Up and Away Part III

For a time, the National League consisted of 12 teams with 14 teams making up the American League. That didn’t seem quite right – and MLB wanted to expand further – so it added four teams between 1993 and 1998, bringing the total number of major league teams to 30. The Houston Astros switched leagues jumping from the NL to the AL, so each league boasted 15 clubs; those teams were divided into three divisions with one team in each league qualifying for a Wild Card berth (three teams qualify for a wild card spot in each league under current MLB rules). In any event, Major League Baseball nearly doubled the number of teams from 1960 to 1998.

There’s still “talk” about additional expansion to 32 clubs.

THE FLORIDA MARLINS

On June 16, 1992, Dave Dombrowski drove three and a half hours from Toronto to Erie, PA to see two minor league teams battle it out. But this wasn’t any contest. The Erie Sailors played the first game in the history of the Florida Marlins organization.

A short-season team in the New York-Penn League, the Sailors were assembled in the past 11 months when Miami was awarded a major league franchise. They faced the Jamestown (NY) Expos.

Dan Le Betard, a 24-year-old sportswriter for the Miami Herald, travelled to Erie to do a story the day of the game and the following day reported how the Sailors lost to the Johnstown (NY) Expos in 13 innings, 6-5, in a contest that took four hours and 36 minutes.

“Starter John Lynch threw six straight balls before he threw the first strike in team history,” wrote Le Batard. “He said he was ‘a little nervous’ because of the crowd and the occasion and the fact that his parents had flown in from San Diego to see him.” Lynch would later go on to a great career in another sport.

“I distinctly remember third base coach Fredi Gonzalez, who would go on to become manager of the Marlins and Braves, introducing me to the concept of a snot rocket when he disgustingly held a finger to one side of his nose and blew snot near third base. That discovery stays with you,” Le Batard said recently. “I remember John Lynch, Hall of Fame NFL safety and now 49ers GM, throwing the first pitch. There were TV crews there. I remember more media there from Miami than from Erie. There was a small smattering of fans from Florida.”

Le Batard, who later hosted a show on ESPN, described Erie’s home park Ainsworth Field as a “dump” (it opened in 1914), but a sellout crowd of more than 4,000 people showed up.

Twenty-five Marlins executives, including owner Wayne Huizenga, flew on his private jet to attend the game. Afterwards, Dombrowski got into his car and drove back to Toronto, where he was scouting major league players. “It was a lot of driving but worth it,” Dombrowski told the Herald.

In 1987, Dombrowski joined the Montreal Expos front office as director of player development. On July 5, 1988, he became the Montreal Expos’ GM at 31—the youngest in MLB history at the time.

When the National League expanded with franchises in Colorado and Florida, the Marlins recruited Dombrowski to become their first GM on September 19, 1991. He would have to get busy: they were slated to play in 1993.

Dombrowski said, “being the GM of the expansion franchise would be a unique experience, to start a franchise from the very beginning. I always thought when I was even getting into professional baseball, when you talk about certain things that you would find interesting and perhaps you’d like to achieve during your career, I mean you get your foot in the door, eventually become a general manager, win a world championship. I always thought it would be intriguing to start a franchise from the very beginning. So that was really the allure there. I thought Miami, South Florida, would be a very good franchise and we did draw over three million people the first year. I also knew Carl Barger, the club president, via Jim Leland, and liked Carl a great deal.

“So there (were) a lot of good things about it, and to me it was like a great opportunity to get that chance, which comes around very rarely throughout the years in baseball. So that was really the biggest interest there.”

To build the team from the ground up, Dombrowski needed a scouting staff to find players in the major leagues, minor leagues and amateur talent for the baseball draft.

“We hired people we called Major League scouts or professional scouts, and they were top evaluators of talent.  Of course, they were from various organizations, people like Scott Reed, Cookie Rojas, John Young, Dick Egan, Ken Kravic. We really had a great group of guys,” he said.

