Locally the Arizona Diamondbacks can once again be heard on 620 KTAR AM radio. This station has been the home of the Diamondbacks since 1998 when they arrived in the valley. Play-by-play will be handled by Greg Schulte while color analysis will be by Tom Candiotti. I love Schulte, I think that he calls a great game. He is a throwback to a yesterday era when radio was the only way to hear a baseball game when you couldn’t make it to the ballpark.

In years past; the Arizona Diamondbacks played the majority of their games on 3TV which is locally channel 3. Beginning this year the Diamondbacks will be exclusively broadcast on Fox Sports Arizona. FSN is scheduled to offer 150 televised games this season. Of those 150, 86 games can be seen in high definition. According to their press release,

Every single home game that is scheduled to be televised by FSN Arizona will be done so in High Definition (72 total), as well as 14 road games, including eight against National League West rivals Colorado, Los Angeles and San Francisco. FSN Arizona also took the steps to ensure that the most important games are in High Definition, highlighted by the fact that 11 of the D-backs final 14 televised games of the regular season can be seen in HD.

But that is not the only broadcasting avenue available that covers the Diamondbacks. This year again XM Radio will be the home to every Diamondbacks game played. As part of the MLB Home Plate offering Major League Baseball games will be broadcast on channels 176-189. I’m a big fan of XM Radio especially since they use the Diamondbacks radio broadcasts featuring Greg Schulte for much of the time. It used to be when I traveled I would miss a few games or a few innings as coverage came and went on land-based radio stations. But with XM I never have to miss the Diamondbacks even when they are clear across the country. At least for the first week of the season the Diamondbacks will be featured on channel 183 or 185.

XM will continue its complete coverage of Major League Baseball by nationally broadcasting every game in the 2008 MLB regular season and playoffs where fans can stay connected to their favorite teams through their local play-by-play broadcast.
In addition to play-by-play broadcast, XM’s MLB line up includes extensive programming with XM Channel 175, “MLB Home Plate,” offering baseball junkies in-depth analysis, baseball talk and fantasy tips from respected baseball personalities such as Buck Martinez, Charley Steiner and Kevin Kennedy – 24 hours a day.

Finally when none of these other avenues will work, there is always MLB.com. Their multimedia package allows you to purchase web broadcasts (either video or audio) for each Diamondbacks game. The quality is slightly improved but it is still not as good as the other options. I also have an issue with being charged for these games that would otherwise be on television or on the radio for free. And before anyone argues that FSN and XM are both subscription models I would counter that at least with those media choices I have a lot of different channels from which to choose from for my money. With MLB.com I am paying for a substandard broadcast of just one team and I don’t think it is accurately priced for the level of quality I am receiving.

But I think you can see that your choices are much greater for following the Diamondbacks in 2008 than they have been in the past. And while these are all great options, nothing beats being at the ballpark in person taking in a game.

We had gone down to the game early as Dakota wanted to try and get a baseball during batting practice. We arrived downtown just before 3 PM for a 5:10 PM first pitch. I figured there would be ample parking; I was wrong. There were hundreds of cars milling around looking for parking spots. Lots where last night you could park for $5 were now offering the same spots for double the price or more. There was a sea of light blue and gold or black around US Airways Center. There were even people with motor homes attempting to tailgate at a basketball game. It was insane. As quickly as possible we parked the car and escaped to the safety of Chase Field.

Today the Arizona Diamondbacks are hosting the Monterrey Sultanes who are the champions of the Mexican League. This is the first time the Diamondbacks have played the Sultanes in a Spring Training contest. What we heard during much of the pre-game was that the Sultanes were the New York Yankees of the Mexican League. I have no idea what that meant. Does it mean they have Satan playing shortstop? Or could it mean that their owner’s name is George and he just doesn’t know when to keep his nose out of baseball decisions? Whatever the case it was interesting to see a team from a foreign team playing the Diamondbacks. The first thing I noticed was the fact that in the Mexican League a team has their sponsor’s listed on their uniforms. The players looked like walking billboards or NASCAR race cars with patches sewn all around their jersey tops and even a large patch on their right thigh. It seemed extreme compared to the relatively pristine traditional uniforms of Major League Baseball. Fans in the United States have a fit when too much advertising adorns the stadium walls. I cannot even imagine the outcry that would occur if a team suddenly had patches to a fast food restaurant or a beverage manufacture patch across their jersey.

