Go D'Backs! Go Wildcats!

Randy Johnson vs. the D'Backs

2009-04-20T00:20:00.003-07:00

Man, are the D'Backs off to a lowsy start. Sometimes it seems that my coed softball team could beat them they way they've played so far. Hopefully their bats will come around soon. Two shutouts in 3 games against the Giants. Of course, the Giants aren't hitting much better. They only outscored the D'Backs 4-2 for the 3 game series with all three games being 2-0. The only consolation for Sundays game is that Randy Johnson (it's hard to watch him in any uniform but a D'Backs uniform!) won his 296th game taking a no hitter into the 7th. I really wish we could have kept him around so he could retire as a D'Back with his 300+ wins.....

Super Boal LXII

2008-02-04T14:54:00.001-07:00

Wow - what a great game. I was rooting for the Patriots because of Tedy Bruschi (I tend to lean towards teams with Wildcats on them, though both the Pats and Giants had at least one former Wildcat), but I was going to be happy no matter which team won. The Giant defense should have won the MVP last night. They really stopped Brady and the Patriots offense. Eli Manning did what he had to on that last drive, though, and proved that he might just be as good as his older brother. At least it wasn't a blowout game!

And the best thing about the Super Bowl? It means the football season is over and that Pitchers and Catchers will be reporting soon! Play Ball!

S.I.'s College Football's 15 greatest plays

2006-05-26T09:49:00.000-07:00

How could S.I.'s "College Football's 15 Greatest Plays" not include Chuck Cecil's 106 yard interception return for a touchdown against the ASU Sun Devils in 1986? You gotta love those interstate rivalries!

Kirby Puckett

2006-03-07T12:50:00.000-07:00

Kirby Puckett almost made me into a Minnesota Twins fan. At the least, I rooted for his Twins in the World Series in 1987 and 1991 (since my Mets were not in the Series, that wasn't a problem). He was an amazing ballplayer. Clutch, an all out player, enjoyable to watch and always seemed to be a fan favorite. It's really too bad that things turned out the way they did with his career cut short by glaucoma in his right eye that forced an early retirement. Kirby was human and had a difficult retirement and health issues which unfortunately ended over the weekend with a stroke and his death on Monday. He certainly deserved his place in Cooperstown and should be remembered for his play in the field. He was one of those rare players who stayed with the same team his whole career - a rarity these days. RIP Kirby. You were one of the best to put on cleats and swing a bat.

Arizona 52, UCLA 14

2005-11-07T15:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to my photoblog where I posted a picture of the crowd rushing the field after the game.

The UofA Wildcat Homecoming weekend was topped off by a remarkable victory over then 7th ranked UCLA in dominating style, 52-14. And the game wasn't as close as the final score indicated. One of UCLA's two TDs came against largely second stringers when the game was over late in the 4th quarter. It was great watching the Wildcats dismantle the previously unbeaten Bruins on both sides of the ball. UCLA had 6 possessions that were 3 and out. The Wildcats scored on their first 4 possessions, taking a 28-0 lead with 10 minutes left in the first half and had a 31-7 score at halftime. With UCLA's reputation for late comebacks, it wasn't until the Cats passed 40 points on Syndric Steptoe's 63 yard punt return for a TD making the score 45-7 that a victory seemed assured. After a fumble recovery in the endzone, the Cats led 52-7 going into the 4th quarter. The UCLA team and their small contingent of fans amongst the 55,000 in attendance at Arizona Stadium on the UofA campus simply looked stunned as the clock ticked to zero and a few thousand energized fans (mostly from a refreshingly full student section) stormed the playing field.

With last weeks win over Oregon State and a close but frustrating loss to Oregon the week before that, the leadership of Freshman QB Willie Tuitama appears to have totally changed the attitude on this team. Willie is 2-0 as a starter and amazingly, the prospects of his leaving school 40-0 seem suddenly a possibility for this team. Probably won't happen that way, but the way the team is playing now, it seems tantalizingly possible. What a difference a couple weeks make. We play hapless Washington this coming Saturday and then the instate rivalry against ASU during Turkeyday weekend and 5-6 seems suddenly possible after starting the season 1-6.....

