azdad1978
Championship!!!!
By Jack Magruder, Tribune
TUCSON - Samson wore his fabled hair long for strength. David Crosby did it to let his freak flag fly. Royce Clayton has a more spiritual reason for the neatly braided locks that flow out of the back of his cap to his shoulders.
"It’s peace, finding that peace,’’ Clayton said.
Clayton, the Diamondbacks’ new shortstop, has not cut his hair going on four years, since a series of life changes that began when he met the woman who would become his wife and continued with the birth of his son 13 months ago.
"I always wanted to do it, but it’s a process. You have to be in a good place,’’ Clayton said.
"When I met my wife, things just seemed to be in a good place for me. I found my partner for life. We started a family. That is a lot of positive things. It’s a labor of love, something that kind of evolved. My wife would sit down and start twisting my hair at night.
"It’s not a good luck charm. It’s definitely not fashion. It is more of an inner thing than an outward thing. It is more of a spiritual journey that I have been able to travel and feel blessed to have traveled to this point.’’
Clayton’s 15-year major league journey began in San Francisco in 1991 — when he was 21 — and has included stops in St. Louis, Texas, with both Chicago teams, Milwaukee, Colorado and now with his home D-Backs, another signal, he believes, that his path is true.
"It is very important to me to be at home with my family at this point,’’ said Clayton, whose wife is preparing to open a fitness center in Scottsdale later this spring.
"Everything just seemed to fit and come together. Things just seemed to fall into place.’’
The D-Backs identified middle infield defense as a priority in the free agent market and quickly signed Clayton and Craig Counsell, who will return to second base, where he settled during the D-Backs’ run to the 2001 World Series title.
Clayton, 35, set franchise fielding records in two of his last three stops, with Colorado last season and the White Sox in 2002, and led the NL in fielding percentage last season while running up a 56-game errorless streak after the All-Star break. He committed nine errors last season and 35 in the last four seasons. D-Backs shortstops made 24 last year alone.
"You would think that they (pitchers) would be bringing his bats for him and carrying his bag for him, because he is going to help them out quite a bit,’’ manager Bob Melvin said. "Not only is he a range guy, he boots very few balls. I think our pitchers are pretty excited about having a player like him, knowing that when there is a ball hit on the ground it’s going to be sucked up out there and you are going to get an out, a lot of times two.’’
Defense always has been the cornerstone of Clayton’s game, although he had backto-back 14-home run seasons in Texas in 1999-2000 and has 202 career stolen bases, including consecutive years of 30-plus with St. Louis in 1996-97.
"Before, defense was kind of overlooked because everybody was hitting 40-some home runs and scoring 10 runs a game, but when you have to keep the score down and you can’t give away runs, what are you going to do? You have to have somebody who can catch the ball,’’ Clayton said.
"Even during the big offensive surge, I still took pride in taking away runs, because that was another way to beat you. That’s where I do my thing. That’s my creativity. I’m an artist. That’s the way I look at it. A game is 3 1 /2, four hours long and you get maybe a minute and a half of an at-bat.
"A lot more time is spent on the defensive side of the ball, so why wouldn’t you take pride in it?’’
Clayton hit .279 with career highs in hits (160) and runs (95) while batting No. 2 in the Colorado order last season, when he also led the major leagues with 24 sacrifice hits.
His spot in the D-Backs’ order will be determined as the season plays out. He could hit No. 2; he could slot lower if left-handed-hitting Chad Tracy is a fit at No. 2 against opposing right-handers.
D-Backs starting pitcher Shawn Estes saw what Clayton could do firsthand in Colorado last year.
"I never worried about if the ball was hit to shortstop. I knew it was going to get caught,’’ Estes said. "Time after time after time he continues to make plays, and once in a while he makes a really good play. To have a long career in this game, you have to find an edge, whether it is mental or physical, whatever. You find a way to be successful, and he has found that.’’
