Paulwny
10-24-2001, 11:04 AM
Tuesday, October 23, 2001
D-Backs built with big contracts
PHOENIX (AP) -- No team has arrived on baseball's biggest stage as quickly as the Arizona Diamondbacks.
This desert jewel of a franchise is in deep hock financially, but has made it to the World Series in only four years with a combination of expensive free agents and a series of player moves that hardly could have worked out better
Jerry Colangelo, who heads the investors group that own the team, made a decision after the 1998 expansion year that the team had to win now or face a disastrous drop in attendance.
Colangelo is by nature a man who can't stand to lose, yet he had fallen short of the big prize since he came to Arizona 32 years ago as general manager of the NBA's expansion Phoenix Suns.
"We didn't go out and lose and suffer and do all those things you're supposed to do before you enjoy victory," manager Bob Brenly said. "Jerry refused to follow that pattern. He said, 'Why do we have to wait?' That's why he is the man he is and that's why the players love to play for him."
D-Backs built with big contracts
PHOENIX (AP) -- No team has arrived on baseball's biggest stage as quickly as the Arizona Diamondbacks.
This desert jewel of a franchise is in deep hock financially, but has made it to the World Series in only four years with a combination of expensive free agents and a series of player moves that hardly could have worked out better
Jerry Colangelo, who heads the investors group that own the team, made a decision after the 1998 expansion year that the team had to win now or face a disastrous drop in attendance.
Colangelo is by nature a man who can't stand to lose, yet he had fallen short of the big prize since he came to Arizona 32 years ago as general manager of the NBA's expansion Phoenix Suns.
"We didn't go out and lose and suffer and do all those things you're supposed to do before you enjoy victory," manager Bob Brenly said. "Jerry refused to follow that pattern. He said, 'Why do we have to wait?' That's why he is the man he is and that's why the players love to play for him."