So long Bank One Ballpark

2005-09-24T22:33:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official - Bank One Ballpark is no more. The D'Backs officially renamed the park "Chase Field". The BOB, as we affectionately called it these past 8 years, saw lots of great games including the greatest moment in D'Back history, Game 7 of the 2001 World Series that saw the D'Backs finish off the New York Yankees on a clutch 9th inning comeback win for their first World Series title. I'm sure the ballpark will see many more wonderful moments over the years, but it's going to be tough trying to get used to calling it "Chase Field" rather than "The BOB".....

Wildcats vs. Utes

2005-09-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

Well, today is the day - the first game of the 2005 fall football season for my UofA Wildcats. Optimism is running rampant in Tucson at the start of football season for the first time in years (last year we were all hopeful that the new Mike Stoops led team would play well, but I think we were realistic about what Stoops could do with essentially just the remains of a team that went 1-11 the year before). Can this team get to 6-5 or better and go to a bowl game for the first time this Millenium? The reports from fall practice suggest they just might. Mike Stoops is a defensive minded coach. As such, the defense sounds like it is coming along ahead of schedule with a great backfield and a much stronger all around lineup compared to last year. The offense is probably where the big question lies. Can Richard Kovalchek perform the way he did in the ASU game at the end of last season, or will he revert to his less spectacular earlier performances last year? If he plays like he did in the ASU game, he should be able to balance what will probably be an above average defense with an offense than can score enough to be in most games this year. If not, we may be in for a lot of low scoring 17-10 losses. As for tonight, we play the Utah Utes, a team under a new coach and with about 11 starters from last seasons 12-0 team gone. On paper, despite a lot of question marks (like an 18 year old QB making his first start), Utah looks pretty good. We played them last year and if not for a bunch of mistakes in the red zone, we might well have beaten them. I think it was their lowest scoring game of the year. All things being equal, we should be that much better than we were last year. Utah may still win, but if they play a good game, the Wildcats will be in line to be very competative this season. I think they will win tonight in a defensive battle that will probably be low scoring - UofA 17, Utah 14 and the UofA will go on to a 7-4 regular season and its first bowl game since 1999. Go Wildcats! Bear Down Arizona!

Mets vs. D'Backs, August 25

2005-08-26T11:58:00.000-07:00

I traveled up to Phoenix with my daughter to watch the Mets play the Diamondbacks in the 4th and final game of their series that started on Monday. After a couple blowouts by the Mets, this game was a refreshing pitchers duel that the Mets won 3-1. Pedro Martinez pitched against Javier Vasquez - the two aces for their teams. Before the D'Backs came into being, I was a diehard Mets fan with the years 1969 and 1986 prominantly held in my hall of baseball memories (to which I added 2001 thanks to my D'Backs). Today, I normally root for the Mets - that is, unless they are playing my D'Backs. In the first few innings, Pedro couldn't find the plate if he was standing on it - he walked 4 players and hit Luis Gonzales with a pitch. But he did manage to keep the D'Backs from scoring and kept a no hitter alive until the 6th inning. I doubted he would have pitched a complete game even if he had the no-no going still since he had racked up a lot of pitches in those first few innings before setting down. Vasquez pitched well too, but gave up a couple runs in the 2nd. We had great seats and I took lots of pictures with my Canon 20D (See here and here for a couple examples).

Despite being at the BOB in Phoenix, there were a lot of Mets fans in attendance (and a few Yankees and Red Sox fans too). A few were loud and obnoxious (brought back "fond" memories of visits to Shea in the mid-1970s when we lived in NY), but most were quite friendly. A family of 5 sat next to us (we were in section 131, row 21, seats 18 & 19), 4 of them Mets fans and one anomalous young man, a Yankees fan. The father and I struck up a gamelong conversation. It was their first visit to the BOB having flown into Phoenix that afternoon from NY (they were from New Jersey) on a family vacation to the Grand Canyon and other nearby attractions. He surprised his family with a ballgame. It made the game that much more fun, bringing back memories of my early years as a diehard Mets fan and the many visits to Shea. If you were there during the early to mid 1970s, you'll remember Willie Mays' pink Cadillac with "Say Hey" on the license plate, or the guy with the thousand placards, or the Mr. Met electric cart that brought relievers in from the bullpens, or banner day, or the thrill of watching Tom Seaver's fastball making that distinctive sound as it popped into Jerry Grote's glove, or a Dave Kingman homerun (usually balanced by a couple strikeouts in his other at bats), or a typical Jerry Koosman solid outing, or scrappy Bud Harrelson turning a double play at 2nd, or Tug McGraw's cries of "You Gotta Believe" in the stretch run into the 1973 World Series. No wonder I became such a baseball fan....

