Still Counting…Crosses in Lafayette, California


Image by Donnaphoto
Not as bad as Viet Nam, no , not quite yet,
But where’s the fight against Jihad & Islam, how will we ever repay our debt,
To the families who have sacrificed for untruths to fight in Iraq,
We’re not paying attention, other countries, Al Queda, they’re taking stock
Iran, Pakistan & N.Korea are planning, making nuclear weapons,
All while we misuse our brothers, fathers, and our sons,
Now our country is hit the bottom, we’re in total hock,
0Billion owed to China, lining pockets of the Bushes, Saudi’s and Exxon,
The last eight years, is it stupidity, bad management, or just a con?
To our soldiers and armed forces I feel fear, and I pray,
That your bravery is so diminished by political decay.

Debt Management Uk: Multiple Debt Repayments are No Longer a Problem

The rising cost of living has made it a common practice to resort to credit purchases and installment schemes to meet the demands and needs of any individual in the United Kingdom. As a result, more and more individuals are finding themselves under the burden of multiple debts, with no feasible way out of this vicious cycle. It has, therefore, become necessary to plan and get access to easy methods of debt repayment and some financial companies are helping the debtors achieve freedom from multiple debts through debt management UK. The services provided include not just planning that helps debtors manage their funds and debts better but also repay the existing debts through a single, loan amount. However, like in the case of any other financial service, such services for managing debts should also be applied for only after the debtor is fully aware of the terms and conditions involved and has faith in the reliability of the company providing such services.

 

The debt management UK services provide the applicants with strategy and planning to help them better handle their debts and even financial loans are provided to help the individual repay all his existing debts and improve his credit score by relieving his financial burdens. Most of the companies providing debt management UK services have their own online websites on which the debtors could find every information they require. An individual could then compare the services and rates provided by different lenders and accordingly, select the company that offers the best deal for their debt solution options.

 

Once the debtor is sure about the company and the plan for debt management UK, he can easily apply for the services from the comfort and convenience of his home or office. All that the applicant needs to do is fill up an online application form, giving basic personal and financial information, which enables the service provider to analyze his financial situation and the need for a debt repayment loan. The executives from the company will then get back promptly and help the debtor consolidate all his multiple debts, into a single, affordable sum. The executives also negotiate with the various lenders and creditors in order to reduce or freeze the amount of penalties and charges levied on the amount of loan, further bringing down the value of debts accumulated by the debtor.

 

Once the multiple debts have been consolidated into a single amount and negotiations are through to reduce the amount as much as possible, the financial company offering debt management UK services, extends a financial loan to the debtor which enables him to repay all his debts at a go. The loan thus extended, comes at a low rate of interest and is much easier to manage compared to the multiple debts and their repayments. Also, since the lenders providing such debt management loans give debt management plans that help a debtor better manage his funds in the future, he can also benefit from this service as he can now avoid falling into the trap of multiple debts again.

 

www.debtconsolidationupdates.com With the economy in trouble and more layoffs being announced every day, many people are looking for ways to stay out of trouble with credit card debt.

Still Counting…Crosses in Lafayette, California


Image by Donnaphoto
Not as bad as Viet Nam, no , not quite yet,
But where’s the fight against Jihad & Islam, how will we ever repay our debt,
To the families who have sacrificed for untruths to fight in Iraq,
We’re not paying attention, other countries, Al Queda, they’re taking stock
Iran, Pakistan & N.Korea are planning, making nuclear weapons,
All while we misuse our brothers, fathers, and our sons,
Now our country is hit the bottom, we’re in total hock,
0Billion owed to China, lining pockets of the Bushes, Saudi’s and Exxon,
The last eight years, is it stupidity, bad management, or just a con?
To our soldiers and armed forces I feel fear, and I pray,
That your bravery is so diminished by political decay.

