In 1940, the desire for a major baseball team in Arizona was felt. Since their inception, the Arizona Diamondbacks have continued to be a young but successful team. They have seen some victories and many defeats, but ultimately come out well and won the World Series in 2001. They underwent a color transition recently which was not received well by fans, and at the moment have a solid record. 2009 looked promising for the Diamondbacks and 2010 may well be the same.

Elyse Doherty and Martin Stone decided to make an expansion team in Phoenix. They did not initially choose the name of the Diamondbacks, however, and the team didn’t even receive its own franchise until 1995. At this point, Jerry Colangelo, who had taken over the team and owned the Phoenix Suns, decided on the Diamondbacks for the team’s name, after the venomous snake which makes its home in the desert.

Colangelo opted not to call the team the Phoenix Diamondbacks, instead choosing Arizona to broaden their appeal beyond the one city. Some fans protested, especially those living in Phoenix, but ultimately the move went over fairly well throughout the nation. Now the Diamondbacks play in Chase field, which was formerly known as Bank One Ballpark.
While the Diamondbacks were relatively unknown in the years after their creation, 1998 marked a turnaround. They played their first MLB game that year, losing to the Colarado Rockies. Travis Lee and Andy Benes helped the team that year. Ultimately, the Diamondbacks went on to win the World Series in 2001, and actually won 100 games in 1999 which was their second major season. This was a great accomplishment.

Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling moved the Diamondbacks further into success in 2001. These were two of the most successful pitchers in MLB at that point. Then, the Diamondbacks won against the Cardinals and the Braves, going on to the World Series shortly after. The New York Yankees were their primary opponents, and they played a significant game that year, in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Things took a quick downturn for the Diamondbacks after that, though. Colangelo helped the team into failure by getting too many new team members and going into debt. The Diamondbacks got a huge losing record for losing the most games of all major league baseball teams – a whopping 111 games in just three years. In light of their initial success, this was a very bad time for the team.

However, the team did start to get back to its first level of success in 2007. The team changed its colors to Sedona Red – a move not terribly popular with fans. New players were brought into help the team against its opponents, and 2007 was a season where they were recovering from their first losses. They went on to win 90 games that season.
2010 looks promising for the Diamondbacks, who are now trying to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2007. They’ve had some firings and some hirings, changing up the lineup and the management both.

Doc.No:FB-729-ULT30-azfgds234g

Author Bio: Freddie Brister is a retired football coach who writes for http://www.SportsFanTreasures.com. Check out his Arizona Diamondbacks blanket or BYU Blanket or Tampa Bay Rays blanket

Category: Sports
Keywords: Major Baseball Team,Expansion Team,World Series