Oh, Just Suck It

(Link: Hello? Any Diamondbacks fans out there? )

This isn't the Diamondbacks' fault, and it's not Major League Baseball's, either. Sometimes, it's incumbent upon a city to adopt a franchise, and even if the fans chuckle at the public address announcer's imploring fans to chant along to the "Anywhere, anytime" catchphrase and roll their eyes at the team's theme song with the chorus "It's a fact, Jack, I back, you back, we back the D'backs," they should support the team by, at very least, showing up.

Okay, here's the "whine":

• "Apathetic and rowdy"... pick a side?   While throwing stuff onto the field is certainly not acceptable behavior, this certainly seems way overblown.  Go to a European or South American soccer game and locals would say the Dback fans made a "mockery" of being "rowdy."   I guess we need to follow the example real baseball fans like those prim, proper and polite fans in New York or Chicago or Boston fans. One man's "rowdy" is another man's "passionate."


• You will have empty seats before gametime (as pictured above) if the game is scheduled in the middle of frickin' rush hour (5:30pm on a Thursday).  Traffic sucked!!   What should have been a 20 minute ride, took me 1.5 hours (leaving work at the same time as me, Todd got to the game even later!)... Downtown Phoenix is an absolute disaster thanks to light rail construction.


• Ummm... the "Anywhere, Anytime" chant and the new "theme song" are LAME!!  Kudos to the crowd for having the good taste and not being Pavlonian for a change.  And don't try to get fans to chant "anytime, anywhere" when the team is down and playing like crap.  When they tried to start the chant, I was thinking "How about NOW, and the Rockies."


• I believe that children our the team's future.  Until a father, and his father's father, and his father's father father have been Dback fans, there is going to a certain degree of apathy when it comes to team support... and truthfully, I am not sure if that will ever happen. 


• Maybe folks see the decision to totally change team colors this year as a thinly masked attempt by the organization to make some money by forcing people to have to totally re-do their entire Dbacks wardrobe.  Something that this household has refused to do.


• Granted it is a business, but current management did not ingratiate themselves with fans... or spin it very well/do a good job at PR...  with the ousters of former owner Jerry Colangelo or franchise World Series hero, Luis Gonzalez.


• Since the departure of Gonzo, there is no "heart"/face of the franchise.  Granted Randy Johnson did return (and not exactly with warm/open arms), but has been out with an injury.  Even my Dad, a huge follower of baseball, has said he doesn't recognize many names.  Heck, there were even a few starters in last night's game that I wouldn't have been able to put a name to the face.


• There wasn't a huge buzz about the Dbacks going into the playoffs... and they were lucky it didn't slip out of their grasp (they only clinched their division due to a loss by another team). 


• The Dbacks are a victim of its own success.  In our first 10 years, we have won our division 4 times and have a World Series.  While this should be applauded and supported, it isn't something terribly new... other cities have been waiting (hoping, praying) for this longer than the Dbacks have even been existence.  Heck, this is only the 2nd time the Rockies have even made the playoffs.

While I do "get" what it looks like to an outsider and "sports expert" like Passan and agree with some of what he was saying, I was miffed about the tone of the article and where he is laying all the blame. 

This well-behaved fan who just happened to be at last night's game waves "Hello" to him, and any other detractors, and concludes with a saying seen on an early American flag, that just happened to have a snake on it... Don't Tread On Me.