Debt Management Uk: Curb the Possibility of Escalating Debts

Seeking a loan and getting instant cash through the provision of loans is a common thing today. From car to computer, every object is nowadays available with the option of loans. This is not only the case with the materialistic things, but the similar scenario is present with other sort of expenses also such as medical loans, student loans, holiday loans and many more. So finally, sometimes due to urgent requirements and sometimes due to the accomplishments of our demands, we often get trapped in the web of loans and this finally leads to the vicious circle of never ending debts. And if these debts are not sorted out in the specified time, then more complications and clauses can be added to the credit profile. Such situations have led the emergence of debt management UK, so that the debts can be controlled and managed with serious efforts.

In order to maintain the eligibility for all other finance assistance of loans in future, it is very important for a person to clear all his or her debts. This is because your poor credit record can result into your disqualification for many sorts of loans. And for this, one should make sincere efforts managing the debts in a proper and systematic manner. However, before taking up any debt management policy or plan, the applicant must follow some specific objectives. Consider your requirements and create a detailed list of all your debts along with the repayment amount, rate of interest and payback term. After this compilation, synchronize your total amount of debts with your monthly salary. This will let you estimate an accurate amount of your repayments that can be settled for through your sources of income. In this entire procedure debt management UK can be a valid resource of help in reducing your tensions of repayments. Debt management UK can simplify your complexities of bad debt management.

If in case you face any sort of confusion or trouble in creating the summarized account of your debts, the efficient executives at the finance company will serve your purpose. You are simply required to inform these professionals about your various loans with their other features of repayment and interest rate, and then they will create your complete statistical report of several debts. Debt management UK also provides the borrowers with enough a more practical and meticulous solution of consolidating the various debts into one. Therefore, instead of making repayments to numerous debt collectors, you can easily have the facility of making single debt repayment through the procedure of debt management UK. So finally, the populace of United Kingdom has found a beneficial method to get rid of their escalating debts.

The option of debt management UK is very popular among the people suffering from the variations of CCJ, IVAs, arrears, irregular repayments, defaults and other such reasons. By taking this management program, one can stay assured that no compromises will be made with the household and basic expenses. In addition to this, the debts will be cleared in the set duration if the program is systematically followed.

Over the last 40 years, RethinkingDebt.org – a non-profit organization – has helped hundreds of thousands of people reclaim their financial health under the name Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Rochester. Today, in order to offer our proven processes and superior services to a wider audience, we have rebranded ourselves for a more meaningful identity and are expanding our offices to new locations. By providing financial education and teaching debt management principles, we can safely help you improve your financial situation, no matter what state it is in.
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Debt Management Uk: Manage Your Debts in a Prudent Fashion

 

With the increase in the demand for luxuries, inflation and low income, everyone has started borrowing money to meet the demands. With the increase in borrowing money and bad management during repayments, there has been a considerable increase in debt. For this ever increasing debt there has to be an end and this end comes from the debt management plans that are offered by several organizations. The question is why one should go for a debt management plan in UK. Why is it so important enough to be particularly mentioned? Well a survey conducted has revealed that the maximum people of UK are under debt and have no proper management.

 

They use up the part of income saved to repay debts for something or the other and fail to pay their debts on time. Many a times they have to face legal proceedings and get a bad credit. This being the situation of the people of UK, debt management is very necessary. A debt management plan helps you plan and manage your pending debt. These services check your income, your credit, what legal proceedings you have if any and the places where you owe money. After going through your finances and credit they plan a system and take care of the repayment of your loans. This plan gives you a relief from monthly worries of repaying as they take care of everything related to your debt.

 

If the people of such organizations are competent enough and you have a good credit to boast about then they help you save up to 75% on the interest rate by decreasing the rate of interest for the pending amount. A debt management plan clears your debt through proper management unlike debt consolidation where you take a loan of higher amount to pay off all the debts.