“Then we used a person like Frank Wren, who was our assistant general manager, to fill in a little bit. I looked at a lot of players myself.  We assigned each of those scouts to various organizations, and most had a division, which would have five clubs at that point. Their responsibility was to evaluate the eligible players for the draft – from A ball or rookie ball – but most of them were A ball through the major leagues, and then come up with a ranking order and how they liked players within that organization.

“Once we evaluated those players, (the scouts) were responsible for ranking those players within that organization. And then we gathered all of those individuals, plus other people that could help us in our organization and gathered them in Fort Lauderdale prior to the expansion draft. We ended up ranking all those players and preparing for the draft that way,” said Dombrowski. In the expansion draft on November 17, 1992, the Marlins picked behind the Colorado Rockies and selected outfielder Nigel Wilson from Toronto with their first choice.

Dombrowski’s staff did its job as they also selected Carl Everett from the Yankees, Jeff Conine from Kansas City, and Bret Barberie from Montreal (Dombrowski drafted him for the Expos in the 7th round of the 1988 amateur draft).  They also signed infielders Luis Castillo and Edgar Renteria who would play important roles in the team’s future.

Expansion drafts can be a way to get more for your selections through deals with other clubs. Dombrowski selected Danny Jackson from Kansas City and sent him to the Phillies for two minor league pitchers. He drafted future Hall-of-Fame closer Trevor Hoffman from Cincinnati, but traded him and others to the Padres for Gary Sheffield in July of 1993.  He also drafted Oakland shortstop Walt Weiss, who played for the Marlins for one year.

Dombrowski signed free agents such as catcher Benito Santiago and first baseman Orestes Destrade (who had played for the Seibu Lions in Japan for four years) who hit .255 with 20 home runs and 87 RBIs for the ’93 Marlins. Dombrowski also signed knuckleballer Charlie Hough, who was 45 years old.

Prior to the 1997 season, he made impactful trades, such as acquiring Rob Nenn from Texas, who became the Marlins’ closer for several seasons, including the 1997 World Series championship team.

The Florida Marlins made their debut on April 5 against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Joe Robbie Stadium, home to the NFL’s Miami Dolphins in Miami. Hough squared off against Orel Hershiser.

In the top of the first, Hough faced Dodgers leadoff hitter Jose Offerman, and struck him out, and the Dodgers did not score in the inning.

In the bottom of the first, leadoff hitter and centerfielder Scott Pose became the first Marlin to bat, and reached base on an error. The next batter, Barberie, singled for the club’s first-ever hit.

In the bottom of the second, Santiago and Conine singled and both scored on Weiss’ triple for the Marlins’ first runs and RBIs.  Pose singled and Weiss scored, and the Marlins led 3-0. In the bottom of the third, Destrade doubled and scored on Santiago’s single. The Dodgers scored two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth, making the score 4-3. The Marlins came back with runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Leading 6-3, closer Bryan Harvey gave up a single to Mike Piazza, but retired the side with no further damage, and the Marlins had their first victory in their first game.

The Marlins finished the season 64-98, good for sixth place in the seven-team National League East and five games ahead of the New York Mets. They drew slightly more than three million fans. Four seasons later, they made the playoffs and went on to win the 1997 World Series.

A little more on Dombrowski – in 2003, the Detroit Tigers lost 119 games. Then Dombrowski became GM and the team went to the World Series in 2006. He was GM of the Boston Red Sox when they won the 2018 World Series. He’s currently president of the Philadelphia Phillies, who reached the World Series in 2022.

THE COLORADO ROCKIES

The year 1959 was a good one – a very important year for baseball in Colorado. It was the first time a formidable, well-assembled plan was presented for bringing major-league baseball to Denver.

During the late ’50s, the Denver Bears were the Triple-A farm team of the New York Yankees. The team was loaded with future major-league stars including Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, Ryne Duren, Mark Freeman, and Marv Throneberry.  Ralph Houk was the manager. Denver fans loved their baseball, and they supported the team with record attendance among minor-league cities.

