Image: Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports

But that can also be a perk. If I was a fan of another team with a long history, there would be specific teams I wouldn’t remember, players I didn’t know and managers I was ambivalent about. With the Diamondbacks though, I can remember something about every year since their inception. I can remember the highest of highs, a cutter to the hands fought off and deposited behind Derek Jeter in 2001, and the lowest of the lows, which brings me to something I saw earlier this week.For those that follow the ultra-funny “Diamondbacks Memes” on Facebook or Twitter, you might have seen the discussion on the best managers in Diamondbacks’ history.

There has been six managers in the 15 year history of the Snakes. Well, actually seven if you count Wally Backman‘s four-day stint in 2004.

Diamondbacks Memes ranked the managers in the following order:

1. Bob Melvin, 2. Bob Brenly, 3. Kirk Gibson, 4. Buck Showalter, 5. A.J. Hinch, 6. Al Pedrique.

This led to a pretty spirited discussion on the correct order, but one thing that stood out among many was the Brenly should be ranked #1 for winning the World Series.

And that’s where I vehimently disagree. Here’s my order:

1. Buck Showalter – Showalter was the D’backs first ever manager as he manned the helm of an expansion franchise and almost immediately turned the team into a contender. The Diamondbacks won the NL West in 1999 with a team-record 100 wins and Showalter held a 250-236 record over three seasons before being fired.

2. Bob Melvin – Melvin oversaw my second-favorite D’backs’ team of all time in 2007 as he led the Diamondbacks to 90 wins, a NL West pennant and an appearance in the NLCS. He had his struggles at the end of 2008 as the D’backs faltered down the stretch and was let go early in 2009 after a 12-17 start but he was a tactically smart manager and one that let his players shine.

3. Kirk Gibson – This is where the list gets difficult in my mind. I fought over whether this should be Brenly or Gibson here. Yes, Brenly is a World Series champion manager but realistically, the 2001 team won despite Brenly instead of because of him. It is really early to place Gibson really anywhere on this list. He helped the Diamondbacks go from last to first in 2011 as he established a well respected and experience-ridden coaching staff. But in 2012, there were several instances that he handled poorly and his insistence on keeping the green light on the basepaths, where runners were constantly running into outs, was questionable at best.

4. Bob Brenly – Brenly really goes here by default because of the managers behind him. Yes, I have great memories from the Brenly era, but it was really almost all because of the players he had on the field instead of Brenly’s managerial style. Brenly nearly cost the Diamondbacks’ the 2001 World Series, in which they were clearly the better team. One of the biggest mistakes Brenly kept making was putting light-hitting Tony Womack in the leadoff spot with his .308 OBP in 2001. Counsell hit behind Womack, which was a smart choice with his .350 OBP, but when Womack did reach base, Brenly would have Counsell bunt Womack over to second with Luis Gonzalez, a 57-home run hitter, on deck. And don’t get me started on how badly Brenly messed up the Byung-Hyun Kim situation in game 5. Long story short, Brenly had the best players on the field and almost messed it up.

5. Al Pedrique – He was only an interim manager for 83 games in 2004. However, he managed an awful .265 winning percentage with a 22-61 record.

6. Wally Backman – Yup, I’m including Backman. He was a manager for a total of four days and still was able to get fired. “How you gonna get fired on your day off?”

7. A.J. Hinch – This is how bad Hinch was. He was awful tactically, he never gained the respect of his players and couldn’t last even 1.5 years with the club. He was fired with a 89-123 record and a bad taste in every fans’ mouth.

I know this list is very different than many will be, what would you change and why?

Diamondbacks fans get to enjoy the voices of Steve Bertiaume and Bob Brenly breakdown and analyze their team in 2013. (US Presswire)

The Arizona Diamondbacks look for new beginings in their broadcast booth in 2013 as they bring in former ESPN and Baseball Tonight anchor Steve Berthiaume and a familar voice from the team’s short history, in former Arizona Diamondbacks manager, Bob Brenly. This duo is going to bring an interesting dynamic of expansive baseball knowledge and experience as well as familiar and comfortable voices to share perspective on the D’Backs in their 16th season in existence.

Steve Berthiaume has spent the past six years as the anchor of ESPN’s Baseball Tonight. Watching pieces of all games each night over that six- year span gives Berthiaume a perspective that very few television analysts can offer. Most baseball fans know his voice and are familiar with his career work to this point. He will be able to offer a significant vantage point to every D’backs fan tuning into the broadcast each night. His learning curve on getting to know the team should be fairly short and he’ll be able to share with viewers detail on all Major League teams and players. This will give D’backs fans a truly unique play-by-play experience every night of the 2013 season.

All Arizona fans know Bob Brenly, how could anyone forget him? He was one of the original voices in the booth for the organization and eventually worked his way into the dugout to lead the team to their first and only World Series win in 2001. Brenly has always been able to give great perspective in his color commentary roles with his experience as both a player and a manager. I speak for most D’Backs fans when say that a familiar voice like Brenly’s is going to receive a warm welcome back from D’Backs fans.

The voices and personalities that deliver perspective on America’s pastime are important for each and every team in Major League Baseball. These voices are with us each night as our team treks through a 162 game season. A season that spans from late March and into the first days of October. They analyze, breakdown, explain and share so much with us to give us the best possible experience each game, each broadcast. Their value is tough to measure, but ask fans in Los Angeles, or Detroit, or St. Louis what the value of voices like Vin Scully, or Ernie Harwell, or Jack Buck were to their team’s histories.

To this point in their young history, Arizona has had a few names come and go. It’s exciting to have a new start with hopes that these might be the faces and voices that we get to watch our favorite team with for years to come.