It was announced early Tuesday morning that longtime D-back and fan favorite Conor Jackson had been traded to the Oakland Athletics for minor league pitcher Sam Demel. Since his arrival in 2005, Conor Jackson has been a mainstay in the lineup for the D-backs from 2006 to 2008. With three seasons of 25 or more doubles, two 15 home run seasons and a respectable .277 lifetime batting average, Conor will certainly be missed by the fans. During the 2009 season, Jackson was overtaken by a mysterious illness, later diagnosed as valley fever as he would miss the majority of the season for Arizona. In an effort to make some changes in the bullpen, the D-backs would trade the outfielder who did show some signs of improvement for the 2010 season.
Sam Demel, a product of TCU, has pitched in 22 games so far this year in the minors and boasts a 1.26 ERA. The right hander is expected to give the D-backs relief staff some much needed assistance as the team tried to make the bullpen whole. In 2007 Demel would allow no hits in five straight outings and in 2008 he would rank second in the California League in saves. Demel is expected to join the team on Wednesday in Boston as the D-backs face the Red Sox in interleague play.
To cover Conor’s former spot in the outfield, the D-backs expect to have Abreu step in after returning from the disabled list but, Gerardo Parra is likely to get most of the playing time. Josh Byrnes hinted that there may be more moves to come as the team’s management takes an overall look at the organization on and off the field.
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Baseball fans in Arizona show their excitement and support for the team as tickets flew off the presses. The D-backs ticket sales staff has been hard at work and the most exciting springs in recent memory helped to add fuel to the fire. The Arizona Diamondbacks announced on Friday that Monday’s 2:10 p.m.Opening Day game against the San Diego Padres at Chase Field is sold out.
A limited amount of single and standing-room-only tickets will be available beginning at 9 a.m. MST on Monday at the Chase Field ticket office or by calling 602-514-8400.
The club also announced that the roof will be open, so fans sitting in areas of the ballpark not covered in shade are advised to wear a cap and bring sunscreen to the game.
Tickets are also available for the other two games against the Padres on Tuesday (6:40 p.m.) and Wednesday (6:40 p.m.) as well as the weekend series April 9-11 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Tickets are available for purchase at the Chase Field ticket office, by calling 602-514-8400 or online at dbacks.com. Tickets may also be purchased at any of the 36 TicketMaster retail outlets, including 28 Fry’s Food Stores or Fry’s Marketplace locations.
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Spring training is right around the corner and if you are as excited as we are, you probably want to know who is playing who and where. The 2009 Cactus League promises to be exciting with over 200 games of baseball. Several of these games will include teams from the World Baseball Classic such as Australia, Mexico and South Africa. Additionally, there are games scheduled out of state where the Cubs and White Sox will be traveling to Las Vegas for some more desert baseball action.
While we are still in the process of finalizing our schedule section for the website, we thought that we would thank you for your patience and go back to the basics with some downloadable schedules for your reference pleasure. The schedules come in three flavors: Excel, text and PDF. Get one, or all three. Tell your friends and get be sure to get yours today.
- 2009 Cactus League Schedule – PDF (608)
- 2009 Cactus League Schedule – TXT (270)
- 2009 Cactus League Schedule – XLS (393)
- 2010 Cactus League Spring Training Schedule (37)
- 2010 Cactus League Spring Training Schedule (26)
- 2010 Cactus League Spring Training Schedule (39)
- 2010 Cactus League Spring Training Schedule (33)
- D-backs Aduim Icons (49)
If the files open in your browser, click the file –> save as option.
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The Oakland Athletics announced Thursday that they would be releasing thier Spring Trainig Schedule and we are please to announce, thanks to some intelligence this weekend, we are able to bring you the tentative dates for the Oakland A’s spring training. Tickets will be going on sale a little bit earlier than usual for the A’s this year and are scheduled to be available online on the A’s website.
The tickets will be going on sale on Monday, November 17th at 10a.m. Pacific Time and are generally sold in packages as they finalize the schedule. We will be updating our visitors with information as it becomes available. There is a possibility that the ticket sales will be for individual games, at which point, we will be able to finalize our published schedule.
Remember to return frequently as we make improvements to our site to include a calendaring feature for all of our Cactus League teams. Subscribe to our updates as more baseball news becomes available. In the meantime, the Oakland A’s Spring Training Schedule can be found at the following location: Oakland A’s Spring Training Schedule
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As we iron out our monthly feature calendar, we are pleased to announce that we have been in contact with McFarlane Toys to bring you some insight on Todd, his company and how he makes his toys. We have also received a lead on a Cactus League Exhibit that will be taking place at the Mesa Historical Museum. To benefit our visitors, we may squeeze in additional features from time to time as events pop up in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area.
Although we have scheduled features out to the month of April, we are open to suggestions. Please feel free to let us know of any Major League Baseball Events that you know of, that are taking place in Phoenix, and your story may be featured on our site.
Below we have listed some of the stories that we plan on featuring on our site. We may throw our visitors a hanging curveball with stories on other local events, such as the Pat Tillman Charity Game and the Winter Meetings.
- 2008 – November: Glendale Spring Training Complex Update
- 2008 – December: Todd McFarlane Toys
- 2009 – January: Mesa Historical Museum Baseball Exhibit
- 2009 – February: Countdown to Spring Training
- 2009 – March: Scottsdale Spring Training Nights
- 2009 – April: Chase Field Tour