The game itself had a more festive feel. Perhaps it was the singing of two national anthems or maybe it was the mariachi bands playing around the concourse but this definitely felt different from the somewhat somber game the night before. Micah Owings made his final start of the spring and for the first few innings looked very dominating. As his pitch count went up he seemed to run out of gas and allowed the Sultanes back into the game. The outcome was never in question but still there were points of nervousness as the pitching still seems to be behind the hitting as camp breaks. In the end the Diamondbacks were victorious and the fans have gotten a brief taste of what to expect when the Diamondbacks return home for their regular season home opener on April 7. For now we’ll have to settle for watching or listening to the away games.

Hey I got good news; there is an Arizona Diamondbacks game at Chase Field! Oh but I have some bad news; they are playing the Colorado Rockies and the “great Troy Tulowitzki”. Of all the players and all the stadiums in the world why did he have to come into mine? It felt a little like when you get a scab over a wound that is just starting to heal then you rub it against something and the scab comes off and the healing process has to start all over again. If this happens enough times you end up with scar tissue that just doesn’t look right.

Hey I got good news; after a whole off-season of not being able to sample the culinary delights of Chase Field tonight you get to relive the tastes of the ballpark! Oh that is good news, I have been dreaming of a Hungry Hill Italian Sausage all winter long! And since the whole family is going to the game today Trina and each of the kids have their hearts set upon their favorite ballpark foods. Trina can’t wait to get an order of mini-chimichungas at Garcias. Tiffany like me can hardly wait for a Hungry Hill. Whitney will order the same thing she has since 1998, a Blimpie turkey sandwich on white. Dakota like most little boys is just wants a McDonalds hamburger and fries. These are the traditional foods that we have grown up with over the 10 years of going to the games. Oh but I have some bad news; there is no spicy mustard for the Hungry Hill sausages, they ran out of mini-chimichungas, and both Blimpie and McDonalds are no longer concessionaires at Chase Field. And while Dakota was slightly disappointed that McDonalds was no longer in the ballpark he quickly shrugged it off and settled for a Fatburger. I wish I could say that Whitney took the loss of Blimpie as well. She is a fairly even tempered child so I was quite surprised to hear how angry she was about the loss of her favorite food establishment. She wanted to leave the stadium at that moment and never come back. She further wanted me to “email Derrick Hall and tell him how unhappy I am that I can no longer get a sandwich at the ballpark. Oh and tell him that the team shop really needs to sell Chapstick so that when someone forgets theirs that they don’t have to have chapped lips for the whole game.” Yeah I was pretty sure I was not going to send the president of the Diamondbacks an email asking him about sandwiches and Chapstick. I think things may have been ok if Blimpie had been replaced by Subway or Quiznos but no these food booths were just left empty.

Hey I got good news; the new JumboTron is finished and you can now see highlights in high definition! Oh but I have some bad news; some of those shots of the fans in the stands makes you wish you didn’t have high definition. Here’s a tip people, if you don’t have a shirt on and you look in the mirror and you have to stop and remember if you are wearing a sweater then you should probably either shave the hair off or cover it up. The guy sitting behind you shouldn’t have to worry about whether your back hair fell in his beer or not. These are images no fan should have to be subjected to especially not on a state-of-the-art JumboTron.