Of course, as luck would have it last night, the Timing Belt on our Amigo broke about halfway home, near Eloy (can you say "the middle of nowhere?"), but we finally made it home and hopefully the repairman at the garage at Picacho Peak is finding nothing else wrong with the car as I type this.

A hero crashes and burns....

2005-08-24T11:35:00.000-07:00

What a waste. Remember what you may have thought back in 1985 about Dwight Gooden? I certainly thought he was a lock after only 2 years for the baseball Hall of Fame! He went 24-4, posted an incredible 1.53 ERA and won what I figured would be the first of about 8 or 10 Cy Young awards. Gooden was virtually unhitable most of the year - it was amazing to see. Being a Mets fan, all was looking up, despite their finishing 2nd to the Cardinals in the NL East that season. We had Gooden (Rookie of the Year in 1984) and Strawberry (ROY in 1983). And for a time, it seemed quite good - in 1986, the Mets put it all together and won the World Series and Gooden still looked good going 17-6 with a 2.84 ERA - not bad. But he never again had one of those years like 1985. At the time, I blamed Mel Stottlemyer, his pitching coach with the Mets for tweaking Doc's delivery. Little did we know that there was something more sinister going on in Doc's life. This lock for the Hall of Fame and his good friend Darryl Strawberry (another lock for the Hall of Fame, it seemed back in 1985) both suffered from using cocaine. They were both caught eventually and both careers suffered badly, spiraling into mediocrity and even disgrace.

Worse, today there is a report about Dwight Gooden fleeing after a traffic stop for DUI. This guy should have been one of the all time greats. Now, he is a fugitive from the law and a disgrace. His nephew, Gary Sheffield who plays for the "evil empire", the NY Yankees, was quoted as saying:

I've done pretty much everything you could possibly do, it just comes to a point where you have to let him go through what he's got to go through. Sometimes, it is God's plan for us to back off and let him do it, because the family has tried everything.

While I don't agree with his claim about it being "God's plan", it is clear that Goodens problems have gone beyond simply affecting only himself. I hope he somehow is able to wrangle in his demons and straighten out his life, but at this point, I will not be surprised if the story continues to have a sad plot with a tragic ending.

A sad, sad story. Doc, I hope you surprise me and get your life in order.

Goodby Randy....

2005-01-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

The Randy Johnson era for the Arizona Diamondbacks is over. Randy was finally traded to the evil empire, the New York Yankees. I hated to see him go, especially to the Yankees. I sure hope we got enough in exchange for the future Hall of Famer. I have enjoyed seeing Johnson pitch for the D'Backs. Without him, we would not have gotten to the World Series in 2001, let alone won it. He is certainly the greatest lefthanded pitcher ever and perhaps the greatest pitcher ever - certainly amongst the top few. I'll be rooting for Johnson when he pitches for the Yankees (as long as they aren't playing the D'Backs or Mets, that is) and hope he goes 30-2 this year with them (and just to be clear, I hope the Yankees finish 30-132 on the season in that case....). I hope Randy can go into the Hall as a D'Back. His stats here were as good as ever with 4 Cy Youngs and more strikeouts than he had with the Mariners. He may just get to 300 wins as well. He should have won another Cy Young in 2004, but his won-loss record was probably his undoing. But it wasn't his fault. The D'Backs scored 2 or fewer runs in something like 8 of his 14 losses and instead of ending up 16-14, he ought to have gone 24-6 or so!

Best of luck Randy & we'll see you in Cooperstown!

Jim.

Alan Zinter!

2004-09-28T22:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the game doesn't mean anything for either team - the D'Backs have been out of the race since about the 2nd game of the season.... Or at least it seems that way. But tonight, the D'Backs came back not once, but twice. This is a rarity this season after all the early injuries, but they managed to tie the game up in the bottom of the 9th after giving up the lead in the top of the 9th. In the 11th, they gave up a run to the Brewers, so in the bottom of the 11th, with 2 outs and Alex Cintron standing on 3rd as the tying run, Alan Zinter, a former UofA Wildcat baseball star who played more than 1400 games in the minor leagues before his first major league at bat, stepped to the plate. After battling through 7 pitches, he launched the 8th pitch over the right field fence for a walk off game winning 2 run homer! There haven't been too many of these moments this year - the last one I remember was a walk off homer by Richie Sexson before he was hurt early in the year. After last nights win by Randy Johnson, the D'Backs have a chance to sweep a 3 game series with the Brewers tomorrow afternoon....

