azdad1978
Championship!!!!
By Scott Bordow, Tribune
LOS ANGELES - The Diamondbacks are having a huge impact on the National League division series.
The series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals features five former Diamondbacks — Steve Finley, Tony Womack, Reggie Sanders, Brent Mayne and Elmer Dessens.
Dessens and Mayne are bit players for the Dodgers — Mayne is the backup catcher, Dessens a middle reliever — but Finley has had a huge impact, batting .263 with 13 homers and 46 RBIs since the July 31 trade between Los Angeles and Arizona.
In the season’s final week, when the Dodgers were trying to hold off the San Francisco Giants for the National League West Division title, Finley twice drove in the game-winning runs in the ninth inning, including the grand slam that clinched the pennant.
He drove in Los Angeles’ first two runs Saturday with a broken-bat single to left field.
‘‘I can’t sit here and say to you that if Steve Finley had not come to our ballclub, that we would have been able to finish the task that we accomplished during the course of the regular season,’’ Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said. ‘‘He brought stability to our club.’’
The Dodgers knew what they were getting with Finley, as the Cardinals did when they signed Sanders to a twoyear deal before the season.
The 36-year-old outfielder, a Diamondback in 2001, hit .260 with 22 homers, 67 RBIs and 21 stolen bases. He became the first player in major league history to record 20 or more home runs with six different teams.
"He’s been a big-time player for us," said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa. "He’s been outstanding on and off the field. He’s a great teammate."
A bigger surprise has been Womack’s rebirth. His career seemed in jeopardy after a 2003 season in which he bounced from Arizona to Colorado to the Chicago Cubs and didn’t hit better than .237 at any of the three stops.
To make matters worse, he had elbow surgery in the offseason. The Boston Red Sox signed him as a free agent in January but thought so little of him they traded him to the Cardinals for somebody named Matt Duff.
It’s not Ernie Broglio for Lou Brock (Cubs’ fans still wince about that one), but the acquisition of Womack has been the steal of the year.
Womack, who turned 35 last month, set career highs in batting average (.307) and onbase percentage (.349). He played in 145 games, stole 26 bases and tied Albert Pujols for the team lead in multihit games (52).
"What we’ve seen here is mentally and physically he’s a tough guy," La Russa said. "You have to have pieces fall in place for you to win, and he’s fallen in place for us."
Ask Womack why his career got a second wind and he says, simply, "I’m healthy, man. That’s all. I’m healthy."
Womack always has had a chip on his shoulder, and his success with the Cardinals hasn’t changed his Rodney Dangerfield persona.
"A lot of people didn’t think I could play the game anymore, but I knew I could," Womack said. "Nobody believed in me, but I knew what I could do."
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=29498
LOS ANGELES - The Diamondbacks are having a huge impact on the National League division series.
The series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals features five former Diamondbacks — Steve Finley, Tony Womack, Reggie Sanders, Brent Mayne and Elmer Dessens.
Dessens and Mayne are bit players for the Dodgers — Mayne is the backup catcher, Dessens a middle reliever — but Finley has had a huge impact, batting .263 with 13 homers and 46 RBIs since the July 31 trade between Los Angeles and Arizona.
In the season’s final week, when the Dodgers were trying to hold off the San Francisco Giants for the National League West Division title, Finley twice drove in the game-winning runs in the ninth inning, including the grand slam that clinched the pennant.
He drove in Los Angeles’ first two runs Saturday with a broken-bat single to left field.
‘‘I can’t sit here and say to you that if Steve Finley had not come to our ballclub, that we would have been able to finish the task that we accomplished during the course of the regular season,’’ Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said. ‘‘He brought stability to our club.’’
The Dodgers knew what they were getting with Finley, as the Cardinals did when they signed Sanders to a twoyear deal before the season.
The 36-year-old outfielder, a Diamondback in 2001, hit .260 with 22 homers, 67 RBIs and 21 stolen bases. He became the first player in major league history to record 20 or more home runs with six different teams.
"He’s been a big-time player for us," said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa. "He’s been outstanding on and off the field. He’s a great teammate."
A bigger surprise has been Womack’s rebirth. His career seemed in jeopardy after a 2003 season in which he bounced from Arizona to Colorado to the Chicago Cubs and didn’t hit better than .237 at any of the three stops.
To make matters worse, he had elbow surgery in the offseason. The Boston Red Sox signed him as a free agent in January but thought so little of him they traded him to the Cardinals for somebody named Matt Duff.
It’s not Ernie Broglio for Lou Brock (Cubs’ fans still wince about that one), but the acquisition of Womack has been the steal of the year.
Womack, who turned 35 last month, set career highs in batting average (.307) and onbase percentage (.349). He played in 145 games, stole 26 bases and tied Albert Pujols for the team lead in multihit games (52).
"What we’ve seen here is mentally and physically he’s a tough guy," La Russa said. "You have to have pieces fall in place for you to win, and he’s fallen in place for us."
Ask Womack why his career got a second wind and he says, simply, "I’m healthy, man. That’s all. I’m healthy."
Womack always has had a chip on his shoulder, and his success with the Cardinals hasn’t changed his Rodney Dangerfield persona.
"A lot of people didn’t think I could play the game anymore, but I knew I could," Womack said. "Nobody believed in me, but I knew what I could do."
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=29498