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=37198
TUCSON - Samson wore his fabled hair long for strength. David Crosby did it to let his freak flag fly. Royce Clayton has a more spiritual reason for the neatly braided locks that flow out of the back of his cap to his shoulders.
"It’s peace, finding that peace,’’ Clayton said.
Clayton, the Diamondbacks’ new shortstop, has not cut his hair going on four years, since a series of life changes that began when he met the woman who would become his wife and continued with the birth of his son 13 months ago.
"I always wanted to do it, but it’s a process. You have to be in a good place,’’ Clayton said.
"When I met my wife, things just seemed to be in a good place for me. I found my partner for life. We started a family. That is a lot of positive things. It’s a labor of love, something that kind of evolved. My wife would sit down and start twisting my hair at night.
"It’s not a good luck charm. It’s definitely not fashion. It is more of an inner thing than an outward thing. It is more of a spiritual journey that I have been able to travel and feel blessed to have traveled to this point.’’
Clayton’s 15-year major league journey began in San Francisco in 1991 — when he was 21 — and has included stops in St. Louis, Texas, with both Chicago teams, Milwaukee, Colorado and now with his home D-Backs, another signal, he believes, that his path is true.
"It is very important to me to be at home with my family at this point,’’ said Clayton, whose wife is preparing to open a fitness center in Scottsdale later this spring.
"Everything just seemed to fit and come together. Things just seemed to fall into place.’’
The D-Backs identified middle infield defense as a priority in the free agent market and quickly signed Clayton and Craig Counsell, who will return to second base, where he settled during the D-Backs’ run to the 2001 World Series title.
Clayton, 35, set franchise fielding records in two of his last three stops, with Colorado last season and the White Sox in 2002, and led the NL in fielding percentage last season while running up a 56-game errorless streak after the All-Star break. He committed nine errors last season and 35 in the last four seasons. D-Backs shortstops made 24 last year alone.
"You would think that they (pitchers) would be bringing his bats for him and carrying his bag for him, because he is going to help them out quite a bit,’’ manager Bob Melvin said. "Not only is he a range guy, he boots very few balls. I think our pitchers are pretty excited about having a player like him, knowing that when there is a ball hit on the ground it’s going to be sucked up out there and you are going to get an out, a lot of times two.’’
Defense always has been the cornerstone of Clayton’s game, although he had backto-back 14-home run seasons in Texas in 1999-2000 and has 202 career stolen bases, including consecutive years of 30-plus with St. Louis in 1996-97.
"Before, defense was kind of overlooked because everybody was hitting 40-some home runs and scoring 10 runs a game, but when you have to keep the score down and you can’t give away runs, what are you going to do? You have to have somebody who can catch the ball,’’ Clayton said.
"Even during the big offensive surge, I still took pride in taking away runs, because that was another way to beat you. That’s where I do my thing. That’s my creativity. I’m an artist. That’s the way I look at it. A game is 3 1 /2, four hours long and you get maybe a minute and a half of an at-bat.
"A lot more time is spent on the defensive side of the ball, so why wouldn’t you take pride in it?’’
Clayton hit .279 with career highs in hits (160) and runs (95) while batting No. 2 in the Colorado order last season, when he also led the major leagues with 24 sacrifice hits.
His spot in the D-Backs’ order will be determined as the season plays out. He could hit No. 2; he could slot lower if left-handed-hitting Chad Tracy is a fit at No. 2 against opposing right-handers.
D-Backs starting pitcher Shawn Estes saw what Clayton could do firsthand in Colorado last year.
"I never worried about if the ball was hit to shortstop. I knew it was going to get caught,’’ Estes said. "Time after time after time he continues to make plays, and once in a while he makes a really good play. To have a long career in this game, you have to find an edge, whether it is mental or physical, whatever. You find a way to be successful, and he has found that.’’
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=37198
, but man-o-man have I missed competent infield defense. I LOVE good defensive plays as much as anything in baseball. 