Denver was emerging as a major transportation hub as well as a leading financial center in the Rocky Mountain area. Enthusiastic fans in the Denver area were eager to welcome and support major-league professional sports. The Denver Broncos began play in the American Football League in 1960 and the fans hoped a major-league baseball team would soon follow.

– Roger L. Kinney, Time for Expansion Baseball

For more than three decades, the city of Denver tried to procure a major league baseball team. However, financing a new major league stadium was an issue. Residents voted down a ballot measure to approve spending for a new park. One city administrator suggested taxing nearby counties as well as Denver, figuring residents of those suburbs would attend baseball games in the city. It took several tries to find a suitable ownership group that could prove it had the financial resources to operate the club. Finally, in 1992, Denver, along with Miami, were awarded expansion franchises.

The Rockies had hired Bob Gebhard to be General Manager; like Dave Dombrowski, he had been a successful GM. In 1992, his Minnesota Twins defeated the Atlanta Braves in the World Series. The day after the final game, Gebhard left for Denver. He hired Don Baylor, a former MVP – and noted tough guy – to be manager.

At the 1992 Expansion Draft, the Rockies selected catcher Joe Girardi and infielder Vinny Castilla. Gebhard also signed free-agent first baseman Andres Galarraga. Girardi was the club’s principal catcher for three seasons before becoming a World Series Champion manager himself with the New York Yankees. Between 1993 and 1999, Castilla slugged 191 home runs. Galarraga won the 1993 batting title by hitting .370.

As expected, the Rockies had dismal records, but that did not deter fans. A record 4.8 million people crowded into Mile High Stadium to see big league baseball. From 1993-1999, the Rockies led the league in attendance, always drawing more than three million fans.

The Rockies played their first game on April 5, 1993 against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium.

David Nied, a righthander who was the Rockies’ first pick in the expansion draft from Atlanta, was their starter. The 24-year- old had pitched 23 innings with the Braves the year before, winning all three of his decisions. That day, he would face Dwight Gooden.

In the top of the first, second baseman Eric Young, Sr. led off against Gooden and tried to bunt his way on, but catcher Randy Hundley threw him out at first. Centerfielder Alex Cole lined out to right and right fielder Dante Bichette flew out to right field.

Both pitchers gave up hits and walks in the first three innings, but neither team scored. The Mets got single runs in the fourth and fifth, and that was it for Nied. New York got another run in the sixth. The Rockies collected only four hits while Gooden pitched a complete game shutout.

On April 7, Colorado lost to the Mets 6-1.

On Friday, April 9, the Rockies played their first home game against the Montreal Expos. They routed the Expos 11-4 for the franchise’s first win, and it wasn’t that close. Starter Bryn Smith pitched seven shutout innings in front of 80,227 fans. Willie Blair pitched a scoreless eighth, but the Expos scored all their runs in the ninth off Steve Reed.

Colorado banged out 18 hits; Young came to bat four times, got four hits (one a home run) and scored four runs.

Like any member of an expansion team, Girardi was dealing with new teammates, a new pitching staff, new coaches and finding a home during the season.

“I actually thought it was a wonderful time – and I think it was a wonderful time because of the excitement of the fans for the Colorado Rockies – and it just wasn’t in Colorado, it was all over in that area, the Plains States,” Girardi said recently. “But again, it was just a great place to play and I think so much of it was because of our ownership group and the fans.”

As a joke, a teammate handed out ID stickers with “Hello, my name is…” on them. The players wore them for a laugh. While everyone needed to get to know everybody, as a catcher Girardi had to do double duty, not only learning who the pitchers were but what they threw and what they liked to throw.

“I mean it’s just trying to get him to know them as quickly as you can (during) spring training. You get to understand their stuff, but you don’t understand how they react in difficult situations; and the only way to get a better feel for that is to go through it and you have to do that during the season, but again, you had an idea who a lot of them were because you faced them so you knew what they like to do to you and you knew what their stuff did. But it’s still different when you’re catching them and trying to figure out what they like to go to in a difficult situation and what’s their personality, what motivates them. When do you need to pat them on the back? When do you need to get on them, it just takes time,” noted Girardi.  “You have seven weeks of spring training, but I usually think it takes the first month of the season to really get to know your staff.”