And this was perhaps the most heart wrenching episode of all. Hey I got good news; Doug Davis is making his last start of Spring Training! Oh but I have some bad news; it was announced today that Davis has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Davis is planning to make his first two starts of the season then go in for surgery to remove a cancerous growth sidelining him for at least a month. It is news like this that puts baseball into the proper perspective. Al of our thoughts and prayers will go with Doug Davis and his family with the hope that the surgery goes well and that he will fully recover. Not because the Diamondbacks desperately need him to pitch this season but because a 32 year old father and husband deserves to be with his family without having to worry about cancer and possibly missing out on the life experiences of seeing his children grow up and spending countless hours with his wife raising their family. It seemed pretty inconsequential whether the Diamondbacks won or lost that game. In fact it didn’t even matter if Davis pitched well. Instead it matters that he is able to heal and hopefully overcome this medical issue to remain close to his family.

• NowHitting.com
• Diary of a Diehard.com
• 1Photo2Share.com
• JeffDSummers.com
• AZLanyards.com
• JeffBlogs.com

Please bear with me during this time. I’ll attempt to update the blog with entries to catch up where necessary once service has been restored. These outages should all be resolved by March 31 at the latest (assuming DNS propagation occurs normally).

I thought I had a valid response to the Wendy’s comparison that by going to the Second Annual Evening on the Diamond I was actually saving the lives of our children by eliminating the potential for obesity that would result from eating that Wendy’s Frosty (along with the 46,728 cheese laden hamburgers). Besides, for $50,000 you aren’t just buying a meal you are buying a table. Trina has long stated that she would love a nice dining room set. I am giving her an opportunity to have a table that once sat on Chase Field. What could be nicer than that? My plans would be to get the table this year then next year see if I could find the manufacturer of the Chase Field stadium seats to go with it. How cool would that be? She would be the talk of all her friends. I could just hear them now, “Did you see what Jeff did? He bought Trina a table from Chase Field and then told the poor dear she would get stadium seats from the ballpark to go with them next year.” I think the “poor dear” part is because Trina would have to wait for the chairs. Hey, I’m not made of money you know (I had that tested the last time I went to the doctor. He said no I was made up of mostly water although Trina thinks I have more hot air than water which didn’t really show up on any of the tests). Getting a table and potentially some chairs is a pretty good deal and she will have those bragging rights that she owns a $50,000 table; let’s not discount that. My only problem was where to come up with the $50,000. I went through my pockets and all the hiding places I could remember where I stashed money and gathered it all together. After counting my liquid assets I find that I am only short $49,997.60. I would have only been short $49,996.10 but Dakota insisted on eating hot lunch at school. I tried to explain that we would probably have left-overs tomorrow after the Second Annual Evening on the Diamond so he could just wait to eat until tomorrow but that didn’t work. This was going to be more difficult than I first imagined. I sat down and quickly started doing some calculations. If I can talk Tiffany, Whitney, and Dakota out of going to college I can divert that money to the “table fund” (I got tired of typing “the Second Annual Evening on the Diamond”). I could maybe sell Trina’s sewing machine for some additional cash. Hey, don’t sound so shocked. She is getting a table out of this so I think it’s only fair that she contribute a little. Mallorie has a car at school and if I can somehow get that back in the next day or so I might be able to use it towards the “table fund”. After all, when she is home from college she eats and will therefore benefit from the new stand-up table (I am trying to set the family’s expectations that there may initially not be chairs). There are five of us who could go to the Second Annual Evening on the Diamond (using “table fund” in that context just didn’t make sense so my whole theory of shortening the name to save keystrokes was totally bogus) so that gives me 5 potential donors for blood. At $10 per transfusion that will give us $50 and some free juice so that’s a bonus. Even after all that I think I am going to be a little short. When I presented the plan to Trina she suggested perhaps I could sell my Arizona Diamondbacks Season Tickets. Now that’s just crazy talk. Who ever heard of selling something that valuable just so that we could go out for dinner? Sometimes I just don’t get how women think.

