Diary of a Diehard

It’s always a great day when you get a letter from home. In this day and age we seem to have lost the significance that a card or letter delivered to our postal mail box can have on someone’s life. I know for me it is so much easier to send an e-mail or make a phone call than it is to take the time to sit down and write something out, find an envelope and stamp, and make a trip to the post office. That being said, I find it amazing how important my daily trek to the mail box is. When I get home from work; one of the first things I ask Trina and the kids is whether anyone has gotten the mail or not. If the answer is no (and it generally is), I will retrieve the mail key and make my daily hike down the street to the mail box. Each day as I am walking down to the box I go through the same thought process wondering at what point delivering mail got so painful that we as a society decided that we would be better served by having a single mail station in our subdivision rather than individual mail boxes attached to our house. I remember as a kid following the mailman from house to house as he delivered mail to all of our neighbors. Come to think about it at that time I wondered why we insisted on having individual mail boxes as it would seem much more efficient to have a centralized box to deliver our mail to. I’m not sure but I think I am in a thought-process infinite loop. Today at the end of that march I reached the mail box and retrieved its contents. Hidden among the junk mail and bill envelopes was a most pleasant surprise.

Continue reading ‘Evening on the Diamond’ »

Do you ever have one of those weeks where nothing seems to go right? You know one where you can’t find your favorite Arizona Diamondbacks Sedona Red pajamas and you have to decide do you resort to having to wear your Arizona Diamondbacks Classic purple and teal pajamas or do you sleep without pajamas? That might seem like a no-brainer as Trina would say but I have definitely seen a difference in my sleep patterns when I am wearing purple and teal pajamas in a post-Sedona Red era. It’s not just the pajamas though. There was more bizarreness that is normal in my life. That is saying a lot since Trina has long proclaimed that on a normal day for me I already peg the weirdness level for most of the population.

Continue reading ‘Happy Condiment Day!’ »

When we first moved to Arizona I was amazed to finally be living in what I considered a major sports city. My definition of “major sports city” left something to be desired I have to admit. This was a basketball town that was for sure. The Phoenix Suns were a season removed from a heartbreaking loss to the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls and we were in the midst of Charles Barkley mania. The round mound of rebound was everywhere; on the radio, at the airport, in shopping centers and restaurants. You couldn’t go anywhere in the valley without hearing about a Barkley sighting. The NBA was not the only game in town, there was also the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League. Of course you would get an argument from many in the valley that the Cardinals did not classify as a major sport and barely classified as an NFL franchise. Not being a football fan I really couldn’t come up with a valid argument that they truly were “major sport” worthy.

Continue reading ‘Super Glad It’s Over’ »

One of my all-time favorite movies is the 1993 classic Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray. For those of you who have been trapped in a burrow hibernating and have not heard of this movie let me give you a brief synopsis. The premise is that a egotistical self-centered weather man finds himself trapped in Punxsutawney Pennsylvania where he relives the same day over and over and over. The day of course is Groundhog Day where a furry rodent is retrieved from his den and comes out to see if he can see his shadow. Legend has it that if a groundhog spots his shadow it will mean 6 more weeks of winter. Here in Phoenix that could mean that we will have 42 more days of temperatures in the low-60′s and sunshine. If the groundhog does not see its shadow it foretells an early spring which in Phoenix means 42 days of temperatures in the mid-70′s and sunshine. You can therefore see how important this holiday is to the inhabitants of Arizona after all we are getting kind of tired being bundled up and running those seat warmers that came as an over-priced option on our cars. I don’t mind it so much as it is the one month that I can justify buying that car that had seat warmers. It is extremely difficult to explain that buying decision in July when temperatures are hovering at the 114-degree level.