There was one thing the Rockies had to deal with that no other expansion did: play in a city with thin air.

“You do (get used to it), but just like when you’re getting used to playing with, you go on a road trip. I think it’s an adjustment – and you adjust to it and understand what you have to do to for it,” said Girardi, “but it’s such a beautiful place, to be able to see the mountains, and the snow on the mountains when you’re playing in April and just the crazy weather that you go through.

“I don’t remember what year it was, I wanna say it was ’93. It could have been ’94, but we played in Houston and on that day in Colorado it was like 89 degrees. And we got snowed out the next day! It was in September – early September – and I’m thinking, man, this is something, but it just kind of added to the mystique of playing there, that you had to be ready for unusual weather conditions at strange times and something that you weren’t really used to. But I remember we had like a Friday off or I  think it was a Saturday off because the Broncos had a preseason football game. And we were like, man, this is great to have a Friday night off. I mean, I never get this.”

Another adjustment the players needed to make was to the manager, Don Baylor. Baylor was considered “old school” – you played hard or you didn’t play. A pitcher hits one of yours, you hit one of theirs. BTW, Baylor was hit 267 times while playing.

The Rockies were 67-95 in 1993, good for sixth place in the seven-team Central Division, six games ahead of the San Diego Padres.

In their third year, they experienced three things for the first time: a new stadium, a winning record and a trip to the postseason.

The Rockies were 83-79 playing in Coors Field for the first time. They finished third in the NL West and made the playoffs, but lost in the NL Division series against Atlanta, 3-1.

Baylor was named Manager of the Year. He is one of only five men in history to win an MVP Award and Manager of the Year Award; Joe Torre, Frank Robinson, Kirk Gibson and Don Mattingly are the others.

Girardi said he learned some lessons on managing from Baylor.

“Don brought a toughness to the game. And I think that came from his upbringing, but he played every day as a player. At the time he had been hit more than any player in the game of baseball,” said Girardi.

“Donnie didn’t miss games, and he expected that from us, right? He used to have the rule that if we felt we couldn’t play that day we had to come talk to him.  Don’t go to the trainers and say, ‘Well, I don’t think I can go today,’ you come talk to me. And it taught us to play every day. There was a toughness about him that I think you have to have to play this game.”

Yes, the air in Denver made Coors Field a launching pad. In 1993, the team batted .273, fourth in the NL, and hit 142 home runs, which ranked seventh in the league. In 1995, they led the league with 200 home runs, and batted .282, also good for first place.  Three Rockies in 1995 hit 40 or more home runs: Galaraga, who led the league with 47; Vinny Castilla and Ellis Burks both hit 40.

The pitching staff was led by Kevin Ritz, who went 17-11 but had an ERA of 5.28. The team’s ERA that year was 4.97, down from 5.44 in 1993.

The Rockies had several successful seasons since 1993 and went on to win the NL pennant in 2007 – but lost the World Series to the Boston Red Sox.

THE SEATTLE MARINERS

When the Seattle Mariners played their first game as an expansion team, there was a familiar face on the mound.

Diego Segui, who had pitched for the 1969 first-year Seattle Pilots, was signed by the Mariners and was given the opening day assignment on Wednesday, April 6 against the California Angels at the Kingdome.

The Orange County (CA) Register reported that the lineup for the Mariners’ first game “includes veterans like the 39-year-old Segui, who is hopeful of discovering the Fountain of Youth, and rejects like Dave Collins (a former Angel), who is hopeful of redeeming himself.”

Unfortunately, Segui did not pitch as well his second time around with a Seattle franchise. He surrendered six runs (four earned) in 3.2 innings, and the Mariners lost 7-0 in front of 57,762 fans. Jose Baez, playing second base for Seattle, singled in the first inning for the franchise’s first hit. They garnered eight more hits off Angels starter Frank Tanana, who pitched a complete game shutout.