It didn’t take Nostradamus to figure that out; within a few days azdiamondbacks.com looked like a Sedona Red version of mlb.com. Since I visit the Diamondbacks web site at a minimum of twice or three times per day I figured I would give the new site a spin then give you my review. Again let me reiterate that this is just the opinion of a guy from section 112 and does not come with the same amount of clout that a Siskel and Ebert review would have.

Overall I like the look. I was depressed to see that the Diamondbacks continue to utilize pop-up advertising on their site. I truly detest pop-up ads regardless of whether they are the sleezy type you get when surfing down the wrong Information Superhighway off-ramp or the legitimate vendors advertising through major league baseball. I am not interested in NetFlix and I barely have time to get to the ballgame without considering purchasing a Bow-Flex home gym. As long as we are on the subject of advertising; I still question utilizing one-third of the home page for ads. I’m a big fan of XM radio but to have an ad as large as the top stories for the team seems overkill. For a billion dollar industry I have to wonder why MLB and their franchises insist on making their web pages look like someone who is trying to eke out every last penny from on-line advertising. This of course brings me to my next observation. I was perfectly cool with the notion of the Diamondbacks employing photographers at $10 an hour to take pictures of the fans at the game. Although I have not personally bought any of the pictures I am sure there is a market of people who attended a game but forgot to bring a camera that would utilize this service. I do have to draw the line though at the next effort by Major League Baseball. They are now taking photos of the players using the team photographers and putting them up for sale on each team’s web site. There just seems to be something wrong with taking the photos and hocking them on the web for $9.99 for an 8X10. The price is very competitive; I just think it degrades the game a little. It’s not just current pictures either. You can get photos of Randy Johnson as the Opening Day starter in 2004 (a year I am sure he would prefer to forget). I feel like I am at a baseball garage sale. This does make me wonder about whether Major League Baseball may be considering a change in their photography policy. To date fans have been allowed to bring cameras to the stadium and take pictures of game action. Now that MLB is selling pictures of game action will they deny the fan the use of cameras to protect their product? I certainly hope not.

I was glad to see that the new Diamondbacks web site is making better usage of blogs. Before only Daron Sutton’s blog was recognized. Now they have augmented that with a blog by Director of Player Development A.J. Hinch which discusses the player development system. From what I have read so far I am definitely going to bookmark this blog. There could be some great information assuming that A.J. has the time to maintain the content. Since the blog began on March 18 he has posted 3 entries so that’s a very good sign out of the gate. Another blog featured prominently on the Diamondbacks home page is He Said, She Said which is a minor league report written by Jonathan Mayo and Lisa Winston. Their insight is very good and I do enjoy reading their entries. This blog is not Diamondbacks specific but rather covers all of the minor league system. For Diamondbacks fans you will have to hunt to find what you are looking for. It is a good source of information when rumors begin to fly about trades that include minor league prospects. The final blog mentioned is Downtown Reno Baseball which is a blog produced and maintained by the group who is moving the Tucson Sidewinders to Reno after the 2008 season. This blog is of interest only because the Diamondbacks have a signed agreement with Tucson/Reno to be their Triple-A affiliate through 2010. I’m just not sure how often this blog will be updated and maintained. I guess only time will tell. I had hoped there would be a front office blog perhaps by Derrick Hall that would take the place of the monthly chats or perhaps augment them but that doesn’t seem to be planned. An ownership blog could have been interesting to see what Jeff Moorad or Ken Kendrick has to say throughout the year. Maybe Mark Cuban and his blog have scared owners away from that kind of media attention. I’ve just started to dig deeper into the web site so I’ll continue to update as I find more. I do wish the team would be better at titling some of their articles. When Press Releases has several entries that just say “D-backs make roster moves” it is real hard to tell which ones you might have already read and which ones are new. I would have liked to seen a ticker with late breaking news such as roster moves, important information, or even in-game updates be featured on the home page. A web cam showing progress on the new JumboTron would have been awesome too and wouldn’t have taken much to make a reality. The web is obviously a new medium for Major League Baseball and it feels as though they just don’t quite know what to do with it yet. It is a step in the right direction. It makes me want to start evaluating a refresh for Now Hitting to give it an updated look with easier navigation. Not really a good thing to be thinking about with Opening Day only 5 days 23 hours and 24 minutes away. Not that anyone is counting.

