Arizona Diamondbacks

 

One of the newest teams to grace the National League is the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Beginning play within Major League Baseball in 1998, the Diamondbacks became the fastest expansion team to win a World Series in 2001, only 4 seasons after their creation.  While it is quite surprising that a city like Phoenix didn’t have a professional baseball team considering its vast size and high population, the city actually grew very rapidly in the second half of the 20^th century, meaning it wasn’t ready to house a major club until recent times.  Another problem that kept the city without a MLB team was the heat.  Playing outdoors in the desert summer is simply not a possibility.

The problem was rectified with the construction of Chase Field, a 48,000-seat stadium complete with a retractable roof, making it the first of its kind in America.  After a disappointing first season, then owner Jerry Colangelo decided to fund a massive investment into the team’s players, pushing the team into debt but acquiring superstars like Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling.  The results were immediate. 

In 2001, the Diamondbacks did the unthinkable, and beat the New York Yankees in 7 games to win their first World Series title.  Not bad for an expansion team just getting started!

But the good times were short lived as financial pressures led to Colangelo selling the team.  The quality on the field also suffered, and the team went through a very barren patch for several seasons.  However, there were some notable success stories for individual players, such as Brandon Webb winning the National League Cy Young Award in 2006. 

Seeking to break new ground, the Arizona Diamondbacks changed their color scheme to a red-dominated design in 2007.  Whether it was the new look or the growth of young players like Mark Reynolds, Stephen Drew, and Justin Upton, the team went on to a great year, finishing with the best record in the National League and reaching the NLCS, where they were swept by the Colorado Rockies. 

Since then, the Diamondbacks have added one more NL West division title to their list of accomplishments, but the big glory of a World Series return has alluded them since that incredible run in 2001.  2011 saw the team battle the odds and return to top form with success by players like Ian Kennedy and Daniel Hudson.  However, they would lose in the first round of the playoffs to the Milwaukee Brewers in a heartbreaking extra-inning Game 5.

Currently, the Diamondbacks are led by the sensational young 1^st baseman Paul Goldschmidt and the strong arms of pitchers Patrick Corbin and Wade Miley.  This core group of developing stars will surely make the future look bright for this baseball team.  Autographs and signatures of these youngsters will be highly prized as their careers continue to blossom. 

But in the short term, the Arizona Diamondbacks will have their hands full with two of baseball’s finest clubs playing within their division: the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers, two teams that have gotten quite used to winning in recent years!  The Diamondbacks will surely need to keep their focus and continue finding young talent to stay competitive and earn another shot at the MBL playoffs! 

AAA Sports Memorabilia has a great selection of Arizona Diamondbacks autographed memorabilia both online and offline.  Collectors go to great lengths to find and acquire collectibles that have significance to them.  Autograph collectors are always looking for that unique autograph, a game-used item, or an autographed collectible that depicts a great moment in sports history.  Since 2006, AAA Sports Memorabilia has been helping sports collectors in finding these great collectibles.  All of our autographed sports memorabilia, including our autographed Arizona Diamondbacks collectibles, are guaranteed for life to be authentic or your money back.   Our autographed memorabilia is obtained during private sessions with the athletes and a representative is there to watch each signature being applied to the collectible.   

Visiting our Arizona Diamondbacks autographed sports memorabilia section often is best if you are looking for that next valuable Arizona Diamondbacks collectible to add to your collection.  We have even more autographed Arizona Diamondbacks memorabilia in stock then what is on our website, so if you can’t find that collectible that you really want on our site, please contact us at cs@aaasportsmemorabilia.com to see if we have it in stock.