The following day the Mariners faced Nolan Ryan, and again Seattle lost to a pitcher who tossed a complete game shutout, 2-0, in front of a smaller crowd of 10,144.

On Friday, April 8 in the series finale, the Angels took a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the fourth. Collins was able to redeem himself against his former team by leading off the inning with a single, followed by a single from Ruppert Jones. Dan Meyer doubled to left, scoring Collins with the franchise’s first run. Seattle scored two more runs to tie the game 3-3. With the score tied 5-5 after eight frames, the Angels scored a run in the ninth to take the lead 6-5.  In the bottom of the ninth, Seattle tied the game and won it when second baseman Larry Milbourne doubled to drive in the go-ahead run, and the Mariners had their first victory, 7-6, in front of 11,845 fans. Bill Laxton won the game in relief.

After the Pilots were sold to Bud Selig, he moved the franchise to his hometown of Milwaukee. The City of Seattle and King County sued Major League Baseball. A settlement was reached when MLB agreed to award Seattle another franchise. One reason the city was granted a new team was that it finally had a major league stadium ready. In 1972, construction began on the Kingdome, a domed stadium, with the idea of attracting teams in baseball, basketball, football and soccer.  In 1976, it was home of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, and the North American Soccer League’s Seattle Sounders. The following year the Mariners began playing there, and in 1978 the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics began play there as well (the franchises found new homes, and the Kingdome was demolished in 2000).

Lou Gorman was appointed General Manager, and Darryl Johnson manager. Gorman had been the farm director for the Baltimore Orioles, then farm director for the expansion Kansas City Royals before he joined Seattle. Johnson had been manager of the Boston Red Sox in 1974 and in 1975 – when the team won the AL East, the AL pennant, and played Cincinnati in one of the greatest World Series ever in 1975. He was fired midway through the 1976 season and was hired to be the Mariners first-ever manager.

On November 5, 1976, an expansion draft was held for Seattle and Toronto to stock their rosters with major leaguers. The Mariners picked first, and selected outfielder Rupert Jones from the Kansas City Royals. Other players picked by Seattle included reliever Grant Jackson and outfielder Dave Collins.

The team went 64-98, good for fifth place in the AL West and one game ahead of the Oakland Athletics. They drew 1,338,511 fans, good for eighth out of 14 teams.

Seattle would go on to become one of the strongest teams in baseball, winning 116 games in 2001, tying  a record set by the Chicago Cubs in 1906. With the first pick in two drafts, they selected Ken Griffey, Jr. and Alex Rodriguez. They signed future Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez of Puerto Rico when he was 19 years old. They traded for Randy Johnson and Jay Buhner. Despite all the talent they’ve been able to field, the Mariners have yet to win a World Series.

THE TORONTO BLUE JAYS

In 1947, Branch Rickey sent the Brooklyn Dodgers to Havana, Cuba, for spring training, where it would be easier to integrate Jackie Robinson as the game’s first Black player in decades. Top players from the Negro Leagues played winter ball there for many years, and the island had produced a number of native-born men who reached the major leagues. Rickey saw that Cuban fans were crazy about baseball, and it has been suggested he thought Havana might make a good site for a major league team.

The city also boasted casinos, horse racing, nightclubs – it was the Las Vegas of the East Coast. American players enjoyed playing there in the offseason, but it was hardly a place where Rickey, a religious man who promised his mother he wouldn’t work on the Sabbath, would want to operate a team.  Well, the Fidel Castro-led revolution in 1959 squashed any thought of an MLB franchise there, although a Cincinnati Reds farm team in the International League, the Havana Sugar Kings in 1959 won the minor league championship, besting the Red Sox farm team in Minneapolis in seven games at the “Little World Series.”

Another city Rickey envisioned with a big-league franchise was Toronto. In 1959, he proposed a third major league, the Continental League, with Toronto marked for a club. Rickey’s plan never materialized. When the American League expanded in 1977, Toronto was awarded a team, along with Seattle, getting another chance to field a team after the Seattle Pilots relocated to Milwaukee after only one season there.

