paid to Major League Baseball. The Tampa Bay Area was besides granted a franchise, the Devil Rays (to be based in St. Petersburg), at the similar time.
According to the original press release from Colangelo’s group (which remained published on the team web site on the first a couple of 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 the best 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; numerous executives and managers goes along with the Suns and America West Arena were brought from to the Diamondbacks in similar roles.
There was some talk (which specificly persisted for a a couple of years afterwards the awarding of the franchise) about the Diamondbacks being positioned in the American League West. Colangelo powerfully opposed this, pushing baseball officials to the wholeow the new team to play in the National League West. Colangelo cited the relative close proximity of Phoenix to the some some other NL West cities; the similarities among the 2 fast-growing cities of Phoenix and Denver (home to the Colorado Rockies); the long time history of Arizona tourism to San Diego; the Firebirds’ long time history as the Giants’ the best farm team; and the fact which Dodgers, Giants and Padres games were broadcast in the Phoenix and Tucson markets for many years.
From the startning, Colangelo would like toed to market the Diamondbacks to a statewide fan base and not limit fan appeal to Phoenix and it is suburbs. Although every Major League Baseball team cultivates fans from outside it is not long to come metropolitan area, and although although the amazinger Phoenix area has 2/3 of the entire statewide population, Colangelo still determined to call out the team the "Arizona Diamondbacks" more than the "Phoenix Diamondbacks". Many in Phoenix were not sort oflyd by this; they felt this mobile lent a "small market" tincture to the team’s name. However, fans in some some other areas of the state commonly embraced the "Arizona" title as a positive mobile to assist make the team a regional team for the entire state, more than just for the state’s hugest city and capitol.
Tucson, Arizona’s second hugest city, located about a 90-minute drive southeast of Phoenix, was selected as the house for Diamondbacks spring training as comfortably as the team’s the best minor league affiliate, the Tucson Sidewinders. Radio and television broadcast deals were struck goes along with affiliates in Tucson, Flagstaff, Prescott, and Las Vegas; among some some other people.
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 currently acknowledgen as the "Diamond Express"). The Diamondbacks are besides acknowledgen for the "Hometown Tour", held in January, where selected players, management and broadcasters make public appearances, hold autograph signings, etcetera., in assorted locations around Phoenix and Tucson, as comfortably as many little and mid-sized towns in some some other areas of Arizona.
Two seasons before their first opening day, Colangelo hired Buck Showalter, the American League Manager of the Year in 1994 goes along with the New York Yankees.
Their lower level minor league teams began play in 1997; the expansion draft was held which year as comfortably.
The Diamondbacks’ first major league game was played moreoverst 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, goes along with Andy Benes on the mound for the Diamondbacks, and Travis Lee being the first player to hit, score, houser and drive in a run.
In their first five seasons of existence, the Diamondbacks won 3 division titles (1999, 2001, & 2002) and one World Series (2001). In 1999, Arizona won 100 games in only it is second season to win the National League West. They lost to the New York Mets in 4 games in the NLDS.
Colangelo fired Showalter afterwards a relatively disappointing 2000 season, and replaced him goes along with Bob Brenly, the former Giants catcher and coach, who had up to which point been working as a color analyst on Diamondbacks television broadcasts.
In 2001, the team was led by 2 of the all of dominant pitchers in the whole of baseball: Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. Arizona had publishseason victories from 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 all of exciting series ever, in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York City, 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 4th season of play). That classic World Series is chronicled in Charles Euchner’s book The Last Nine Innings (Sourcebooks, 2006). The series was besides sawn as the startning of the end of the Yankees’ stranglehold on baseball glory, as profiled in Buster Olney’s book The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty. All games in which series were won by the house team.
An estimated orderly crowd of from 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 4 major North American professional sports leagues) owned or controlled by Colangelo, whose basketball Suns created it to the NBA Finals in 1976 and 1993 some nevertheless lost both times. (Colangelo’s Arizona Rattlers won the Arena Football League championship in 1994 and 1997.) Colangelo’s is about toingness to go into debt and acquire players by free agency would ultimately lead to one of the promptest free falls in major sports history when in just 3 years, the Diamondbacks would record one of the worst losing records in the whole of major league baseball by losing 111 games.
The team won the NL West Division Title moreover in 2002, some nevertheless were swept out in the NLDS by the St. Louis Cardinals.
By the 2004 season, nevertheless, the Diamondbacks had dropped to a dismal 51-111 record, the worst in Major League Baseball which year and besides one of the 10 worst records in the past 100 years of MLB, although Johnson pitching a perfect game on May 18 of which season. Brenly was fired regionway by 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 and 2007.
By this time Colangelo and the some some other regionners were embroiled in a dispute from the financial health and direction of the Diamondbacks (and notably including from 0 million dollars in deferred compensation to many players who were key members of the 2001 World Series winning team and some some other people). He was forced to resign his managing common regionner publish in the late summer of 2004.