The Diamondbacks had three pitchers in the lower level of their system who were being groomed to become the pitching staff of the future. The plan was for Randy Johnson, Todd Stottlemyre, Andy Benes and others to bridge the gap and hopefully bring the Diamondbacks some post season experience while these three pitchers matured to the point where they would form the basis of an extraordinary staff. Comparisons of these three were already being drawn with many believing that they would become as dominant as Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz were in Atlanta. These three minor league pitchers were invited to Spring Training in 1999 to spend time in the big league camp just to see what it was like. They were given lockers in the corner and the expectation was that they would just absorb what they could before being sent to minor league camp to begin their season in El Paso for the Diablos. Diamondbacks closer Gregg Olson nicknamed them the “Three Phenoms” and by all accounts they were the only untouchables in the Diamondbacks minor league system. They had come through the minor league system together. A plan the Diamondbacks had hatched early on to give the three continuity and also to allow them to compete against each other hopefully driving them to greatness. These pitchers were Diamondbacks 1996 first round selection left-hander Nick Bierbrodt, 1996 fifth-round selection Brad Penny, and Montreal Expos first round draft pick John Patterson. It was widely thought that Patterson had the best stuff while Penny had the best mental make-up and Bierbrodt had the most movement. The Diamondbacks plans for these three seemed to be working out quite well and estimates were that they should be ready to compete for spots in the starting rotation by 2000 or 2001. That all changed in July 1999 when the Diamondbacks found themselves in desperate need of a closer. It was somewhat appropriate that the “three phenoms” were broken up by the man who had given them that moniker. Arizona traded Brad Penny to the Florida Marlins along with Valdimir Nunez and a player to be named later (minor league outfielder Abraham Nunez) for closer Matt Mantei. Penny has gone on to become a very good pitcher for the Marlins and then the Los Angeles Dodgers. Nick Bierbrodt was brought up to the Diamondbacks in 2001 and had some success out of the bullpen before being traded to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for pitcher Albie Lopez. Bierbrodt’s career was sidelined when he was involved in a bizarre series of events where he was shot in the back of a cab while waiting at a drive thru window of a fast food establishment. He never fully recovered and is now out of baseball. John Patterson likewise was brought up to the Diamondbacks and had brief success. He was subsequently dealt to the Montreal Expos for left-handed reliever Randy Choate. Patterson was able to overcome his inconsistency and was named Washington Nationals Opening Day starter in 2007. His season looked to be getting off to a good start but arm problems continued to plague Patterson and he was put on the shelf after only 7 starts. After an extended rehabilitation Patterson was back in camp with the Nationals this spring and it sounded as though he was on his way to another Opening Day start. Suddenly that was no longer the case as the Nationals gave Patterson his outright release on March 20 with a brief statement by General Manager Jim Bowden, “We felt we should give the ball to the young starting pitchers that we have and continue to develop them.” And just like that the second of the “three phenoms” found himself on the outside of baseball looking in. There are rumors that the Houston Astros may have interest in Patterson’s services but with Opening Day only a week away it is questionable whether this move would benefit Patterson or the club. It’s interesting how differently things played out for these three players and it goes to show how risky it can be on teams who trade for high ceiling prospects.

