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Arizona Diamondbacks
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The Arizona Diamondbacks began play in 1998 along with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Although they finished 65-97 in their inaugural campaign the Phoenix area was excited to have a team at brand new Bank One Ballpark, which featured a retractable roof for the brutal Arizona summers.Arizona wasted no time trying to improve itself as in 1999 they signed free agent pitcher Randy “Big Unit” Johnson and acquired a key contributor to the lineup in outfielder Luis Gonzalez. Johnson would enjoy his first of what would be four consecutive Cy Young seasons in Arizona and, incredibly enough, the Diamondbacks went 100-62 to win the AL West in just their second year of existence. Arizona lost the NLDS to the Mets but optimism was aplenty in Phoenix .2000 started off well for Johnson who went 6-0 with a 0.91 ERA with 3 complete game shutouts in a season in which he would reach his 3,000 th strikeout. As a team, however, Arizona fell to 85-77 and their Buck Showalter was fired at season's end, replaced by Bob Brenley who was broadcasting at the time.Johnson, along with another acquisition, Curt Schilling, became the most dominant 1-2 starting rotation combination in baseball and would finish 1-2 in the Cy Young voting. Arizona would win 90 games en route to the division title. A two out single in the bottom of the 9 th by Tony Womack clinched the NLDS against St. Louis . Arizona had far less problem with Atlanta in the NLDS dispatching of the Braves in 5 games. Four year old Arizona met the history rich Yankees in the World Series. New York had won the previous 3 World Series and was the favorite but Johnson and Schilling kept Arizona in it. Arizona came home trailing 3-2 in games but with their two aces on the hill, they were able to win the World Series 4-3 in a classic to remember. Johnson and Schilling, appropriately enough, would share the World Series MVP honors. Arizona would win the division again the following season but suffer a sweep at the hands of St. Louis in the NLDS.Arizona began to fade in 2003, winning just 84 games and then hit rock bottom in 2004 with a mark of 51-111 as the initial novelty of baseball and winning wore off and the fans started to stay home.
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Click a header to sort events or select the date below to view
Arizona Diamondbacks tickets.
| Event |
Date |
Venue |
Tickets |
| Sat, May 17, 2008, 5:10 pm | | |
| Sun, May 18, 2008, 1:10 pm | | |
| Tue, May 20, 2008, 7:10 pm | | |
| Wed, May 21, 2008, 7:10 pm | | |
| Thu, May 22, 2008, 7:10 pm | | |
| Fri, May 23, 2008, 7:35 pm | | |
| Sat, May 24, 2008, 3:55 pm | | |
| Sun, May 25, 2008, 1:35 pm | | |
| Mon, May 26, 2008, 1:05 pm | | |
| Tue, May 27, 2008, 6:40 pm | | |
| Wed, May 28, 2008, 6:40 pm | | |
| Thu, May 29, 2008, 6:40 pm | | |
| Fri, May 30, 2008, 6:40 pm | | |
| Sat, May 31, 2008, 5:10 pm | | |
| Sun, June 1, 2008, 1:10 pm | | |
| Mon, June 2, 2008, 7:05 pm | | |
| Tue, June 3, 2008, 7:05 pm | | |
| Wed, June 4, 2008, 1:05 pm | | |
| Fri, June 6, 2008, 7:05 pm | | |
| Sat, June 7, 2008, 7:05 pm | | |
| Sun, June 8, 2008, 1:35 pm | | |
| Mon, June 9, 2008, 12:35 pm | | |
| Tue, June 10, 2008, 7:10 pm | | |
| Wed, June 11, 2008, 7:10 pm | | |
| Thu, June 12, 2008, 1:10 pm | | |
| Fri, June 13, 2008, 6:10 pm | | |
| Sat, June 14, 2008, 5:10 pm | | |
| Sun, June 15, 2008, 12:40 pm | | |
| Tue, June 17, 2008, 6:40 pm | | |
| Wed, June 18, 2008, 6:40 pm | | |
| Thu, June 19, 2008, 12:40 pm | | |
| Click here to View All Arizona Diamondbacks Events |
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Did You Know
The '''Arizona Diamondbacks''' (also referred to as the '''D-backs''') 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).
Franchise history
The desire for baseball in the desert
Between 1940 and 1990, Phoenix jumped from the 99th largest city in the nation to the 9th largest. As such, it was frequently mentioned as a possible location for either a new or relocated MLB franchise. Baseball had a rich tradition in Arizona long before talk of bringing a big-league team even started. The state has been a frequent spring training site since 1946. With the large numbers of people relocating to the state from the Midwest and the Northeast, as well as from California, many teams (most notably the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers) have normally had large followings in Arizona.
The first serious 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 that a domed stadium was essential for a prospective baseball team to be a viable enterprise in the city. Phoenix is by far the hottest major city in North America; the average high temperature during baseball's regular season is 99.1 °F, and temperatures above 120 °F in July and August are not unheard of.
Bidwill, with plans already in the works to leave St. Louis, opted instead to sign a long term lease with Arizona State University to use its Sun Devil Stadium as the home of his soon-to-be Arizona-based NFL franchise. Since baseball-only stadiums were not seen as fiscally viable during that era, this effectively ended Stone's bid.
In the fall of 1993, Jerry Colangelo, majority owner of the Phoenix Suns, the area's wildly popular and successful NBA franchise, announced he was assembling an ownership group, "Arizona Baseball, Inc.," to apply for a Major League Baseball expansion team. This was after a great deal of lobbying by the Maricopa County Sports Authority, a local group formed to preserve Cactus League spring training in Arizona and eventually secure a Major League franchise for the state.
Colangelo's group was so certain that they would be awarded a franchise that they held a name-the-team contest for it; they took out a full-page ad in the sports section of the February 13 1995 edition of the state's leading newspaper, the ''Arizona Republic''. First prize was a pair of lifetime season tickets awarded to the person who submitted the winning entry. The winning choice was "Diamondbacks," after the Western diamondback, a rattlesnake native to the region known for injecting a large amount of venom when it strikes.
Colangelo's bid received strong support from one of his friends, Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, and media reports say that then-acting Commissioner of Baseball and Milwaukee Brewers founder Bud Selig was also a strong supporter of Colangelo's bid.
On March 9, 1995, Colangelo's group was awarded a franchise to begin play for the 1998 season. A $130 million franchise fee was paid to Major League Baseball. The Tampa Bay Area was also granted a franchise, the Devil Rays (to be based in St. Petersburg), at the same time.
According to the original press release from Colangelo's group (which remained posted on the team website during the first few seasons) the chosen team colors were Arizona turquoise, copper, black and purple. "...Turquoise was chosen because the greenish-blue stone is indigenous to Arizona, copper because Arizona is one the nation's top copper-producing states and purple because it has become a favorite color for Arizona sports fans, thanks to the success of the National Basketball Association's Phoenix Suns."
In the earliest days, the Diamondbacks operated basically as a subsidiary of the Suns; several executives and managers with the Suns and America West Arena were brought over to the Diamondbacks in similar roles.
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