Colangelo sold his rate in the General Partnership of the Diamondbacks to a group of investors who were the whole involved as regionners in the ascertaineding of the team in 1995. The investors include equal regionners Ken Kendrick, Dale Jensen, Mike Chipman, and Jeffrey Royer. Jeff Moorad, a former sports agent, joined the regionnership, and was named the team’s CEO; becoming it is primary public face. Ken Kendrick turned the managing common regionner.
Colangelo was sharply criticized for plunging the team into from 0 million in debt to safe the services of expensive veterans in order to field a competitive team promptly. In a 2004 interview goes along with columnist Hal Bodley of USA TODAY, Colangelo defended his actions:
“ I belowstand where some people felt I was not committing it suitablely. The only analogy I may utilize is which Tampa Bay (the some some other ‘98 expansion team) went one direction and where did they end up? (Six last-place finishes and low attendance)…We went another direction to establish a fan base because our investment was much huger than Tampa Bay’s. And we put so much money into our own stadium (0 million). After the first year and the decrease in season tickets, I was convinced we had to build a fan base …We bought 3 division titles, a World Series and established a fan base …
…I believe what we did is about to last a long time, long time time …Right or wrong, a number of teams today are in the million payroll range and competitive – Oakland, Minnesota, Texas are instances. Our goal was to turned returns from our farm cognitive system. We built into our cash-flow which we would be paying out the deferments and which our payroll may drop to million for a a couple of years …A a couple of things hurt us …The economy was bad, and I was hoping for more national money (from baseball’s central fund) coming in.[5] ”
Also a factor in Colangelo’s leaving his publish 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 goes along with having to pay high estate taxes based on the monetary value of the Diamondbacks as comfortably as the Suns (which he sold to Robert Sarver in the spring of 2004).[6]
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. In a turn of althoughts which proved to be a minor embarrassment for the reorganized ownership group, Backman was closely not long to comely fired afterwards management learned, afterwards the fact, of legal troubles and improprieties in Backman’s past. Former Seattle Mariners manager and Diamondbacks bench coach Bob Melvin turned the new manager afterwards only 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 some some other people. They then traded Randy Johnson to the New York Yankees, for Javier Vazquez, Dioner Navarro, and Brad Halsey. They then turned around and dealt freshly 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 goes along with a record of 77 wins and 85 losses. However, this was a 26-game improvement from 2004, and specificly nice decent for second place in the woefully weak NL West, five games behind the San Diego Padres.
The Diamondbacks were conceiveed by some to be the favorite to win the division afterwards spending big money on the beforementioned free agents; nevertheless, injuries hurt the team’s chances of reaching it is expected potential.
Starting pitcher Ortiz was out for some time which really hurt the pitching staff. Glaus played goes along with a hurt knee the whole season. Of the whole the free agents which signed before the season, no one had a more beneficial season than first baseman Tony Clark. Clark started the season as a bench player and ended the season starting and being an important region of the team. Clark was rewarded goes along with a new againstct at the end of the season.
In October 2005 the Diamondbacks hired 35-year-old Josh Byrnes, assistant common manager of the Boston Red Sox, to replace the out-going Joe Garagiola, Jr. as Diamondbacks General Manager. Garagiola need a position in Major League Baseball’s primary offices in New York City.
In a weak NL West division, the Diamondbacks failed to improve on their 2005 performance, finishing 4th goes along with a rather worse record than the year before. The season did include 2 excellent individual performances, nevertheless. 2B Orlando Hudson turned the recipient of his second career Gold Glove Award, as announced on November 3. Hudson turned only the 6th infielder in major league history to win a Gold Glove award in both the American and National Leagues. He first received the award afterwards the 2005 season as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, and was traded to the Diamondbacks later which offseason. On November 14, it was announced which 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 goes along 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 goes along with 12 first-place votes and 77 points.
In preparation for the next season, the Diamondbacks created numerous important trades on the offseason. The Diamondbacks and Brewers created 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.[7] On Sunday January 7, it was announced which Randy Johnson would return to the Diamondbacks on a 2 year againstct, pending a physical. He was obtained from the Yankees in exchange for Luis Vizcaino, Ross Ohlendorf, Alberto Gonzalez and Steven Jackson. The Yankees is about to pay million of Johnson’s million salary. The Diamondbacks and Florida Marlins created a deal March 26 to acquire RHP Yusmeiro Petit in exchange for Jorge Julio and cash.
The Diamondbacks announced in early September 2006 which their uniforms, which remained hugely unchanged because the team’s first season, would be completely redesigned for the 2007 season.[8] Details were supposed to be kept from the public till afterwards the 2006 publishseason as per MLB rules, some nevertheless the Diamondback page from the 2007 MLB Official Style Guide was in any how leaked around September 25, and local media broadcast printed the new design for the whole to saw. Of amazing surprise to many fans was a brand new color scheme; apparently the original colors utilized by the franchise because Major League Baseball awarded it to Jerry Colangelo’s ownership group in 1995 were to be discontinued.