Jim.

Baaaarrrryyyy (Bonds)

2004-09-04T15:13:00.000-07:00

Barry Bonds is an excellent hitter. No doubt about that. But as a ballplayer, he leaves much to be desired. Last night he creamed a fastball into the seats in right-center - no doubt off the bat. Out in left field, however, he appears to dog it and when he fields a grounder into the outfield, he takes his time throwing the ball back into the infield, sometimes holding it while watching the runner take an extra base (other than making a catch, I've never seen an outfielder make an out while holding the ball in the outfield - get the ball back into the infield!....). On a blooper into left field down the line, Bonds was jogging after it and it dropped in front of him. Later, he hit a grounder that rolled a good 60 feet into right field where the 2nd baseman fielded it and threw him out at first! The guy just doesn't seem to hustle anymore - very disappointing. So kids, watch Barry Bonds. Watch how he hits the ball - that's the way to do it. Watch the way he runs the bases and plays the field - that's not the way to do it.

Jim.

Baseball stats misused....

2004-08-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

Kevin Kennedy was talking about Adrian Beltre today on the FOX baseball pregame show and he noted that 14 of Beltre's 41 homers this season have come in the 7th inning or later, showing a list of 8 of them that helped the Dodgers to victory. While I don't disagree with his claim that Beltre deserves serious consideration for MVP, a little math negates his late inning analysis. Last time I checked, 7th inning on is 3 of 9 (typical innings). Ignoring extra innings (at least 1 of the 8 homers contributing to wins were post 9th inning), that means that one third of Beltre's 41 homers ought to be in the 7th inning on. 41 divided by 3 is 13.667 - that's awful close to the 14 he's hit in the 7th inning on..... That reminds me of the story about how President Eisenhower was astonished by the claim that half of Americans have below average intelligence.

Jim.

Olympics I

2004-08-18T23:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a great finish to the Mens Gymnastics and womens 800m relay in the pool today! It's always fun to watch athletic events that we might only watch once every 4 years during the Olympics. Last night I watch amazed the nearly photo finish between the USA and Australia during the 800m swimming relay. Who would have imagined that Klete Keller could hold off one of the great swimmers - Ian Thorpe - but he did. Tonight, we saw both a world record set in the womens 800m relay. And we saw Paul Hamm really screw up his landing on the vault - the announcers were saying he had knocked himself out of a medal & he was more than a half point behind all the way back in 12th place. But Hamm wasn't listening to the broadcast I was watching. He took advantage of small mistakes by many of his competitors and simply performed two of his best routines ever. It's great to see the competition and sportsmanship so prominantly displayed every 4 years.

And as for Wildcats, former Wildcat Jennie Finch pitched a great game today as the USA softball team continues its unbeaten and unscored on streak. Tomorrow former Wildcat swimmer Amanda Beard races in her strongest event.

And besides, my D'Backs beat the Pirates tonight! WooHoo!

Jim.

D'Backs win!

2004-08-04T09:20:00.000-07:00

Yaaah! The D'Backs won last night! WooHoo! Can they avoid loosing 100? With Gonzo on the mend from his season ending surgery Monday, it was a very interesting lineup last night - lots of kiddies. It looks like the AAA Tucson Sidewinders out there with a couple major leaguers rehabbing.... I sure hope they make the most of their experience this year and blossom into the players many of them can be that much sooner. Remember names like Luis Terrero, Tim Olson and Scott Hairston. They could be future All Stars - hopefully with the D'Backs still!

With Gonzo on the DL and the trade of Steve Finley, Randy Johnson and Danny Bautista are the last starters left from the 2001 World Series roster. Hard to believe all the changes and how far the team has fallen, but I'm optomistic about next year and the year after. Listen to me, I'm starting to sound like a Cubs fan. One difference, though: The D'Backs have won a World Series recently! :-P

Jim.

Randy Johnson

2004-07-05T00:11:00.000-07:00

Randy Johnson pitched another great game today, winning his 10th of the season. Quinton McCracken hit an inside the park home run (ok, it was scored a triple and an error, but I'd have counted it as a HR if the same thing happened during one of my softball games....) thanks to a bit of a misplay by the Twins Torii Hunter in the 6-2 victory.

