Monday, September 13, 2004
Back in the swing, sort of...
I tried to post Saturday, but it didn't appear until Sunday night, which may have confused anyone who tried reading the previous post.
Seems a bit late to comment much on Saturday and Sunday games. Saturday's game (a 5-3 loss to the Giants) had the following headling in the Arizona Republic -- "Walks give Bonds record, Giants win" -- and I chuckled, knowing that this was the prototypical Stephen Randolph outing. Sunday's game was a 5-2 loss, highlighted (or low-lighted, whatever) by Bonds' 699th homerun and Jason Schmidt announcing his return to the Cy Young race by retiring 21 batters in a row.
So here are a couple other thoughts:
-- Can somebody -- anybody -- please tell me what Alan "The Lion In" Zinter is doing batting cleanup? (Sorry, I'm giving him a nickname because I don't think he's ever going to do anything to merit a SportsCenter reference.) I'm at an utter loss. Was Josh Kroeger unavailable? I'm not sure the man should be in the lineup (or even in Phoenix), but I just want to know the reasoning, spurious or otherwise, that would lead him to be batting cleanup...
-- Attendance: For the year, attendance is down 8%. With Colorado, Milwaukee, and San Diego the final three home series, I suspect the year-end numbers will be a little worse (I don't see the D-Backs averaging 34,000 for those three series). But again, context is important here. Of the 13 teams the D-Backs have played both in Arizona and at their parks, if you compare attendance here and there, attendance was higher in Arizona for 7 of those series. Arizona stills ranks 14th in MLB for home attendance and 13th in total attendance. I'm not saying this is great; I'm just saying that it's pretty good when you consider the season the Diamondbacks have had. I'll have more thoughts on attendance in the offseason...
Seems a bit late to comment much on Saturday and Sunday games. Saturday's game (a 5-3 loss to the Giants) had the following headling in the Arizona Republic -- "Walks give Bonds record, Giants win" -- and I chuckled, knowing that this was the prototypical Stephen Randolph outing. Sunday's game was a 5-2 loss, highlighted (or low-lighted, whatever) by Bonds' 699th homerun and Jason Schmidt announcing his return to the Cy Young race by retiring 21 batters in a row.
So here are a couple other thoughts:
-- Can somebody -- anybody -- please tell me what Alan "The Lion In" Zinter is doing batting cleanup? (Sorry, I'm giving him a nickname because I don't think he's ever going to do anything to merit a SportsCenter reference.) I'm at an utter loss. Was Josh Kroeger unavailable? I'm not sure the man should be in the lineup (or even in Phoenix), but I just want to know the reasoning, spurious or otherwise, that would lead him to be batting cleanup...
-- Attendance: For the year, attendance is down 8%. With Colorado, Milwaukee, and San Diego the final three home series, I suspect the year-end numbers will be a little worse (I don't see the D-Backs averaging 34,000 for those three series). But again, context is important here. Of the 13 teams the D-Backs have played both in Arizona and at their parks, if you compare attendance here and there, attendance was higher in Arizona for 7 of those series. Arizona stills ranks 14th in MLB for home attendance and 13th in total attendance. I'm not saying this is great; I'm just saying that it's pretty good when you consider the season the Diamondbacks have had. I'll have more thoughts on attendance in the offseason...
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