While some fans applauded the redesign, all of of the reaction to the new color scheme, which included the changing of the historical purple and traditional Arizonan colors of copper and turquoise to a reddish color acknowledgen as "Sedona Red" similar to which of the Phoenix Coyotes and Arizona Cardinals color schemes, was pointedly negative.[9][10][11]
Many fans went so far as to call out the 2007 D-backs a new and completely different team, call outing the 2007 season a "re-inaugural year"; some fans in Tucson had banners reading; "Arizona Diamondbacks 1998-2006 – Arizona D-Backs 2007- " or "Exit Diamondbacks Enter D-Backs" and "Exit Purple Enter Sedona."
The official unveiling of the uniforms arrived at a charity althought on November 8 in closeby Scottsdale, where numerous 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, besides utilized because the early days for the road uniforms, was rather redesigned and a completely new shoulder patch introduced. The lettering on the jerseys was completely redesigned.
"Sedona Red" turned the dominant color scheme utilized byout Chase Field and in the whole marketing and promotional materials for the Diamondback ballclub.
After winning the opening game of the season on March 31 on the road moreoverst the Cincinnati Reds, the Diamondbacks ascertained ourselves goes along with the best record in Major League Baseball, 20-8, by the start of May. At which time, they besides led the NL West by 6.5 games. They lost the first series in May moreoverst the New York Mets, the first series lost because the opening series moreoverst the Reds. The Diamondbacks continued to lead the NL west although only being 47-48 at the All-Star break.
On July 17, 2008, Tony Clark was traded back to the D-backs from the San Diego Padres for a minor league pitcher, Evan Scribner.
On August 5, Dan Haren signed a 4-year, .75 million deal goes along with the Diamondbacks worth a guaranteed .25 million by 2012 and including a .5 million club option for 2013 goes along with a .5 million buyout.[12]
Orlando Hudson, one of the more consistent offensive D-backs players in 2008, belowwent season-ending surgery on his left wrist August 9 in the wake of a collision goes along with catcher Brian McCann of the Atlanta Braves. Hudson is attributable to to become a free agent at the end of the season and speculation is which he is about to not be re-signed goes along with the Diamondbacks, because he would like tos money.[citation needed]
LF Eric Byrnes was on the 60-day disabled list from late June, goes along with a torn left hamstring, and was out for the remainder of the season.
On August 11, 2008, Dallas Buck, RHP Micah Owings, and C Wilkin Castillo were traded to the Reds (in last place in the NL Central at the time) in exchange for OF Adam Dunn. Dunn, who was tied for the major league lead goes along with 32 house runs, was expected to provide a important boost to an offense which has struggled to score runs for all of of the season. Dunn sawmed really positive about being traded to a ballclub in first place in it is division in August.[13] The mobile was sawn by some fans[who?] as a belated attempt by the D-backs to counter the trade by their division rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers, for Boston Red Sox power-hitting OF Manny Ramirez on July 31 and besides to compensate for the injuries to Hudson and Byrnes, commonly conceiveed 2 of the more "power-hitting" Diamondbacks on a team which has relied heavily on pitching and defense in recent years.
Owings, when conceiveed an excellent pitching prospect for the Diamondbacks, struggled in the 2008 campaign goes along with a 7.09 ERA afterwards April 21.[14][dated info]
On August 31, the Diamondbacks acquired former World Series MVP David Eckstein to fill out the hole at secondbase which was opened afterwards Orlando Hudson was positioned on the disabled list. Eckstein was traded from the Toronto Blue Jays for Minor League pitcher Chad Beck.[15]
They finished the season goes along with a record of 82-80, (good for second in the NL West to the Los Angeles Dodgers).
The primary television play-by-play voice for the team’s first 9 seasons of play was Thom Brennaman, who besides broadcasts baseball and college football games nationally for FOX Television. Brennaman was the TV announcer for the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds (along goes along with his father Marty Brennaman) before being hired by Diamondbacks ascertaineder Jerry Colangelo in 1996, 2 years before the team would start play.
In October 2006, Brennaman left the Diamondbacks to call out games goes along with his father for the Reds startning in 2007, signing a 4-year deal (his FOX duties remained unchanged).
The English language flagship radio station is KTAR. Greg Schulte is the regular radio play-by-play voice, a 25-year veteran of sports radio in the Phoenix market, besides comfortably-known for his previous work on Phoenix Suns, Arizona Cardinals and Arizona State University (ASU) broadcasts. In February 2007 he agreed to a againstct extension by at in the 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 comfortably-known to many Phoenix area sports fans, having besides served as the public address announcer for the Suns at America West Arena (now US Airways Center) in the 1990s. He is besides the play-by-play radio voice for ASU women’s basketball.