The one positive note is that I at least had a carton which acted as a counting device for the real eggs. It could have been a much more aromatic problem had I not been able to account for all the real eggs that this silly rabbit had hidden. I guess the other advantage to this problem is that we now have the opportunity to find candy-filled eggs for days or possibly weeks. I tried to explain the positives to Trina but she somehow didn’t think “Easter is the holiday that just keeps on giving” as a valid excuse for my lack of preplanning. My theory yesterday of using money in lieu of healthy egg filler was also slightly flawed. I failed to take into consideration to effects of money on children. I erroneously assumed that loose change and candy held the same value in a child’s eyes. I did not expect that once one egg with money was found that the Easter egg hunt would deteriorate into what could best be described as a gold rush. As Trina attempted to separate the mound of children fighting over an egg that they were certain held instant wealth, I was quick to try and find a positive spin on this. “Honey look on the bright side. What this should tell you is how important healthy snacks are to the kids otherwise they would not be fighting over who can buy the most.” I would like to think that the plastic Easter egg that whizzed past my head was merely an accidental missile launched from the mound of children and not a misplaced projectile from my dear wife. After a morning filled with dealing with the various nuances of high finance to a child and countless lectures on the proper usage of the word “fair” order was finally restored to our house. After tears were wiped away and several more eggs hastily filled with more money to even things out it was finally peaceful. Almost as an afterthought was the fact that my kids are now convinced that the Easter Bunny is indeed an Arizona Diamondbacks fan. How else can you explain the fact that it was the red eggs that contained money and that Dad got a Diamondbacks hat in his basket? Well it is hard to argue with kids as smart as these.

The next event on the docket will be taking the plastic eggs and locking myself in the bedroom where the eggs will be filled with sugar goodness. Trina has given me strict instructions that the eggs are to have equal parts chocolate, jelly beans, and non-chocolate items. There should be a certain percentage that should be healthy as well. That’s just crazy talk. What kid wants to find an egg containing a health snack? That would seriously ruin Easter. Looking over the bags of filler I had accumulated I quickly realized that none of it could possibly be considered healthy. Being the resourceful guy that I am and not wanting to venture out into the stores and fight the crowds I improvised. I went to the dresser and retrieved all the loose change that I could possibly find. There is absolutely no way Trina could fault that right? I mean I am empowering the children to make healthy choices by giving them money with which they can purchase their own healthy snacks. This was in my estimation a brilliant solution. Rather than take all the credit; I would leave that as a surprise for the kids and Trina tomorrow. No use spoiling things before hand. Filling plastic eggs is about one of my least favorite things to do. First off there seems to be an endless supply of eggs that increases every year. No matter how many I fill there is still a whole bag of empty eggs still staring at me reminding me of how much work I have ahead of me. Finally after what seems like hours I finish the task and hide the now filled eggs in the closet to be set out tonight after the kids go to bed.

The final item on our pre-Easter list is the coloring of the eggs. This is always the most interesting aspect of Easter. I have no idea how we went from a religious celebration of the breaking of deaths bands to a holiday filled with large walking rabbits and dyed eggs but I can say that coloring eggs does seem like a lot more fun than decorating the house like an empty tomb. First thing that we have to do is to hard boil the eggs. Trina typically does this part but for some unknown reason this task was left to me today. I like to think of myself as a fairly intelligent guy so when I came to the realization that I didn’t really have any clue how to boil eggs I felt a little underprepared for this assignment. My first inclination was to think, “How hard can it be to stick some eggs in a pot of water and cook them?” That of course was the wrong question to ask. I was inundated with suggestions and recommendations for cooking eggs. Most of these suggestions were contradictory so I did what I do best, I Googled boiling eggs. I did not expect to receive 266,000 search results for my query. I quickly settled on Wikipedia as an appropriate source and read up on the process of egg boiling. After an hour of following link after link I threw up my hands and just stuck some eggs in a pot and covered them with water. I then turned on the heat and turned on a baseball game. I figured the eggs should be completely cooked within a couple of innings. I later found out that I was off in my estimation and eggs are probably adequately hard boiled within a couple of outs especially if Doug Davis is pitching. Once the eggs were cooked and cooled it was time for some serious coloring. Donning my best mad scientist lab coat I set up rows of cups filling them with food coloring, vinegar, and boiling water. When I was done I had a rainbow of bubbling cups set before the kids with cartons of eggs. The irony of the situation did not escape me. I think it’s comical that we are so worried about our kids that we will not allow them to play in the front year without parental supervision but we don’t think twice about letting our kids play with dairy products and boiling water. Egg coloring seems to take forever as the inner artist escapes and takes control of the kids’ personalities. In the end we have a Technicolor cornucopia of goodness. I couldn’t let this go by without documenting the results. It was definitely a Kodak moment. So as the final rays of daylight seep into the darkness of night we are now ready for Easter. I hope the Easter Bunny appreciates all the hard work we put into these preparations.

