History of the Arizona Diamondbacks

History of the Arizona Diamondbacks

History of the Arizona Diamondbacks

The Arizona Diamondbacks are a professional baseball team out of Phoenix, Arizona. The team joined Major League Baseball in 1998 as an expansion team. They were one of two teams the join Major League Baseball that season. The other team was the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

The Diamondbacks joined the West Division as they came into the league. The other teams in the West division include the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants. These teams would be challenged by the Diamondbacks from the very beginning.

From their conception, the Diamondbacks were exceeding expectations. Usually it takes a team several years before having major success. For instance the Devil Rays, the other expansion team mentioned, never found their way to the sort of success that the Diamondbacks had found early for about 10 years.

The Diamondbacks managed to win their division in just the 2nd year of their existence. They managed to win more than 100 games that season. Their season did not continue for long in the playoffs however. They lost to the New York Mets in the NLDS round of the playoffs. Despite not having success in the playoffs, things were definitely encouraging for the Diamondbacks.

The Diamondbacks made two of the greatest acquisitions in the history of baseball early on. The team managed to pick up the two best pitchers in all of baseball before the 2001 season. Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson led the pitching staff of the Arizona Diamondbacks. This duo made the Diamondbacks a very difficult team to face in the playoffs. These pitchers could pitch multiple games in each series. With such dominant pitchers, the Diamondbacks would be very difficult to defeat that year.

The Diamondbacks beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS and the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS. Each of these series took 5 games. With victories in these two series the Diamondbacks found themselves in the World Series against the New York Yankees. This presented the biggest David and Goliath stage that the World Series had ever seen.

The Yankees were the most successful and storied franchise in the history of Major League Baseball. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks were in their 4th year of existence. This proved to be one of the most exciting series to ever be played. There was a lot of drama in the United States in that time. The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center had just taken place in New York. The state was rallying together in support of the Yankees. The hopes of the fans would not be enough.

Behind Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, the Diamondbacks were able to overcome the Yankees in 7 games. This made the Diamondbacks the quickest expansion team to ever win the World Series.

The team managed to win the NL West Division again in 2002, but did not have the same success in the playoffs. They were swept in the first round by the St. Louis Cardinals.

The team continues to be competitive year in and year out. They won another NL West Division title in 2007. They have not seen the same success in the playoffs since 2001 though. The team is still led by solid pitching today, but is not the dominant force that it was in 2001.

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