 

The Debt Management Office (DMO) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on Saturday, October 17 2009, launched the FGN Bond at the Royal Garden Hotel, London with the theme Good Investor, Good Citizen. The goal was to encourage private Nigerian Citizens, and Corporate entities (the Nigerian Diaspora in the UK), to invest in FGN Bond as a way for the government to build needed capital to finance critical long-term infrastructure projects in Nigeria. This effort is in line with the goals of Private Finance Initiative (PFI), and the objectives of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) contained in the 7-Point Agenda. The launch of FGN Bond in London resulted from the many compelling and persuasive proposals written and successfully presented to Nigerias public and private sector leaders by UK-based Business Services Consortium Ltd; (Chidi Okemadu MD), who is a Public Policy Consultant/Advocate, and a Former Vice President with the defunct Citisolutions Financial UK Ltd, a division of Citigroup. Bond is a long-term debt instrument offered to the potential investor by public sector entities with promise of a return at specified percentages of yields upon maturity. Such financial or monetary instruments are similar in nature to stock certificates issued by the private sector, except that it is guaranteed against default by the full faith and credit of the government. Bonds are therefore safer and more conservative forms of investment than stocks. There are many precedents or …
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Debt Management Uk: Repay Debts Through a Single, Affordable Payment

Spiraling costs at times force individuals to opt for loans to sustain their demands for materialistic needs. However, such multiple loans have a tendency to keep piling up and soon become an amount which is difficult to pay off easily. The debtors are then under the burden of multiple debts with creditors and lenders harassing them for repayments. Before these multiple debts force the debtor into bankruptcy, it is advisable that the individuals take some steps to pay off the debts and achieve a debt free status. One of the best ways to manage and repay multiple debts is through the debt management UK services offered by some financial institutions. Getting the timely help and professional services of such a company can help an individual not only manage his multiple debts in a systematic and organized manner but also, pay off the debts through a single, affordable monthly payment which is ,much easier to handle financially.

The services of the debt management company in UK are always confidential and any help or advice provided is on a one to one basis with the debtor. Usually, the company assigns a financial professional to each of its clients, who them becomes the sole point of contact between the company and the client, thereby, reducing all confusion and simplifying the debt management UK services. The financial executive then negotiates with the creditors and lenders on behalf of the client in order to reduce or freeze the interest or charges being levied on the loan amounts. Such negotiation helps to reduce the amount of loans to be repaid and any payment made towards loan repayments helps to reduce the principal amount instead of going towards paying off the additional interest and charges.

The debt management UK services help an individual consolidate all his debts into a single, affordable amount which can be paid off each month through single monthly installments. As such this is an ideal way to pay off any debts that an individual may have acquired on his credit card payments, overdrafts, other loans and even store cards. The debt management plan helps the debtor manage his funds in such a manner that not only can he repay his debts easily over a period of time but also better manage his debts and finance in the future without falling into the debt trap again.

So, if an individual finds himself suffering under the burden of debts with no way out, then it is advisable to immediately select a debt management UK company and get their professional services for debt repayment. The internet and yellow pages are a good source to locate such a company and check their competence and reliability. More and more UK citizens are opting for the debt management solutions and the popularity for such services is constantly increasing by the day as the debtors start reclaiming their lives through debt freedom. So, if you too are looking for feasible solutions to achieve freedom from debts then opting for a debt management company might be the ideal way to go about it.

Arizona Diamondbacks 9, Los Angeles Dodgers 4, Chase Field, Phoenix, Arizona


Image by Ken Lund
Chase Field (formerly Bank One Ballpark) is a baseball stadium located in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, and is the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball. It opened in 1998 just in time for the Diamondbacks’ first game after coming to Arizona as an expansion team.

Construction on the park began in 1996, and was finished just before the Diamondbacks’ first season began, in 1998. It was only the second MLB stadium at the time to have a retractable roof (after Toronto’s SkyDome, now Rogers Centre; others are now in Houston, Milwaukee, and Seattle). It was also the first ballpark to feature natural grass in a retractable roof stadium.

It hosted Games 1, 2, 6, and 7 of the 2001 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Yankees. The Diamondbacks won all four games at Chase Field, then known as Bank One Ballpark, and won the world championship that year in dramatic fashion.

Chase Field was originally named Bank One Ballpark after Bank One of Chicago, giving rise to its nickname ("The BOB"). After Bank One merged with New York-based Chase, the name change was announced on September 23, 2005.

In March 2006, Chase Field played host to three first-round games of the World Baseball Classic.

Chase Field is to be the home to the 2011 All-Star Game.

