Don’t get us wrong, we are not pleased with how the team is doing either but we were not surprised to hear the answers to some tough questions given to Derrick in his Monthly chat. Yes, the team is not playing well and he is fully aware. Derrick performs in the highest management capacity of the team and is ultimately accountable for everything that goes on from finances and staffing to the team’s performance. However, as in any strong organization there is definitely a separation of authority. This is good because there seems to be accountability at the appropriate levels. Derrick gets that some of the fans are disappointed but, he is also an invaluable asset to the organization. As any strong leader does, he did not show doubt in his team, only awareness of what is going on. A great leader praises in public and punishes in private, which would be indicative of how the how the management changes took place over the last week.
With that said, as silent observers on the weekly chat, we did take it seriously but some of these wondering thoughts crossed our heads. Here are some of the questions that we had for Derrick that may, or may not have, made it passed moderation:
Is it true that Yum Brands, Inc, DBA Taco Bell, is compensating the Diamondbacks for not scoring 6 or more runs to limit their free taco distribution?
We thought this would put a smile on his face. This is completely ridiculous but we found it amusing. The stars pretty much have to be aligned for the free tacos anyhow. Nothing like the free Circle K Thirstbusters. Taco Bell has been giving away tacos for as long as we can remember so there is absolutely no truth to this.
Can anyone upgrade/ downgrade their tickets for tickets in the all-you-can-eat section?
Okay, so this is a more legitimate question. The D-backs have created the new section in the club level seats and they are always packed. It does not matter. There could be 15,000 fans there and that section is filled to capacity. We have been to Dodger Stadium and seen theirs and all we can say is that the D-backs definitely take care of their fans.
Is there any type of formal customer service training that the staff goes through?
We think that the answer is yes to this one. “Welcome back!”, “Good to see you again.” ,“Welcome to Chase Field.”, are only some of the things we repeatedly hear at the stadium. At times we forget that the team is struggling when we are made to feel so at home.
Is there any update on the Spring Training location for the Arizona Diamondbacks?
This would have been another good question to ask but did not cross our minds until after the fact. We have heard that the team is looking at a parcel of land in North Phoenix as a possibility. As North Phoenix residents, we have seen a couple of fairly large parcels just south of the Desert Ridge Marketplace and the Loop 101 and another north of the 101 off of Cave Creek. We would just like to know where to move closer to.
Until next time, continue to show your support by cheering on the D-backs as the team continues to give back to their fans and Arizona communities.
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If you live under a rock (chances are that you don’t since you are reading this) than you would have no idea that next week is the beginning of regular season. We are as pumped as you are and you may have noticed that a few things are different around here. The purpose of this post is to address those differences.Beginning Friday April 3rd we will not be covering Spring Training for 2009. The games are now officially in exhibition status. We will be covering the D-backs White Sox matchups and the Diamondbacks on into regular season.
While we like to think that the team has done a wonderful job of giving you the unbiased game summaries, the regular season is rapidly approaching. Since this is an Arizona site, we intend on giving you an Arizona point of view of the games here locally. You may have noticed that some of the more recent D-backs articles were heading this direction anyhow. Rest assured that for Fall League and Spring Training of our next cycle we will bring back our unbiased reports of the games.
The temporary logo is the first sign of that. We’ll put the regular one back up there for the beginning of the season but we thought that we would show how excited we are.
Why are we sending this message?
From St. Louis to Los Angeles and Florida to Colorado we have received awesome support but, we have also received some underhanded comments (not on the site but privately). You know who you are. While we are baseball fans first and foremost, our state happens to have a team that we plan on supporting. So, when Randy Johnson gets hammered by his former teammates, Manny pulls a “hammy” or Tulowitzki can’t hit a pitch, you will hear about it.
So please remember, if we randomly change Tulowitzki’s name to “Oh-fer”, it is because it is easier to type and because we are here to support our home team.
Go Diamondbacks!
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The 2009 Arizona Diamondbacks Fan Fest was a pretty huge success. We spent some time mingling with fans and chatting with some the ticket sales staff as well as running into Derrick Hall on the field at the 5th annual event. We do not have the exact numbers of the event’s attendees but we were told that there were easily more than three times as many people as last year’s event. This bodes well for an organization that has been under some scrutiny due to some of their recent moves as of late. It appears that, despite recent criticism, there continues to be huge fan support.
You can check out some of the summary that we did on the lifestyle aspect of the event for a neighboring site Rail Life. A site dedicated to the Metro Rail and events along its path. Here we decided that we would let you in on some of the insight that we received on the team for the year to come. It appears that the NFC Champion Arizona Cardinals’ success may have served as a catalyst in the sports fan community resulting in higher participation from fans in all of our local sports venues. The hope is that this trend will carry over into Spring Training and the support for the D-backs once the boys of spring have left.
During a question and answer period, the infielders were asked if they were at all nervous about the Big Unit moving to their NL West rivals, the San Francisco Giants. The infielders simply laughed. There were some interesting comments made by Augie Ojeda that acknowledged the fact that, although intimidating, they feel that they do have an advantage having played with him before. We hope that this is the case and are looking forward to the team knocking him all over the park. There is no question that their demeanor indicated that this is not going to be out of the question.
We also had the opportunity to talk baseball with some of the other members of the organization. Apparently, the Arizona Diamondbacks are one of the best performing teams in the renewal department of season ticket sales. Although this may not seem like a big deal, it lends itself to a solid fan base that will continue to support the team year after year. Additionally, some of our presumptions were validated when they mentioned that some of the roster moves, as of late, have been because the organization is being more focused on bringing up raw talent. Like some of the older major league teams have been doing for years, the D-backs are spending time focusing on bringing up their own talent through the organization rather than going elsewhere to get it. Signing one-year deals to fill the gaps are necessary moves to fill the gaps but, the focus does remain on growing the ball club organically.
In all, the players that were at the event seemed genuinely excited to be back in Arizona and seem to be looking forward to the season ahead. From what we gathered, it seems that the only teams that are on the D-backs radar, as far as challenges go, are the St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers, if they are able to resign Manny Ramirez. We were unable to ask Josh Byrnes about a southpaw.
For more pictures from the event, feel free to check out our Flickr page.
]]>The ballpark remained out of seeds for the Labor Day game against the Cardinals.
Stadium representatives did not comment on the cause of the shortage but, do expect more seeds for the next Diamondbacks’ home stand.
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