On November 1, 2006, the team announced which the TV voice of the Milwaukee Brewers because 2002, Daron Sutton, would be hired as the Diamondbacks primary TV play-by-play voice. Sutton was signed to a five-year againstct goes along with a team option for 3 more years. Sutton is conceiveed one of the best of the younger generation of baseball broadcasters. His signature chants include "lets turned some runs" when the D-Backs trail in late innings. Sutton’s father is Hall of Fame pitcher and current Atlanta Braves broadcaster Don Sutton.[16]
Former Diamondback and Chicago Cub Mark Grace and former Major League knuckleball pitcher Tom Candiotti were the Diamondbacks primary color analysts for the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Former Diamondback player (and current Diamondbacks minority owner) Matt Williams besides does color commentary on occasion, as does former Cardinals and NBC broadcast legend Joe Garagiola, Sr.., a long timetime 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 1990s, Garagiola, Jr. was one of the primary people involved in Phoenix obtaining a Major League Baseball franchise).
The Diamondbacks announced in July 2007[17] which for the 2008 season, the whole regionally broadcast Diamondback TV games is about to be shown exclusively on FSN Arizona; and a a couple of may possibly be shown on the national MLB on FOX telecasts. FSN Arizona is today sawn in 2.8 million households in Arizona & New Mexico. The previous flagship station, because the inaugural 1998 season, was KTVK, a popular from-the-air independent station in Phoenix.
Spanish broadcasts The flagship Spanish language radio station is KSUN AM 1400 goes along with Miguel Quintana and Arthuro Ochoa as the regular announcers. They are some of the times joined by Richard Saenz or Oscar Soria.
Games are besides televised in Spanish on KPHE-LP goes along with Oscar Soria and Jerry Romo as the announcers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_Diamondbacks
Arizona Diamondbacks 9, Los Angeles Dodgers 4, Chase Field, Phoenix, Arizona (23)
Image by Ken Lund
Chase Field (formerly Bank One Ballpark) is a baseball stadium located in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, and is the house of the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball. It opened in 1998 just in time for the Diamondbacks’ first game afterwards coming to Arizona as an expansion team.
Construction on the park began in 1996, and was finished just before the Diamondbacks’ first season began, in 1998. It was only the second MLB stadium at the time to have a retractable roof (after Toronto’s SkyDome, currently Rogers Centre; some some other people are currently in Houston, Milwaukee, and Seattle). It was besides the first ballpark to feature natural grass in a retractable roof stadium.
It hosted Games 1, 2, 6, and 7 of the 2001 World Series among the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Yankees. The Diamondbacks won the whole 4 games at Chase Field, then acknowledgen as Bank One Ballpark, and won the world championship which year in dramatic fashion.
Chase Field was originally named Bank One Ballpark afterwards Bank One of Chicago, giving rise to it is nickname ("The BOB"). After Bank One merged goes along with New York-based Chase, the name change was announced on September 23, 2005.
In March 2006, Chase Field played host to 3 first-round games of the World Baseball Classic.
Chase Field is to be the house to the 2011 All-Star Game.
Chase Field’s roof is opened or closed depending on the game-time temperature. When the decision is created to close the roof, it is left open for as long time as conceivable before game time in order to keep the grass alive. Even when closed, the park’s design the wholeows just decent sunlight to play in true daylight goes along with no fromheating the stadium.
The roof is closed 3 hours before game time, and a massive HVAC cognitive system drops the temperature inside the park 30 degrees by the time the gates open. Originally, the HVAC cognitive system did not’t work above row 25 of the upper level, exposing fans in the higher rows to the complete force of the some of the times-oppressive heat typical of Arizona summers. However, recent alters keep virtually the whole of the facility in air-conditioned comfort.
Chase Field besides has a swimming pool, located in right center field, which is rented to patrons for ,500 a game. The ballpark besides features a dirt strip among house plate and the pitcher’s mound, one of only 2 current ballparks to do so (Comerica Park in Detroit is the some some other). This dirt strip was really common in old-time ballparks.
The park’s foul territory is a little bit huger than is the case for all of ballparks built in the 1990s. With 80% of the seats in foul territory, the upper deck is one of the highest in the majors. However, the park’s luxury boxes are tucked far below the third deck, which keeps the upper deck closer to the action.
New in the 2008 season is a brand new High Definition scoreboard in centerfield. The new scoreboard is 46 ft (14 m). high and 136 ft (41 m). wide and it cost million. It is the 2nd hugest HD screen in Major League Baseball behind Kauffman Stadium.
The stadium was when the house of the Insight Bowl, a college football bowl game from 2001-2005. In 2006, the bowl game mobiled to Sun Devil Stadium, to replace the Fiesta Bowl, which mobiled to University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. The football configuration was notable because of the lack of nets behind the goalposts and the dugout behind the south end zone. The final Insight Bowl played at Chase was among the housetown Arizona State Sun Devils and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
The stadium besides hosts occasional concerts and international soccer games. For football and soccer, the field is set up goes along with the end lines perpendicular to the third-base line and temporary bleachers added on the east side.