Chase Field’s roof is opened or closed depending on the game-time temperature. When the decision is made to close the roof, it is left open for as long as possible before game time in order to keep the grass alive. Even when closed, the park’s design allows just enough sunlight to play in true daylight without overheating the stadium.

The roof is closed three hours before game time, and a massive HVAC system drops the temperature inside the park 30 degrees by the time the gates open. Originally, the HVAC system didn’t work above row 25 of the upper level, exposing fans in the higher rows to the full force of the often-oppressive heat typical of Arizona summers. However, recent changes keep virtually all of the facility in air-conditioned comfort.

Chase Field also has a swimming pool, located in right center field, which is rented to patrons for ,500 a game. The ballpark also features a dirt strip between home plate and the pitcher’s mound, one of only two current ballparks to do so (Comerica Park in Detroit is the other). This dirt strip was very common in old-time ballparks.

The park’s foul territory is somewhat larger than is the case for most ballparks built in the 1990s. With 80% of the seats in foul territory, the upper deck is one of the highest in the majors. However, the park’s luxury boxes are tucked far under the third deck, which keeps the upper deck closer to the action.

New in the 2008 season is a brand new High Definition scoreboard in centerfield. The new scoreboard is 46 ft (14 m). high and 136 ft (41 m). wide and it cost million. It is the 2nd largest HD screen in Major League Baseball behind Kauffman Stadium.

The stadium was once the home of the Insight Bowl, a college football bowl game from 2001-2005. In 2006, the bowl game moved to Sun Devil Stadium, to replace the Fiesta Bowl, which moved to University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. The football configuration was notable because of the lack of nets behind the goalposts and the dugout behind the south end zone. The final Insight Bowl played at Chase was between the hometown Arizona State Sun Devils and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

The stadium also hosts occasional concerts and international soccer games. For football and soccer, the field is set up with the end lines perpendicular to the third-base line and temporary bleachers added on the east side.

Chase Field has also staged nine women’s college basketball games. The second game, which was played on December 18, 2006, was shortened by rain with four minutes and 18 seconds remaining and Arizona State leading Texas Tech 61-45. Venue staff closed the roof in an effort to finish the game, but officials deemed the court unsafe. In 2000, ASU had played Tennessee at the same facility.

Chase Field was also the site of the "Challenge at Chase", a college baseball game between Arizona State and Arizona. Arizona won both contests.[5] There was no game scheduled in 2008 and in 2009.[6]

In February 2006, the Professional Bull Riders hosted a Built Ford Tough Series bull riding event at this venue. Chris Shivers won this event with a total score of 181.5 points on two bulls, including an impressive 93.75 (out of 100) points on Taylor Made bucking bull, Smokeless Wardance, in the short-go round.

Monster Jam comes to the field every year.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chase_Field

The Arizona Diamondbacks are a professional baseball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They play in the West Division of Major League Baseball’s National League. From 1998 to the present, they have played in Chase Field (formerly Bank One Ballpark). Also known as the D-backs, Arizona has one World Series title, in 2001.

Between 1940 and 1990, Phoenix jumped from the 99th largest city in the nation to the 9th largest. As such, it was frequently mentioned as a possible location for either a new or relocated MLB franchise. Baseball had a rich tradition in Arizona long before talk of bringing a big-league team even started. The state has been a frequent spring training site since 1946. With the large numbers of people relocating to the state from the Midwest and the Northeast, as well as from California, many teams (most notably the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers) have normally had large followings in Arizona.

The first serious attempt to land an expansion team for the Phoenix area was mounted by Elyse Doherty and Martin Stone, owner of the Phoenix Firebirds, the city’s Triple-A minor league baseball team and an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. In the late 1980s Stone approached St. Louis (football) Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill about sharing a proposed 70,000 seat domed stadium in Phoenix. It was taken for granted that a domed stadium was essential for a prospective baseball team to be a viable enterprise in the city. Phoenix is by far the hottest major city in North America; the average high temperature during baseball’s regular season is 99.1 °F, and temperatures above 120 °F in July and August are not unheard of, but have only occurred three times.

