azdad1978
Championship!!!!
By Scott Bordow, Tribune Columnist
In awarding the 2007 major league baseball All-Star game to San Francisco on Wednesday, commissioner Bud Selig said, “This is a great way to show off our new ballparks.”
Well, then, when is it our turn?
Six ballparks that opened after Bank One Ballpark made its debut in 1998 have hosted or are scheduled to host baseball's All-Star game.
Apparently, BOB is the clumsy kid with glasses who always gets chosen last in the neighborhood pickup games.
With an American League city expected to host the game in 2008, Home Run Derby won't come to a ballpark near you until 2009 at the earliest.
So, what gives?
“I don't think there's a single reason,” Major League Baseball spokesman Pat Courtney said.
There had better be a lot of good reasons, then, because compared to host cities like Houston, Detroit and Pittsburgh, the Valley is Shangri-La.
Yes, even in July. Baseball went to Houston last summer and Atlanta in 1997, and trust me, there's no such thing as a dry heat in those sweat boxes.
And last I checked, Bank One Ballpark has air conditioning.
There has been speculation that the All-Star snub is baseball's payback for Jerry Colangelo driving up salaries with his $119 million spending spree in the winter of 1998 and winning the World Series before he paid his dues.
But even if that's the case — Courtney says it's not, citing Colangelo's friendly relationship with Selig, who unilaterally selects the All-Star game sites — isn't there an expiration date on revenge?
“I'm disappointed we haven't gotten one yet,” Diamondbacks president Rich Dozer said.
Courtney suggested the Diamondbacks haven't pushed hard for an All-Star game — “I don't know how aggressive they've been,” he said — but the team made a formal proposal for the 2002 game, which went to Selig's hometown of Milwaukee, and Colangelo and Dozer have made informal pitches to Selig every year since then.
And every year, they've heard the same thing — nothing.
“They've never given me any reason,” Dozer said. “They've never said you'll get it when you have this thing, or if you cross this bridge, we'll give you the game.”
Politics have played a part in the Valley's snub. Selig awarded the 2004 game to Houston and this summer's game to Detroit as inducements for those cities to build new stadiums.
That doesn't explain San Francisco getting a third game before the Valley gets its first, however.
“This great city deserves this game,” Selig said. “It's the thing to do.”
No, the thing to do is to quit playing favorites and give Arizona what it deserves.
Instead, Bank One Ballpark is just one of five stadiums built since 1998 that hasn't been awarded an All-Star game, and three of those — Petco Park in San Diego, Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia and Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati — opened after 2003.
Only Tropicana Field in Tampa, Fla., has been ostracized like BOB, and there's good reason for that. The Trop is an outdated, multipurpose facility, circa the 1970s.
Dozer said the Diamondbacks hope to get the game in 2009 or 2010. By then, a downtown Phoenix hotel will be built and the Civic Plaza expansion will be complete.
“I think we're going to get one in our lifetime,” he said.
He was joking.
I think.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=36213
In awarding the 2007 major league baseball All-Star game to San Francisco on Wednesday, commissioner Bud Selig said, “This is a great way to show off our new ballparks.”
Well, then, when is it our turn?
Six ballparks that opened after Bank One Ballpark made its debut in 1998 have hosted or are scheduled to host baseball's All-Star game.
Apparently, BOB is the clumsy kid with glasses who always gets chosen last in the neighborhood pickup games.
With an American League city expected to host the game in 2008, Home Run Derby won't come to a ballpark near you until 2009 at the earliest.
So, what gives?
“I don't think there's a single reason,” Major League Baseball spokesman Pat Courtney said.
There had better be a lot of good reasons, then, because compared to host cities like Houston, Detroit and Pittsburgh, the Valley is Shangri-La.
Yes, even in July. Baseball went to Houston last summer and Atlanta in 1997, and trust me, there's no such thing as a dry heat in those sweat boxes.
And last I checked, Bank One Ballpark has air conditioning.
There has been speculation that the All-Star snub is baseball's payback for Jerry Colangelo driving up salaries with his $119 million spending spree in the winter of 1998 and winning the World Series before he paid his dues.
But even if that's the case — Courtney says it's not, citing Colangelo's friendly relationship with Selig, who unilaterally selects the All-Star game sites — isn't there an expiration date on revenge?
“I'm disappointed we haven't gotten one yet,” Diamondbacks president Rich Dozer said.
Courtney suggested the Diamondbacks haven't pushed hard for an All-Star game — “I don't know how aggressive they've been,” he said — but the team made a formal proposal for the 2002 game, which went to Selig's hometown of Milwaukee, and Colangelo and Dozer have made informal pitches to Selig every year since then.
And every year, they've heard the same thing — nothing.
“They've never given me any reason,” Dozer said. “They've never said you'll get it when you have this thing, or if you cross this bridge, we'll give you the game.”
Politics have played a part in the Valley's snub. Selig awarded the 2004 game to Houston and this summer's game to Detroit as inducements for those cities to build new stadiums.
That doesn't explain San Francisco getting a third game before the Valley gets its first, however.
“This great city deserves this game,” Selig said. “It's the thing to do.”
No, the thing to do is to quit playing favorites and give Arizona what it deserves.
Instead, Bank One Ballpark is just one of five stadiums built since 1998 that hasn't been awarded an All-Star game, and three of those — Petco Park in San Diego, Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia and Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati — opened after 2003.
Only Tropicana Field in Tampa, Fla., has been ostracized like BOB, and there's good reason for that. The Trop is an outdated, multipurpose facility, circa the 1970s.
Dozer said the Diamondbacks hope to get the game in 2009 or 2010. By then, a downtown Phoenix hotel will be built and the Civic Plaza expansion will be complete.
“I think we're going to get one in our lifetime,” he said.
He was joking.
I think.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=36213