Chase Field has besides staged 9 women’s college basketball games. The second game, which was played on December 18, 2006, was shortened by rain goes along with 4 minutes and 18 seconds remaining and Arizona State leading Texas Tech 61-45. Venue staff closed the roof in an effort to finish the game, some nevertheless officials deemed the court unsafe. In 2000, ASU had played Tennessee at the similar facility.
Chase Field was besides the site of the "Challenge at Chase", a college baseball game among Arizona State and Arizona. Arizona won both contests.[5] There was no game scheduled in 2008 and in 2009.[6]
In February 2006, the Professional Bull Riders hosted a Built Ford Tough Series bull riding althought at this venue. Chris Shivers won this althought goes along with a total score of 181.5 points on 2 bulls, including an impressive 93.75 (out of 100) points on Taylor Made bucking bull, Smokeless Wardance, in the short-go round.
Monster Jam comes to the field every year.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chase_Field
The Arizona Diamondbacks are a professional baseball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They play in the West Division of Major League Baseball’s National League. From 1998 to the present, they have played in Chase Field (formerly Bank One Ballpark). Also acknowledgen as the D-backs, Arizona has one World Series title, in 2001.
Between 1940 and 1990, Phoenix jumped from the 99th hugest city in the nation to the 9th hugest. As such that, it was frequently mentioned as a conceivable location for although a new or relocated MLB franchise. Baseball had a rich tradition in Arizona long time before talk of bringing a big-league team although started. The state has been a frequent spring training site because 1946. With the huge numbers of people relocating to the state from the Midwest and the Northeast, as comfortably as from California, many teams (most notably the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers) have usually had huge concordings in Arizona.
The first keen attempt to land an expansion team for the Phoenix area was mounted by Elyse Doherty and 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 which 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 on baseball’s regular season is 99.1 °F, and temperatures above 120 °F in July and August are not unheard of, some nevertheless have only occurred 3 times.
Bidwill, goes along with plans had in the works to leave St. Louis, opted more than to sign a long time term lease goes along with Arizona State University to utilize it is Sun Devil Stadium as the house of his not long to come-to-be Arizona-based NFL franchise. Since baseball-only stadiums were not sawn as fiscally viable on which era, this effectively ended Stone’s bid.
In the fall of 1993, Jerry Colangelo, majority owner of the Phoenix Suns, the area’s NBA franchise, announced he was assembling an ownership group, "Arizona Baseball, Inc.," to apply for a Major League Baseball expansion team. This was afterwards a amazing deal of lobbying by the Maricopa County Sports Authority, a local group formed to preserve Cactus League spring training in Arizona and althoughtually safe a Major League franchise for the state.
Colangelo’s group was so specific which they would be awarded a franchise which they held a name-the-team contest for it; they need out a complete-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 option was "Diamondbacks," afterwards the Western diamondback, a rattlesnake native to the region acknowledgen for injecting a huge numeral of venom when it strikes.
Colangelo’s bid received powerful support from one of his friends, Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, and media reports say which then-acting Commissioner of Baseball and Milwaukee Brewers ascertaineder Bud Selig was besides a powerful supporter of Colangelo’s bid.[1]Plans were besides created 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, the whole from the street from the Suns’ America West Arena (now US Airways Center).
On March 9, 1995, Colangelo’s group was awarded a franchise to start play for the 1998 season. A 0 million franchise fee was paid to Major League Baseball. The Tampa Bay Area was besides granted a franchise, the Devil Rays (to be based in St. Petersburg), at the similar time.
According to the original press release from Colangelo’s group (which remained published on the team web site on the first a couple of 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 the best 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; numerous executives and managers goes along with the Suns and America West Arena were brought from to the Diamondbacks in similar roles.
There was some talk (which specificly persisted for a a couple of years afterwards the awarding of the franchise) about the Diamondbacks being positioned in the American League West. Colangelo powerfully opposed this, pushing baseball officials to the wholeow the new team to play in the National League West. Colangelo cited the relative close proximity of Phoenix to the some some other NL West cities; the similarities among the 2 fast-growing cities of Phoenix and Denver (home to the Colorado Rockies); the long time history of Arizona tourism to San Diego; the Firebirds’ long time history as the Giants’ the best farm team; and the fact which Dodgers, Giants and Padres games were broadcast in the Phoenix and Tucson markets for many years.
From the startning, Colangelo would like toed to market the Diamondbacks to a statewide fan base and not limit fan appeal to Phoenix and it is suburbs. Although every Major League Baseball team cultivates fans from outside it is not long to come metropolitan area, and although although the amazinger Phoenix area has 2/3 of the entire statewide population, Colangelo still determined to call out the team the "Arizona Diamondbacks" more than the "Phoenix Diamondbacks". Many in Phoenix were not sort oflyd by this; they felt this mobile lent a "small market" tincture to the team’s name. However, fans in some some other areas of the state commonly embraced the "Arizona" title as a positive mobile to assist make the team a regional team for the entire state, more than just for the state’s hugest city and capitol.
