ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS

There are some . . . like my long-time-ago colleague Tim . . . who say "I can't watch baseball . . it's too slow."

I could say I follow my team because I'm older and slower now.  But I don't think that's true since I've been following Major League Baseball since I was around six years old.  (And that's a long time ago!)  At any rate, last night was exciting to me as my Arizona Diamondbacks beat the reigning World Champion San Francisco Giants to clinch the National League West Division title for 2011.

I watched the game on television and then what seemed like close to an hour of the team celebrating on the field, in the locker room, back on the field and finally into a group jump into the swimming pool beyond the outfield.  It brought to my mind the fact that these guys are all just boys playing a game.  Sure there are million dollar salaries among them but when a big victory comes they all act like kids.  And it's fun to see.

So, they've reached one plateau.  Next are the playoffs and if they survive them it's on to the World Series.  Only a week or so ago the team celebrated the 10th year anniversary of their biggest win as a team so far.

Could they repeat this year?  Their great manager, Kirk Gibson, didn't predict that last night but he did have a great quote: "We're a damn good team!"  Well said, Kirk.  Here's hoping.