•Chase Field (1998 to present) also called Bank One Ballpark (The B.O.B) (1998 2005).
Affiliations
•National League( 1998 to present )
•West Division ( 1998 to present)
Success in Championships
World Series Champions 1: 2001
World Series Appearances 1: 2001
LCS Appearances – 2: 2001, 2007
National League West Division titles 4
1999, 2001, 2002 & 2007
Wild Cards – None
Team Colors: Arizona Diamond back team colors are Sand, Sedona Red & Black
The Arizona Diamond is a professional American Baseball team established in 1998 at Phoenix, Arizona. They are members of the West Division of Major League Baseball’s National League. Phoenix grew to be 9th largest city in USA in 1990 due to relocation of population to warmer states especially from Midwest and Northeast. Also, there were relocation from the sunny state of California. Demand for a professional National League team from the region came up, as fans for baseball grew in strength. Jerry Calangelo took first step by setting up Arizona Baseball Inc. His experience as the majority owner of NBA team Phoenix Suns came in handy and in 1995 he held “name the team” contest. The first prize was a lifetime season ticket. The winning choice was Diamond back, named after a rattlesnake, most common in Arizona. This five feet long snake can inject a significant amount of venom, when it strikes. The team is nicknamed D–backs and Snakes. The team logo is a red and a black triangle above purple Diamondbacks script. The Colangelo group was awarded the franchise in 1995 for playing 1998 season along with Tampa Bay’s Devil Rays (for St Petersburg). The home grounds are the Chase Fields which were earlier known as Bank One Ballpark (nickname The B.O.B.) and has a new retractable roof.
The team played its first season in 1998 with the first game on March 31,1998 against Colorado Rookies before a packed crowd of 50,179. They lost the game by 2 9. The Arizona Diamondback won their first World Series Title in 2001, the youngest franchise to do so. Also in first five seasons they also won three divisional titles. The Arizona Diamondback have won the West Division four times in 1999, 2001, 2002 & 2007. The retired number is 42 Jack Robinson which was retired by MLB. In 2007, Bob Melvin, their manager, won the Manager of the year award. Jose Valverde RHP won the Fireman Award in 2007. Randy Johnson LHP won Cy Young four times in 1999, 2000, 2001 & 2002 and Brandon Webb RHP in 2006. In 2006, Craig Consell 2B won the LCS MVP. During the year 2001, the team won World Series; Randy Johnson LHP and Curt Schilling RHP won the World Series MVP. The other distinguish achievement include No Hitters on 5/18/2004 by Randy Johnson (Prefect) and Cycle Hitters by Luis Gonzalez (7/5/2000), Greg Collbrunn (9/18/2002) and Stephen Drew (9/1/2008) .
Arizona Diamondback’s best season was in 1999 with the tally at 100 62 and the worst season in 2004 with 51 111 tally. The ownership change hands to Ken Kendrick, Jason Ellis, Paul Schloss in 2004 due to the declining team performance. The manager of the team is Bob Melvin since the year 2005. They have had four manager in 11 seasons so far ; Buck Showlater from1998 2000 , Bob Brenley from 2001 2004, Al Pedrique in 2004 and Bob Melvin 2005 Present
The Mascot is D Baxter the Bobcat. The Sun Poll Pavilion can give nearly 35 guests an opportunity to see the Diamondback play while enjoying fountains, swimming pool or hot tub. The Team has a TV tie up with Fox Sport Net Arizona and MAS (Spanish), the radio with KTAR (620 AM) : KSUN (1400 AM)
After the 2004 season, the Diamond hired Wally Back to be manager but they sacked him within 10days due to legal troubles and improprieties. Bob Melvin became new manager and team spent heavily on free agents to rebuild the team. The Arizona Diamondback signed Royce Clayton SS, Troy Glaus 3B, Russ Otiz P and Craig Counsell 2B. They traded Cassey Fossum for Jose Cruz Jr, Randy Johnson for Javier Vazquez, Brad Halsey and Dioner Navarro. They then traded newly acquired Dioner Navarro for Shawn Green. This helped the Diamondback to improve the tally in 2005 by 26 games to 77 85.
For 2007 season Luis Gonzales, a Diamondback stalwart and fan favorite joined the rival Los Angles Dodger. Miguel Batista joined Marnier. Craig Counsel went back to his hometown team of Milwaukee Brewers. Still the season was relatively a success for Arizona Diamondbacks with 90 72 tally, thanks to a young team of Connor Jackson, Brandon Webb, Carlos Quentin, Chris Young, Chad Tracy, Mark Reynold and Stephen Drew. They beat Colorado Rockets to secure a playoff position and also won the NL West title and a berth in National League Championship series first time after 2001.
For 2008 the Arizona Diamondbacks traded Carlos Quentin for Chris Carter. They also acquired Dan Haren RHP for six players. Dan Haren signed a 4 year deal of $44.75 million. The veteran free agents, Tony Clark and Livan Hernandez did not re sign. Orlando Hudson underwent a surgery after a collision with Brian Mc Cann of Atlanta Braves. Other major player with injuries was Eric Byrnes. Due to injuries, Diamondbacks traded Wilkin Castillo C and Micah Owing RHP for Adam Dunn. Further the acquired World Series MVP David Eckstein for second base to fill for Orlando Hudson. The season finished with tally at 82 80.
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