Bidwill, with plans already in the works to leave St. Louis, opted instead to sign a long term lease with Arizona State University to use its Sun Devil Stadium as the home of his soon-to-be Arizona-based NFL franchise. Since baseball-only stadiums were not seen as fiscally viable during that era, this effectively ended Stone’s bid.

In the fall of 1993, Jerry Colangelo, majority owner of the Phoenix Suns, the area’s NBA franchise, announced he was assembling an ownership group, "Arizona Baseball, Inc.," to apply for a Major League Baseball expansion team. This was after a great deal of lobbying by the Maricopa County Sports Authority, a local group formed to preserve Cactus League spring training in Arizona and eventually secure a Major League franchise for the state.

Colangelo’s group was so certain that they would be awarded a franchise that they held a name-the-team contest for it; they took out a full-page ad in the sports section of the February 13, 1995 edition of the state’s leading newspaper, the Arizona Republic. First prize was a pair of lifetime season tickets awarded to the person who submitted the winning entry. The winning choice was "Diamondbacks," after the Western diamondback, a rattlesnake native to the region known for injecting a large amount of venom when it strikes.

Colangelo’s bid received strong support from one of his friends, Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, and media reports say that then-acting Commissioner of Baseball and Milwaukee Brewers founder Bud Selig was also a strong supporter of Colangelo’s bid.[1]Plans were also made for a new retractable-roof ballpark, Bank One Ballpark, nicknamed the BOB, (renamed in 2005 to Chase Field) to be built in an industrial/warehouse district on the southeast edge of downtown Phoenix, across the street from the Suns’ America West Arena (now US Airways Center).

On March 9, 1995, Colangelo’s group was awarded a franchise to begin play for the 1998 season. A 0 million franchise fee was paid to Major League Baseball. The Tampa Bay Area was also granted a franchise, the Devil Rays (to be based in St. Petersburg), at the same time.

According to the original press release from Colangelo’s group (which remained posted on the team website during the first few seasons) the chosen team colors were Arizona turquoise, copper, black and purple. "…Turquoise was chosen because the greenish-blue stone is indigenous to Arizona, copper because Arizona is one the nation’s top copper-producing states and purple because it has become a favorite color for Arizona sports fans, thanks to the success of the National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Suns."[2]

In the earliest days, the Diamondbacks operated basically as a subsidiary of the Suns; several executives and managers with the Suns and America West Arena were brought over to the Diamondbacks in similar roles.

There was some talk (which actually persisted for a few years after the awarding of the franchise) about the Diamondbacks being placed in the American League West. Colangelo strongly opposed this, pushing baseball officials to allow the new team to play in the National League West. Colangelo cited the relative close proximity of Phoenix to the other NL West cities; the similarities between the two fast-growing cities of Phoenix and Denver (home to the Colorado Rockies); the long history of Arizona tourism to San Diego; the Firebirds’ long history as the Giants’ top farm team; and the fact that Dodgers, Giants and Padres games were broadcast in the Phoenix and Tucson markets for many years.

From the beginning, Colangelo wanted to market the Diamondbacks to a statewide fan base and not limit fan appeal to Phoenix and its suburbs. Although every Major League Baseball team cultivates fans from outside its immediate metropolitan area, and even though the greater Phoenix area has 2/3 of the entire statewide population, Colangelo still decided to call the team the "Arizona Diamondbacks" rather than the "Phoenix Diamondbacks". Many in Phoenix were not pleased by this; they felt this move lent a "small market" tincture to the team’s name. However, fans in other areas of the state generally embraced the "Arizona" title as a positive move to help make the team a regional team for the entire state, rather than just for the state’s largest city and capitol.

Tucson, Arizona’s second largest city, located about a 90-minute drive southeast of Phoenix, was selected as the home for Diamondbacks spring training as well as the team’s top minor league affiliate, the Tucson Sidewinders. Radio and television broadcast deals were struck with affiliates in Tucson, Flagstaff, Prescott, and Las Vegas; among others.