The franchise was owned by the Labatt Brewing Company, which had the financial resources to build a team. Peter Bavasi, son of Dodgers GM Buzzie Bavasi, was hired as General Manager and Roy Hartsfield as manager.

Hartsfield began his career with the Boston Braves, and was traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers. After retiring, he managed in the Dodgers’ minor league system, and joined the LA Dodgers as a coach. He was manager of the Blue Jays from 1977-1980.

While Toronto didn’t have casinos, it did have something Havana didn’t provide: snow.

Rick Cerone, who caught for the Blue Jays, said the field was covered in snow from a storm on Opening Day. (While he wasn’t happy about the snow and cold, Cerone said he liked living in Toronto; he was wasn’t married and “loved being single in Toronto; so many beautiful women and so friendly”

Bob Bailor, who was the Blue Jays’ first pick in the expansion draft from Baltimore, said, “I grew up in Pennsylvania and I know about cold weather, so (it) didn’t bother me much. But everybody thinks it’s going to be cold and all that. Well, they were right because it snowed the first day. Yeah, the Opening Day – and they had to sweep the snow off the Astroturf up there. I guess they don’t call it Astroturf anymore.”

The stadium was used to having snow – it was a football stadium, built for Toronto of the Canadian Football League.

“A lot of guys didn’t like it,” said Bailor. “Plus, it wasn’t a hotbed of baseball.”

The team finished 57-104, but were fourth in the AL in attendance, drawing 1,701,052 fans.

There were the usual experiences for an expansion team – getting to know teammates, who were all new (you just called them by their number, hey, number five, how are you? said Bailor).

“Every time we came home was strange,” said Cerone, as the players had to go through customs.

Bailor played first base, and batted .310, with five home runs, 32 RBIs and 15 stolen bases.

“I guess they had to play me because I was the first pick,” said Bailor. But he was in the majors. He had played a handful of games for Baltimore, but said the Orioles were young, talented players, so being drafted gave him the opportunity to reach the big leagues.

In December of 1977, Bavasi was named president of the team and Pat Gillick was named General Manager. It took seven years, but under his direction the club had its first winning season in 1984. In 1985 they made it to the AL Championship series but lost to the Kansas City Royals in seven games.

In 1989, the team had a new stadium, the Skydome, and led the AL in attendance for several years.

In 1990, Gillick traded Fred McGriff and Tony Hernandez to San Diego for Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar. The pair helped the Blue Jays win consecutive World Series in 1992 and 1993, making Toronto the third expansion team to win a championship.  (Gillick later won a World Series with the Phillies in 2008 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.)

It was the first time a team outside the United States won a World Series.

THE ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS

Joe Garagiola, Jr., General Manager of the year-old Arizona Diamondbacks, spent a day with Steve Finley and his agent trying to recruit the outfielder to his team. A day later, the agent called the GM and said Finley didn’t think it was a good fit.

Shortly thereafter, the Diamondbacks signed Randy Johnson. Then Finley’s agent called Garagiola back. Signing Johnson convinced Finley the Diamondbacks were committed to being competitive immediately, and Finley wanted to play for them.

This wheeling and dealing was part of the strategy the Diamondbacks employed when putting their ball club together.

After years of trying to obtain an MLB franchise, the greater Phoenix area finally was granted a team in 1997 and would begin play in 1998. Arizona’s owners, which included Phoenix Suns executive Jerry Colangelo, saw two expansion teams from 1993 succeed quickly: The Florida Marlins put together a team four years after their debut that won the 1997 World Series – and the Colorado Rockies made the postseason in their third season. The Diamondbacks executives opened their checkbooks and signed several veteran free agents.

The first was Jay Bell, an All-Star shortstop. Garagiola traded for Detroit third baseman Travis Fryman, then shipped Fryman to Cleveland for slugger Matt Williams.

“That (deal) took weeks,” Garagiola told BallNine recently. He said he knew Williams wanted to play in Phoenix where his family lived, but one his scouts played a key role in putting the package together.

