Diamondback Jay
Psalms 23:1
Currently on www.azdiamondbacks.com there's a poll being run asking "Who's The Greatest Player in D-Backs Franchise History" with Gonzo, The Big Unit and Curt Schilling as the three choices.
Currently, Gonzo has a pretty commanding lead with 2,962 votes, or 51 percent of the final vote. Johnson is second with 41 percent, 2,370 votes and Schilling trails by a distancable margin of 7 percent, with 421 votes.
After seeing the results, I have quite a few issues that I'd like to bring up.
First and foremost, don't get me wrong here... I have nothing but unlimited respect for Luis Gonzalez as both a player and more importantly as a human being. He is undoubtedly the face of the Arizona Diamondback franchise, having been around since Year 2, and the guy who will forever be etched in stone as the player who had the game winning hit to give Arizona it's first (and at this point only) World Series championship. In complete honesty, if this were a "Who's the Face of the Franchise" debate, Gonzo would and SHOULD win hands down, without second though.
However, if we're debating who the BEST PLAYER was, even if he's no longer a Diamondback, you have to give the honor to Johnson. In his Hall of Fame Bound Career, Johnson's best seasons were with the Diamondbacks. I have no doubt in my mind, he's going to be the first Arizona Diamondback inducted in to Cooperstown and it's going to be on a first ballot basis. As a Diamondback, The Big Unit had 5 All Star Apperances, won 4 of his 5 Cy Young Awards, threw his only perfect game as a Diamondback, led the league in ERA three out of his four times as a Diamondback and had 5 of his 9 League Strikeout Leader years in Arizona. He also led the league in wins for the only time as a Diamondback and he threw his only perfect game as a Diamondback.
As for the World Series Year, yes Gonzo had the hit that won it all, but had Johnson not pitched the team to three victories in that series, no way the Diamondbacks win it all.
I want someone to debate me on this. I'm not looking to "argue", just to stir a friendly debate as to why Gonzo is the better Diamondback player than Johnson was.
Currently, Gonzo has a pretty commanding lead with 2,962 votes, or 51 percent of the final vote. Johnson is second with 41 percent, 2,370 votes and Schilling trails by a distancable margin of 7 percent, with 421 votes.
After seeing the results, I have quite a few issues that I'd like to bring up.
First and foremost, don't get me wrong here... I have nothing but unlimited respect for Luis Gonzalez as both a player and more importantly as a human being. He is undoubtedly the face of the Arizona Diamondback franchise, having been around since Year 2, and the guy who will forever be etched in stone as the player who had the game winning hit to give Arizona it's first (and at this point only) World Series championship. In complete honesty, if this were a "Who's the Face of the Franchise" debate, Gonzo would and SHOULD win hands down, without second though.
However, if we're debating who the BEST PLAYER was, even if he's no longer a Diamondback, you have to give the honor to Johnson. In his Hall of Fame Bound Career, Johnson's best seasons were with the Diamondbacks. I have no doubt in my mind, he's going to be the first Arizona Diamondback inducted in to Cooperstown and it's going to be on a first ballot basis. As a Diamondback, The Big Unit had 5 All Star Apperances, won 4 of his 5 Cy Young Awards, threw his only perfect game as a Diamondback, led the league in ERA three out of his four times as a Diamondback and had 5 of his 9 League Strikeout Leader years in Arizona. He also led the league in wins for the only time as a Diamondback and he threw his only perfect game as a Diamondback.
As for the World Series Year, yes Gonzo had the hit that won it all, but had Johnson not pitched the team to three victories in that series, no way the Diamondbacks win it all.
I want someone to debate me on this. I'm not looking to "argue", just to stir a friendly debate as to why Gonzo is the better Diamondback player than Johnson was.
