A Budding D-Back Fan in New York : Lonely in a Land of 8 million
By Thomas Lynch
So I am about six weeks into my gig as a staff writer for Venomstrikes covering the Arizona Diamondbacks. I have to say it has been a lot of fun following a team that is not from New York, particularly a team that calls Phoenix home. It is an easy way to make winter go by quicker knowing every day you get an update from an area where the daytime temperature hits 60 degrees and higher. Why am I bothering to tell you all of this when you want some actual team news and insights? I feel as though something needs to get off my chest. Please allow me this opportunity to do it today.
While I am a lifelong fan of the New York Yankees, I don’t feel quite the same about them ever since the real Yankee Stadium was laid to rest at the end of the 2008 season. This is not to say I am a full-fledged D-Back fan now. I have been to Phoenix (Scottsdale, actually) once in my life and that was in November. I won’t speak for fellow Venomstrikes writer Christopher Czar but I can tell you that if Arizona was to win the World Series, there is no way I can celebrate their success like a normal Diamondbacks’ fan. I have been covering the team since February; how can I be considered a real fan by celebrating a World Series title without having to endure the mess of the 2009 and 2010 seasons? Day One D-Back fans and Venomstrikes writers Tyler Roberts and J. Levi Burnfin would have every right to have me thrown off the staff. Plus, while my Yankee feelings have cooled a bit, how can I forget the ending of the 2001 World Series? That loss hurt as badly as any I have had as a fan. Perhaps the only other game that hurt as much as that Game 7 is St. John’s losing to Ohio St. in the Elite Eight during the 1999 NCAA Tournament.
It will be easy for me to start cheering for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2012. Besides all of the young and exciting talent they offer, their coaching staff reminds me of fond childhood memories watching as much baseball as I possibly could. Kirk Gibson, Don Baylor and Alan Trammell were big stars in the 1980’s and Matt Williams, Charles Nagy and Eric Young were standout players the following decade. While I may not buy D-Back pillow cases just yet, I am finding that the more I write about them, the more I like them.
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