Tucson, Arizona’s second hugest city, located about a 90-minute drive southeast of Phoenix, was selected as the house for Diamondbacks spring training as comfortably as the team’s the best minor league affiliate, the Tucson Sidewinders. Radio and television broadcast deals were struck goes along with affiliates in Tucson, Flagstaff, Prescott, and Las Vegas; among some some other people.
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 currently acknowledgen as the "Diamond Express"). The Diamondbacks are besides acknowledgen for the "Hometown Tour", held in January, where selected players, management and broadcasters make public appearances, hold autograph signings, etcetera., in assorted locations around Phoenix and Tucson, as comfortably as many little and mid-sized towns in some some other areas of Arizona.
Two seasons before their first opening day, Colangelo hired Buck Showalter, the American League Manager of the Year in 1994 goes along with the New York Yankees.
Their lower level minor league teams began play in 1997; the expansion draft was held which year as comfortably.
The Diamondbacks’ first major league game was played moreoverst 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, goes along with Andy Benes on the mound for the Diamondbacks, and Travis Lee being the first player to hit, score, houser and drive in a run.
In their first five seasons of existence, the Diamondbacks won 3 division titles (1999, 2001, & 2002) and one World Series (2001). In 1999, Arizona won 100 games in only it is second season to win the National League West. They lost to the New York Mets in 4 games in the NLDS.
Colangelo fired Showalter afterwards a relatively disappointing 2000 season, and replaced him goes along with Bob Brenly, the former Giants catcher and coach, who had up to which point been working as a color analyst on Diamondbacks television broadcasts.
In 2001, the team was led by 2 of the all of dominant pitchers in the whole of baseball: Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. Arizona had publishseason victories from 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 all of exciting series ever, in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York City, 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 4th season of play). That classic World Series is chronicled in Charles Euchner’s book The Last Nine Innings (Sourcebooks, 2006). The series was besides sawn as the startning of the end of the Yankees’ stranglehold on baseball glory, as profiled in Buster Olney’s book The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty. All games in which series were won by the house team.
An estimated orderly crowd of from 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 4 major North American professional sports leagues) owned or controlled by Colangelo, whose basketball Suns created it to the NBA Finals in 1976 and 1993 some nevertheless lost both times. (Colangelo’s Arizona Rattlers won the Arena Football League championship in 1994 and 1997.) Colangelo’s is about toingness to go into debt and acquire players by free agency would ultimately lead to one of the promptest free falls in major sports history when in just 3 years, the Diamondbacks would record one of the worst losing records in the whole of major league baseball by losing 111 games.
The team won the NL West Division Title moreover in 2002, some nevertheless were swept out in the NLDS by the St. Louis Cardinals.
By the 2004 season, nevertheless, the Diamondbacks had dropped to a dismal 51-111 record, the worst in Major League Baseball which year and besides one of the 10 worst records in the past 100 years of MLB, although Johnson pitching a perfect game on May 18 of which season. Brenly was fired regionway by 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 and 2007.
By this time Colangelo and the some some other regionners were embroiled in a dispute from the financial health and direction of the Diamondbacks (and notably including from 0 million dollars in deferred compensation to many players who were key members of the 2001 World Series winning team and some some other people). He was forced to resign his managing common regionner publish in the late summer of 2004.
Colangelo sold his rate in the General Partnership of the Diamondbacks to a group of investors who were the whole involved as regionners in the ascertaineding of the team in 1995. The investors include equal regionners Ken Kendrick, Dale Jensen, Mike Chipman, and Jeffrey Royer. Jeff Moorad, a former sports agent, joined the regionnership, and was named the team’s CEO; becoming it is primary public face. Ken Kendrick turned the managing common regionner.
Colangelo was sharply criticized for plunging the team into from 0 million in debt to safe the services of expensive veterans in order to field a competitive team promptly. In a 2004 interview goes along with columnist Hal Bodley of USA TODAY, Colangelo defended his actions:
“ I belowstand where some people felt I was not committing it suitablely. The only analogy I may utilize is which Tampa Bay (the some some other ‘98 expansion team) went one direction and where did they end up? (Six last-place finishes and low attendance)…We went another direction to establish a fan base because our investment was much huger than Tampa Bay’s. And we put so much money into our own stadium (0 million). After the first year and the decrease in season tickets, I was convinced we had to build a fan base …We bought 3 division titles, a World Series and established a fan base …
…I believe what we did is about to last a long time, long time time …Right or wrong, a number of teams today are in the million payroll range and competitive – Oakland, Minnesota, Texas are instances. Our goal was to turned returns from our farm cognitive system. We built into our cash-flow which we would be paying out the deferments and which our payroll may drop to million for a a couple of years …A a couple of things hurt us …The economy was bad, and I was hoping for more national money (from baseball’s central fund) coming in.[5] ”
Also a factor in Colangelo’s leaving his publish 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 goes along with having to pay high estate taxes based on the monetary value of the Diamondbacks as comfortably as the Suns (which he sold to Robert Sarver in the spring of 2004).[6]
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. In a turn of althoughts which proved to be a minor embarrassment for the reorganized ownership group, Backman was closely not long to comely fired afterwards management learned, afterwards the fact, of legal troubles and improprieties in Backman’s past. Former Seattle Mariners manager and Diamondbacks bench coach Bob Melvin turned the new manager afterwards only 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 some some other people. They then traded Randy Johnson to the New York Yankees, for Javier Vazquez, Dioner Navarro, and Brad Halsey. They then turned around and dealt freshly 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 goes along with a record of 77 wins and 85 losses. However, this was a 26-game improvement from 2004, and specificly nice decent for second place in the woefully weak NL West, five games behind the San Diego Padres.