Other free-agent veterans such as Andy Benes, Gregg Olson and Devon White were signed. Garagiola traded for second baseman Andy Fox, who’d been with the Yankees (where Garagiola began his baseball career). The expansion draft brought catcher Damian Miller.

Travis Lee had been drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the first round of the 1997 draft, but the selection was voided on a technicality discovered by his agent Scott Boras. Lee became a free agent and signed with the Diamondbacks for $10 million before he ever put on a uniform. He batted .269 with 22 home runs and 72 RBIs in 1998.

Garagiola, Jr., son of the former catcher and broadcaster, hired Buck Showalter to lead the team only a few weeks after Yankees owner George Steinbrenner fired him.

The Arizona Republic had a naming contest for the team, and Diamondbacks was chosen.

In their first game, they played against the Colorado Rockies at the opening of Bank One Ballpark on March 31 in front of 47,484 fans. Andy Benes started against Darryl Kile. The first five innings was a pitching duel, with the Rockies leading 1-0. Colorado scored two runs in in the top of the sixth, but Travis Lee hit the first home run for the franchise, along with the first RBI. The Rockies then rocked Benes for five runs in the seventh and went on to win 9-2.

“The expansion Diamondbacks historic first major league game had the requisite pageantry: speeches, fireworks, men parachuting through a retractable roof, Bill Frieder catching a foul ball and a dramatic debut by rookie first baseman Travis Lee, who had three hits and a home run,” wrote the Arizona Daily Star.

The D-Backs went 65-907 their first year but finished second in attendance in the National League.

In their second year, the team was playing well but attendance slackened. Garagiola believed fans would return if the team got better. One thing the team lacked, he said, was a closer. Matt Mantei of the Florida Marlins was available.

“So, It’s about June now. And I go to Jerry and I said, ‘You know, I tell you, I think, this team can do something. I know it’s our second year and everything but look how we’re playing. I mean, we might make some trouble here for people, but I think we really are lacking that bullpen piece, that closer, the guy (who) comes in in the ninth and just bang, bang, bang, and we’re done.  I really like him a lot, but he’s gonna be expensive. We’re gonna have to pay up for him.’” Garagiola recalled.

“And Jerry said – so let me tell you a story. He says it’s 1976. OK. I’m standing on the floor of the Boston, Garden, NBA Finals, looking around, all the banners and everything. It’s the Suns 7th or 8th year in existence, and he said, ‘I’m thinking, all right, it’s pretty good. We put this team together, we’re here. No reason we can’t do this every few years, and then 17 years went by before I got back to the NBA Finals.’ So the moral of this story is, when you have a chance to go for it, you, go for it because you never know when you’re going to get another chance.”

With the additions of Johnson, Finley, Mantei and outfielder Luis Gonzalez, the Diamondbacks gained 35 victories from the previous year for a record of 100-62.

Johnson won 17 games. Gonzales batted .336, led the league with 206 hits, along with 26 home runs and 111 RBIs. Jay Bell hit 38 home runs, had 111 RBIs and batted .289. Omar Daal, who had won eight games in 1998, doubled his victory total to 16.

The team won the NL West but lost the NL Division series to the New York Mets, three games to one.

The club slipped to third place in the AL West in 2000. For 2001, Garagiola replaced Showalter, who was a tough task master and obsessed with detail, with the easy-going Bob Melvin. Garagiola also made a significant transaction at the trade deadline in 2000, when he stole, er, acquired one of the best pitchers in baseball, Curt Schilling, from the Phillies for Travis Lee (who had been sent to the minors) Omar Daal (who had regressed to a record of 2-10), a pitcher who fit Crash Davis’s description of a hurler with a million dollar arm but a 10-cent head, and another pitcher who lived in that netherworld of AAAA – more than good enough for AAA, but not good enough for the big leagues.

With Johnson and Schilling at the top of the rotation, the Diamondbacks won the NL West, then the NL pennant, and defeated the New York Yankees by scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7 to win the World Series, four games to three. Arizona had won a championship in four years, tying the accomplishment of the 1997 Marlins.