As Sam Sees It

Back from the Arizona Senior All Star Softball Games in Casa Grande, I view that event with mixed feelings.

To be chosen to play in such an event is an honor. You meet some very good players and some nice people. Some, whom you will meet in other capacities, may become life long friends.

There are always good memories to be gleaned from such experiences.

There was also much that could have been done to make this an even better experience for both the players and their fans, most of whom were parents, grandparents, high school team-mates or friends of the players.

The programs provided were not of top quality and that is an understatement. Many of the players, including our own Juliet Sullenberger, were identified as being from the wrong school. The information about when the players were to arrive and where was not delivered until the last possible moment. Practice schedules were not given until the players arrived and then only verbally.

Probably the thing that would have meant the most to many fans would have been a public address announcement of the batters as they came to the plate. Most Little Leagues provide this. If you did not know the player personally, you didn’t have a clue that was batting. Also, the score board was not used and many fans left not sure what the final scores were or even which team had won.

That is enough negativity, though. There were a good number of college scouts in the stands and quite a few players, including Sullenberger, were approached and offered an opportunity to continue their careers at the next level. That is certainly reason enough to be happy with the experience.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have been a disappointment so far this season. The loss of Richie Sexton for the rest of the season was a deadly blow to a team that was already struggling and bringing up the rear in the weakest division of the National League. Matt Kata going down for a month or more with another injury certainly didn’t help matters any.

Manager Bob Brenly has been the target of much of the criticism. Brenly doesn’t pitch or bat. His decisions don’t always agree with mine, but that doesn’t make them wrong. It was going to be difficult to win with this team even if Sexton, Kata and all of the rest of the players had remained healthy.

The main strategy Brenly uses with which I disagree is also employed by almost all Major League managers. Simply stated, it is the “closer” designation and strategy. My belief is that a pitcher who has worked effectively for seven or eight innings is your best candidate to hold onto a lead. If you do have to bring in relief in, for example, the eighth inning and that pitcher is successful, he should be back out on the mound in the ninth. There are a few “closers” who make the strategy now used by most managers look good. If you have an Eric Gagne or a John Smoltz, it may be. We don’t have either of those pitchers.

The primary reason for the Diamondbacks’ travails this season goes back to the decision not to sign Curt Schilling for the last year of his contract. Yes, he was going to be a free agent. He also would have probably won enough games to keep the team in the pennant chase. He was and still is one of the best “big game” pitchers in the game. Two top quality pitchers, if they stay healthy, can be enough to win a pennant. That is, essentially, what the Diamondbacks used to win the 2001 World Series.

The front office also, inexplicably, did not sign Miguel Batista, their third best pitcher and an invaluable public relations person. This was a development that has never made any sense from my vantage point.

Of course, if we want to go back a little further, there is the trade of Erubriel Durazo, one of the most feared sluggers on the team, for a pitcher of questionable talent. Remember, though, that Durazo was criticized in public in such a way to lessen his trade value.

This team has got to learn to avoid that type of public airing of things that should stay in the locker room. There was a replay of this with pitcher B.H. Kim with the result that he probably didn’t bring full value either.

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