A series of team-sponsored fan motorcoach trips from Tucson to Bank One Ballpark were inaugurated for the opening season and are still in operation to this day (it is now known as the "Diamond Express"). The Diamondbacks are also known for the "Hometown Tour", held in January, where selected players, management and broadcasters make public appearances, hold autograph signings, etc., in various locations around Phoenix and Tucson, as well as many small and mid-sized towns in other areas of Arizona.

Two seasons before their first opening day, Colangelo hired Buck Showalter, the American League Manager of the Year in 1994 with the New York Yankees.

Their lower level minor league teams began play in 1997; the expansion draft was held that year as well.

The Diamondbacks’ first major league game was played against the Colorado Rockies on March 31, 1998, at Bank One Ballpark before a standing-room only crowd of 50,179. Tickets had gone on sale on January 10 and sold out before lunch. The Rockies won, 9–2, with Andy Benes on the mound for the Diamondbacks, and Travis Lee being the first player to hit, score, homer and drive in a run.

In their first five seasons of existence, the Diamondbacks won three division titles (1999, 2001, & 2002) and one World Series (2001). In 1999, Arizona won 100 games in only its second season to win the National League West. They lost to the New York Mets in four games in the NLDS.

Colangelo fired Showalter after a relatively disappointing 2000 season, and replaced him with Bob Brenly, the former Giants catcher and coach, who had up to that point been working as a color analyst on Diamondbacks television broadcasts.

In 2001, the team was led by two of the most dominant pitchers in all of baseball: Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. Arizona had postseason victories over the St. Louis Cardinals (3-2 in the NLDS) and the Atlanta Braves (4-1 in the NLCS) to advance to the World Series where, in one of the most exciting series ever, in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York City, they beat the reigning champions, the New York Yankees, 4 to 3, to become the youngest expansion franchise to win the World Series (in just their fourth season of play). That classic World Series is chronicled in Charles Euchner’s book The Last Nine Innings (Sourcebooks, 2006). The series was also seen as the beginning of the end of the Yankees’ stranglehold on baseball glory, as profiled in Buster Olney’s book The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty. All games in that series were won by the home team.

An estimated orderly crowd of over 300,000 celebrated at the Diamondbacks victory parade, held at Bank One Ballpark and the surrounding downtown Phoenix streets on November 7, 2001. This was the first major professional sports championship for the state of Arizona and the first for a team (in the four major North American professional sports leagues) owned or controlled by Colangelo, whose basketball Suns made it to the NBA Finals in 1976 and 1993 but lost both times. (Colangelo’s Arizona Rattlers won the Arena Football League championship in 1994 and 1997.) Colangelo’s willingness to go into debt and acquire players through free agency would ultimately lead to one of the quickest free falls in major sports history when in just three years, the Diamondbacks would record one of the worst losing records in all of major league baseball by losing 111 games.

The team won the NL West Division Title again in 2002, but were swept out in the NLDS by the St. Louis Cardinals.

By the 2004 season, however, the Diamondbacks had dropped to a dismal 51-111 record, the worst in Major League Baseball that year and also one of the 10 worst records in the past 100 years of MLB, despite Johnson pitching a perfect game on May 18 of that season. Brenly was fired partway through the season and was replaced on an interim basis by coach Al Pedrique. Before the season co-MVP (with Johnson) of the 2001 World Series Curt Schilling had been traded to the Boston Red Sox, who won the World Series in 2004 and 2007.

By this time Colangelo and the other partners were embroiled in a dispute over the financial health and direction of the Diamondbacks (and notably including over 0 million dollars in deferred compensation to many players who were key members of the 2001 World Series winning team and others). He was forced to resign his managing general partner post in the late summer of 2004.

Colangelo sold his interest in the General Partnership of the Diamondbacks to a group of investors who were all involved as partners in the founding of the team in 1995. The investors include equal partners Ken Kendrick, Dale Jensen, Mike Chipman, and Jeffrey Royer. Jeff Moorad, a former sports agent, joined the partnership, and was named the team’s CEO; becoming its primary public face. Ken Kendrick became the managing general partner.