Continue reading ‘Groundhog Day’ »

For the past 108 days 8 hours and 53 minutes I have been without Arizona Diamondbacks baseball with the exception of a few games that are nearly worn out that were recorded on my Tivo from last season. That may not seem like a big deal but to a diehard Diamondbacks fan that seems like an eternity. January is an especially brutal month for baseball fans. For most of the country it is the coldest month of the year and also seems as though it drags on forever. I have to keep checking the calendar to make sure that someone at the Hallmark Corporation has not somehow added a few extra days into the first month of the year. I have long maintained that Hallmark is secretly the brains behind all calendars. I came to this conclusion after realizing there is no other explanation for why there are greeting cards available for pretty much every day of the year. If Hallmark could somehow find a way to sneak another day onto the calendar it would mean more profits in their pockets. I refer to this as the “great Calendar Conspiracy”, it is one of many conspiracies that I have concocted over the years.

Continue reading ‘Is That a Light?’ »

It is amazing what a difference a couple of years makes. Going into the 2006 season Luis Gonzalez was the longest tenured Arizona Diamondbacks player on the roster. He was one of the few players left from the 2001 World Championship team that defeated the New York Yankees. For all intents and purposes Gonzalez was the face of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was by far the most popular player in the history of the franchise. Many casual fans would have believed that Gonzalez would finish his career clad in the purple and teal of the Diamondbacks. They would have of course been wrong on two levels. First the team would bid farewell to their left field mainstay in what some thought was an unceremonious bon voyage where Gonzo was told over breakfast that his services would not be required past the end of the season. Secondly the Diamondbacks would break with the past and eliminate the purple and teal color scheme replacing it with Sedona Red, Sonoran Sand, and Black (notice that once a color reaches team association it rises to a capitalized format. That is something not even Crayola does so in that sense I think my treatment of color is more friendly than the crayon company).

Continue reading ‘Going Gonzo on the Beach’ »

I thought after last season when the Arizona Diamondbacks fielded one of the youngest teams in Major League Baseball that we had finally seen an end to the youth movement. As is normally the case, I thought wrong. The team announced through a press release that they had signed on with yet another rookie. With as much fanfare as can be mustered in a press clipping the Diamondbacks announced an agreement with Chez Reavie. Wait, who did you say? Let me repeat, the Diamondbacks announced they had reached an agreement with rookie Chez Reavie. With that news I stopped reading the press release and immediately leapt to a browser window and surfed over to Baseball Reference since I had no idea who Chez Reavie was or what position he may be vying for.

Continue reading ‘Sponsorships Gone Wild’ »

Ever since the 2007 regular season ended there has been rumors that the Minnesota Twins would attempt to trade two-time American League Cy Young award winner Johan Santana. The 2008 season would mark the final year of Santana’s current contract and the Twins did not appear willing or able to absorb the type of contract necessary to retain the services of their ace pitcher. This meant that the time was probably appropriate for a trade to take place. One major sticking point was the fact that Santana owned a full non-trade clause meaning he would have to agree to whatever deal necessarily in order to waive his rights to block the trade. This of course put the Twins at a disadvantage because if Santana didn’t want to go he could nix any trade. Not exactly a position of power to be in from a negotiating perspective. For the longest time it appeared that Santana would be headed for one of the two teams that probably needed his services the least, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. The Twins asking price seemed a bit steep and trade talks slowed to a crawl. Santana’s representatives stepped in and added further pressure to the situation by announcing that once Spring Training started the window would be closed meaning that his client would not accept any trade during the season putting a very hard deadline on the negotiations. In the end, one team blinked and another opened its checkbook and a deal was done.

Continue reading ‘Do You Need a Johan?’ »

I tend to enjoy the everyday advantages of living in the United States. I like the idea that I have fast food available at every corner and in many cases multiple fast food options on every corner. I like the idea of having inexpensive and what to me at least looks like unlimited energy. After all when did any of us really question whether a light would actually go on if we flipped the switch? We just take for granted that if we need electricity, gas, or any other energy source it will just be available and for less than many portions of the world pay for that same energy. The types and quantities of entertainment available to us on any given day also seems limitless. If I want to go to a movie I can probably find that movie playing on any number of theater screens around the valley. You have to admit we have things pretty well and you would be hard pressed to find something complain about with one noted exception.

Continue reading ‘Winter League Wonderland’ »