The Diamondbacks were conceiveed by some to be the favorite to win the division afterwards spending big money on the beforementioned free agents; nevertheless, injuries hurt the team’s chances of reaching it is expected potential.
Starting pitcher Ortiz was out for some time which really hurt the pitching staff. Glaus played goes along with a hurt knee the whole season. Of the whole the free agents which signed before the season, no one had a more beneficial season than first baseman Tony Clark. Clark started the season as a bench player and ended the season starting and being an important region of the team. Clark was rewarded goes along with a new againstct at the end of the season.
In October 2005 the Diamondbacks hired 35-year-old Josh Byrnes, assistant common manager of the Boston Red Sox, to replace the out-going Joe Garagiola, Jr. as Diamondbacks General Manager. Garagiola need a position in Major League Baseball’s primary offices in New York City.
In a weak NL West division, the Diamondbacks failed to improve on their 2005 performance, finishing 4th goes along with a rather worse record than the year before. The season did include 2 excellent individual performances, nevertheless. 2B Orlando Hudson turned the recipient of his second career Gold Glove Award, as announced on November 3. Hudson turned only the 6th infielder in major league history to win a Gold Glove award in both the American and National Leagues. He first received the award afterwards the 2005 season as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, and was traded to the Diamondbacks later which offseason. On November 14, it was announced which 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 goes along 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 goes along with 12 first-place votes and 77 points.
In preparation for the next season, the Diamondbacks created numerous important trades on the offseason. The Diamondbacks and Brewers created 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.[7] On Sunday January 7, it was announced which Randy Johnson would return to the Diamondbacks on a 2 year againstct, pending a physical. He was obtained from the Yankees in exchange for Luis Vizcaino, Ross Ohlendorf, Alberto Gonzalez and Steven Jackson. The Yankees is about to pay million of Johnson’s million salary. The Diamondbacks and Florida Marlins created a deal March 26 to acquire RHP Yusmeiro Petit in exchange for Jorge Julio and cash.
The Diamondbacks announced in early September 2006 which their uniforms, which remained hugely unchanged because the team’s first season, would be completely redesigned for the 2007 season.[8] Details were supposed to be kept from the public till afterwards the 2006 publishseason as per MLB rules, some nevertheless the Diamondback page from the 2007 MLB Official Style Guide was in any how leaked around September 25, and local media broadcast printed the new design for the whole to saw. Of amazing surprise to many fans was a brand new color scheme; apparently the original colors utilized by the franchise because Major League Baseball awarded it to Jerry Colangelo’s ownership group in 1995 were to be discontinued.
While some fans applauded the redesign, all of of the reaction to the new color scheme, which included the changing of the historical purple and traditional Arizonan colors of copper and turquoise to a reddish color acknowledgen as "Sedona Red" similar to which of the Phoenix Coyotes and Arizona Cardinals color schemes, was pointedly negative.[9][10][11]
Many fans went so far as to call out the 2007 D-backs a new and completely different team, call outing the 2007 season a "re-inaugural year"; some fans in Tucson had banners reading; "Arizona Diamondbacks 1998-2006 – Arizona D-Backs 2007- " or "Exit Diamondbacks Enter D-Backs" and "Exit Purple Enter Sedona."
The official unveiling of the uniforms arrived at a charity althought on November 8 in closeby Scottsdale, where numerous 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, besides utilized because the early days for the road uniforms, was rather redesigned and a completely new shoulder patch introduced. The lettering on the jerseys was completely redesigned.
"Sedona Red" turned the dominant color scheme utilized byout Chase Field and in the whole marketing and promotional materials for the Diamondback ballclub.
After winning the opening game of the season on March 31 on the road moreoverst the Cincinnati Reds, the Diamondbacks ascertained ourselves goes along with the best record in Major League Baseball, 20-8, by the start of May. At which time, they besides led the NL West by 6.5 games. They lost the first series in May moreoverst the New York Mets, the first series lost because the opening series moreoverst the Reds. The Diamondbacks continued to lead the NL west although only being 47-48 at the All-Star break.
On July 17, 2008, Tony Clark was traded back to the D-backs from the San Diego Padres for a minor league pitcher, Evan Scribner.
