MEET THE DIAMONDBACKS he best sports teams are the ones with a winning tradition In baseball it can take many decades to build a club that s a contender The Arizona Diamondbacks decided to do things a little differently They didn t play their first season until 1998 but they put an exciting team on the field right away Is Arizona an impatient team Not at all The club's coaches and fans show great patience with their young players When the Diamondbacks make mistakes on the field they learn from them That is a big part of the team s success This book tells the story of the Diamondbacks Like the snake that they are named after the D backs are coiled to strike at any time No opponent wants to stir them And no lead is safe until the final out is made Chris Young gets a warm welcome from teammates after a home run Arizona s patience with young players has paid off time and
GLORY DAYS he story of the Arizona Diamondbacks begins in 1995 That year baseball owners decided to add two new teams for the 1998 season The Tampa Bay Devil Rays now known as the Rays joined the American League AL The Diamondbacks joined the National League NL The Diamondbacks were named after a species of rattlesnake that lives in the deserts of the American RIZONA Southwest The team's main owner was Jerry Colangelo He also owned the Phoenix Suns basketball team Colangelo's partners included Phillip Knight who owned Nike comedian Billy Crystal and basketball star Danny Manning The D backs struggled in their first season and finished last in the NL West Their
best players were Matt Williams Jay Bell Devon White and Andy Benes Arizona fans were willing to be patient with the Diamondbacks but the owners were eager to win right away Over the winter they added pitcher Randy Johnson and a whole new outfield of Luis Gonzalez Steve Finley and Tony Womack The Diamondbacks won 100 games in just their second season something no expansion team had ever done Over the next two seasons Arizona welcomed more experienced stars including Mark Grace Reggie Sanders Craig Counsell Curt Schilling and Miguel Batista In 2001 the Diamondbacks captured the pennant Johnson went 21 6 and won the Cy Young Award Gonzalez also had an amazing year He hit 57 home runs and had 142 runs batted in RBIs LEFT Luis Gonzales gets ready to hit ABOVE Jay Bell was a star for Arizona in its early