After a long and drawn out explanation of the importance of Spring Training and more importantly my attendance at a Spring Training game Trina I think finally understood. The question was just one of timing. That too seemed to work itself out. Today was Good Friday meaning the Trina and the kids were out of school. I have to admit I don’t completely understand the whole concept of Good Friday. I thought every Friday was good as it meant that the weekend was just about here. I could see it if we celebrated Good Monday. There is never anything good that comes from Monday (except Opening Day but that’s another story). Since everyone was off today it would be the perfect day to take in a game. I reiterated that EVERY DAY is a perfect day to take in a game but the only response I got to that was a lot of rolling of eyes by the family. The question was what game should we go to? My first choice was the Diamondbacks-Dodgers game at Tucson Electric Park. That suggestion met with a lot of resistance. First the game was in Tucson which meant 4 plus hours of driving round trip. Second the game was sold out so after driving all that way we had no chance at tickets. Third it was the Dodgers and really who wants to see the Dodgers play? The next suggestion was the San Francisco Giants-Chicago White Sox game in Scottsdale. That game too had one small problem; no tickets were available. What is up with this? Did today suddenly become national “Go to a Spring Training Day” and if it did why doesn’t it show up on my calendar as a holiday? After looking over the online ticket situation we settled on the Milwaukee Brewers-San Diego Padres game at Maryvale Baseball Park. Maryvale is a great stadium and we are always able to find great seats there. I looked online and saw that there were lots of available tickets including some next to the Padres dugout. I made the decision that I would wait to get tickets once we got there just in case I was able to score some even better seats. According to Mapquest it should take 32 minutes from my house to Maryvale Baseball Park. Just a nice drive with the sunroof open and the windows down with the XM Radio cranked. We packed the kids in the car and headed for the stadium. This was starting to turn into Great Friday. As we got closer to Maryvale I noticed a lot more traffic. I mean a LOT more traffic. Still I was on my way to the ballgame so nothing could damper my spirits. Not even waiting 20 minutes to enter the parking lot. The crowds looked larger than I would have expected given the number of tickets that were still available. I suggested to Trina that she go to the ticket window while I waited in line to park the car. Ten minutes later while I was still in line for parking my cell phone rings. It is Trina asking where I wanted to sit. I said “Best Available” after all this may be the last Spring Training game I go to this season so only the best would do. After driving through the parking lot several times in what was my best impression of driving through the mall at Christmas time I finally found a spot and parked. The kids and I rushed up to meet Trina at the gates. She stood there and as we approached she met us and began distributing the tickets. I looked to see where we would be sitting. The section stated “Lawn”. Lawn seats those are not even real seats. Confused I looked at Trina about to remind her that I had said “Best Available” when she said, “that is all they had left.” I turned to look in the direction of the ticket window and realized that there had to be over 1,000 people still standing in line. From the time we left the house until the time we arrived at the stadium the game had basically sold out. We made our way into the stadium and took up residence on the grassy knoll of left field. Nothing was going to dampen my spirits after all I was at a Spring Training game. Not even Trina’s announcement that we had forgotten the sun block would matter. Of course after 3 hours of 88 degree sunny weather I would change my theory on what mattered. So while I looked like I belonged in the “Attack of the Lobster Man” horror movie I was still content. You have to look on the bright side, my dedication as a Diamondbacks fan was now complete. My face, arms, and legs were now a perfect Sedona Red hue. I didn’t realize until tonight how painful a color change actually is.