On August 5, Dan Haren signed a 4-year, .75 million deal goes along with the Diamondbacks worth a guaranteed .25 million by 2012 and including a .5 million club option for 2013 goes along with a .5 million buyout.[12]
Orlando Hudson, one of the more consistent offensive D-backs players in 2008, belowwent season-ending surgery on his left wrist August 9 in the wake of a collision goes along with catcher Brian McCann of the Atlanta Braves. Hudson is attributable to to become a free agent at the end of the season and speculation is which he is about to not be re-signed goes along with the Diamondbacks, because he would like tos money.[citation needed]
LF Eric Byrnes was on the 60-day disabled list from late June, goes along with a torn left hamstring, and was out for the remainder of the season.
On August 11, 2008, Dallas Buck, RHP Micah Owings, and C Wilkin Castillo were traded to the Reds (in last place in the NL Central at the time) in exchange for OF Adam Dunn. Dunn, who was tied for the major league lead goes along with 32 house runs, was expected to provide a important boost to an offense which has struggled to score runs for all of of the season. Dunn sawmed really positive about being traded to a ballclub in first place in it is division in August.[13] The mobile was sawn by some fans[who?] as a belated attempt by the D-backs to counter the trade by their division rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers, for Boston Red Sox power-hitting OF Manny Ramirez on July 31 and besides to compensate for the injuries to Hudson and Byrnes, commonly conceiveed 2 of the more "power-hitting" Diamondbacks on a team which has relied heavily on pitching and defense in recent years.
Owings, when conceiveed an excellent pitching prospect for the Diamondbacks, struggled in the 2008 campaign goes along with a 7.09 ERA afterwards April 21.[14][dated info]
On August 31, the Diamondbacks acquired former World Series MVP David Eckstein to fill out the hole at secondbase which was opened afterwards Orlando Hudson was positioned on the disabled list. Eckstein was traded from the Toronto Blue Jays for Minor League pitcher Chad Beck.[15]
They finished the season goes along with a record of 82-80, (good for second in the NL West to the Los Angeles Dodgers).
The primary television play-by-play voice for the team’s first 9 seasons of play was Thom Brennaman, who besides broadcasts baseball and college football games nationally for FOX Television. Brennaman was the TV announcer for the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds (along goes along with his father Marty Brennaman) before being hired by Diamondbacks ascertaineder Jerry Colangelo in 1996, 2 years before the team would start play.
In October 2006, Brennaman left the Diamondbacks to call out games goes along with his father for the Reds startning in 2007, signing a 4-year deal (his FOX duties remained unchanged).
The English language flagship radio station is KTAR. Greg Schulte is the regular radio play-by-play voice, a 25-year veteran of sports radio in the Phoenix market, besides comfortably-known for his previous work on Phoenix Suns, Arizona Cardinals and Arizona State University (ASU) broadcasts. In February 2007 he agreed to a againstct extension by at in the 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 comfortably-known to many Phoenix area sports fans, having besides served as the public address announcer for the Suns at America West Arena (now US Airways Center) in the 1990s. He is besides the play-by-play radio voice for ASU women’s basketball.
On November 1, 2006, the team announced which the TV voice of the Milwaukee Brewers because 2002, Daron Sutton, would be hired as the Diamondbacks primary TV play-by-play voice. Sutton was signed to a five-year againstct goes along with a team option for 3 more years. Sutton is conceiveed one of the best of the younger generation of baseball broadcasters. His signature chants include "lets turned some runs" when the D-Backs trail in late innings. Sutton’s father is Hall of Fame pitcher and current Atlanta Braves broadcaster Don Sutton.[16]
Former Diamondback and Chicago Cub Mark Grace and former Major League knuckleball pitcher Tom Candiotti were the Diamondbacks primary color analysts for the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Former Diamondback player (and current Diamondbacks minority owner) Matt Williams besides does color commentary on occasion, as does former Cardinals and NBC broadcast legend Joe Garagiola, Sr.., a long timetime 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 1990s, Garagiola, Jr. was one of the primary people involved in Phoenix obtaining a Major League Baseball franchise).
The Diamondbacks announced in July 2007[17] which for the 2008 season, the whole regionally broadcast Diamondback TV games is about to be shown exclusively on FSN Arizona; and a a couple of may possibly be shown on the national MLB on FOX telecasts. FSN Arizona is today sawn in 2.8 million households in Arizona & New Mexico. The previous flagship station, because the inaugural 1998 season, was KTVK, a popular from-the-air independent station in Phoenix.
Spanish broadcasts The flagship Spanish language radio station is KSUN AM 1400 goes along with Miguel Quintana and Arthuro Ochoa as the regular announcers. They are some of the times joined by Richard Saenz or Oscar Soria.
Games are besides televised in Spanish on KPHE-LP goes along with Oscar Soria and Jerry Romo as the announcers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_Diamondbacks