Saturday nights game could have turned out very differently if Andrew Good had been effective. He gave up 6 runs (all earned) in only 2 and 2/3 innings. Elmer Dessens made a good argument for possibly getting his spot in the rotation back when he pitched well over the next 3 and 1/3. Impressively, he threw first pitch strikes to 9 of the 10 batters he faced - that's the way to be an effective pitcher in the big leagues! The D'Backs made a game of it, climbing back to within 2 runs in the 5th. My friends tickets were much better than I expected - we were 6 rows back right next to the scouts behind home plate!

Jim.

Another day, another manager....

2004-07-02T15:41:00.000-07:00

To paraphrase what I said last night, what a difference a day makes! The Diamondback front office fired Bob Brenly this morning as manager of the team and has hired bench coach Al Pedrique as the new manager of the team. Looks like I get to watch game #2 of the Al Pedrique era tomorrow night. I've seen many games managed by Al Pedrique. He was the skipper of the D'Backs AAA team, the Tucson Sidewinders for a couple seasons and I saw quite a few games during his reign. I'm not sure I'd blame Brenly so much for the teams woes, but I suppose he gets to be the most prominant scape goat. I suspect Bob will land squarely on his feet, whatever he chooses to do now - having that World Series ring on his finger can't hurt too much either.

Jim.

What a difference a couple days makes....

2004-07-01T23:52:00.000-07:00

After watching the Diamondbacks loose their 11th in a row despite Randy Johnson pitching well and striking out his 4,000th batter, it sure seemed like they'd never win another game all year. They should have been tied at 2 in the 9th instead of down a run thanks to an error by Cintron that allowed the 2nd run to score with 2 outs earlier in the game. Then another rookie error when young Scott Hairston - a phenom who should be a great ballplayer by the time he is done - failed to even try to put a bunt down with a runner at 2nd and no one out in the bottom of the 9th, down 3-2 and needing a run to tie. He clearly missed the bunt sign. Dumb and hard to understand. Without advancing the runner to 3rd, the D'Backs went on to strand the runner and loss number 11 in a row was in the books.

Wednesday night, they finally came through with a win over the Padres and tonight, another win - wow, an actual winning streak! Excellent! Maybe that game on Saturday night against the Twins won't be so bad. Andrew Good will be on the mound. Can't wait - my 2nd trip up to the BOB this season, Go D'Backs! I don't suppose they could run off 20 in a row and climb back into the race in the NL West?

Jim.

CWS

2004-06-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

CWS - the College World Series in Omaha. It's been awhile since a Wildcat from the UofA could brag about his favorite college baseball team making it to the CWS. In fact, the last time my Wildcats did, they won it all in 1986 (that was an excellent year for my baseball teams - the Mets won in October, but that's another story...). The Wildcats are a young team with incredible talent, but showed its youth this year not quite living up to preseason hopes early in the season. They rallied when it counted and played some great baseball down the stretch and won their way into the CWS. Coach Lopez sure seems to know how to put a team together and I can't wait to see the boys play next year. Most of these guys from this years team will be back and a year older. Maybe the Wildcats 4th CWS National Championship is not too far off in the future afterall - it sure didn't seem like 18 years since the last visit - time flies. The UofA has become a college softball campus, seeing how dominant the womens team under Coach Candrea has been the last decade. Perhaps Coach Lopez and the boys will return to the glory the batcats have seen in past decades.

Congratulations to Cal State Fullerton for winning this years CWS yesterday. They played a great game, coming back in the 7th on a fantastic Texas team. I'm sure we'll hear a bunch of these kids names in the next few years as they climb into the ranks of Major League Baseball.

Jim.

9 in a row - blah!

2004-06-27T16:40:00.000-07:00

Well, the D'Backs found a way to lose again today! 9-5 on a walkoff grand slam home run by the Detroit Tigers. They lost last night via a walk off home run too. They seem to find a way to lose regardless.

I get to go watch them lose in person next Saturday July 3rd up at the BOB. My friend Tim had an extra ticket. We were going to get to see Randy Johnson pitch that night, but Johnson was given an extra day off this week, so he pitches on Tuesday and then Sunday. Too bad. He should record his 4,000th strikeout in either his next start or the one after that. All he needs is 8 more to reach that lofty plateau!

Jim.