Colangelo was sharply criticized for plunging the team into over 0 million in debt to secure the services of expensive veterans in order to field a competitive team quickly. In a 2004 interview with columnist Hal Bodley of USA TODAY, Colangelo defended his actions:

“ I understand where some people felt I wasn’t doing it appropriately. The only analogy I can use is that Tampa Bay (the other ’98 expansion team) went one direction and where did they end up? (Six last-place finishes and low attendance)…We went another direction to establish a fan base because our investment was much larger than Tampa Bay’s. And we put so much money into our own stadium (0 million). After the first year and the decrease in season tickets, I was convinced we had to build a fan base …We bought three division titles, a World Series and established a fan base …
…I believe what we did will last a long, long time …Right or wrong, a number of teams today are in the million payroll range and competitive – Oakland, Minnesota, Texas are examples. Our goal was to get returns from our farm system. We built into our cash-flow that we would be paying out the deferments and that our payroll could drop to million for a few years …A few things hurt us …The economy was bad, and I was hoping for more national money (from baseball’s central fund) coming in.[5] ”

Also a factor in Colangelo’s leaving his post was his advancing age: Colangelo was 64 years of age in 2004, and had he not sold his sports franchises, upon his death, his family would have been faced with having to pay high estate taxes based on the value of the Diamondbacks as well as the Suns (which he sold to Robert Sarver in the spring of 2004).[6]

Following the 2004 season, the Diamondbacks hired Wally Backman to be the team’s manager. Backman was formerly manager of the Class A California League Lancaster JetHawks, one of the Diamondbacks’ minor-league affiliates. In a turn of events that proved to be a minor embarrassment for the reorganized ownership group, Backman was almost immediately fired after management learned, after the fact, of legal troubles and improprieties in Backman’s past. Former Seattle Mariners manager and Diamondbacks bench coach Bob Melvin became the new manager after only a ten-day tenure for Backman.

Following the Backman incident, the Diamondbacks spent heavily on free agents in order to re-build into a contender. The club signed 3B Troy Glaus, P Russ Ortiz, SS Royce Clayton, and 2B Craig Counsell, among others. They then traded Randy Johnson to the New York Yankees, for Javier Vazquez, Dioner Navarro, and Brad Halsey. They then turned around and dealt newly acquired catcher Dioner Navarro to the Dodgers for Shawn Green, and sent Shea Hillenbrand to the Toronto Blue Jays. Finally, they traded Casey Fossum to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for José Cruz, Jr.

The Diamondbacks, led by Melvin, finished the 2005 season with a record of 77 wins and 85 losses. However, this was a 26-game improvement over 2004, and actually good enough for second place in the woefully weak NL West, five games behind the San Diego Padres.

The Diamondbacks were considered by some to be the favorite to win the division after spending big money on the aforementioned free agents; however, injuries hurt the team’s chances of reaching its expected potential.

Starting pitcher Ortiz was out for some time which really hurt the pitching staff. Glaus played with a hurt knee all season. Of all the free agents that signed before the season, no one had a better season than first baseman Tony Clark. Clark started the season as a bench player and ended the season starting and being an important part of the team. Clark was rewarded with a new contract at the end of the season.

In October 2005 the Diamondbacks hired 35-year-old Josh Byrnes, assistant general manager of the Boston Red Sox, to replace the out-going Joe Garagiola, Jr. as Diamondbacks General Manager. Garagiola took a position in Major League Baseball’s main offices in New York City.

In a weak NL West division, the Diamondbacks failed to improve on their 2005 performance, finishing fourth with a slightly worse record than the year before. The season did include two excellent individual performances, however. 2B Orlando Hudson became the recipient of his second career Gold Glove Award, as announced on November 3. Hudson became only the sixth infielder in major league history to win a Gold Glove award in both the American and National Leagues. He first received the award after the 2005 season as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, and was traded to the Diamondbacks later that offseason. On November 14, it was announced that RHP Brandon Webb was the recipient of the Cy Young Award for the National League. Webb, a specialist in throwing the sinkerball, received 15 of 32 first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Webb went 16-8 with a 3.10 ERA and in the 2006 season was named to his first All-Star team. San Diego Padres relief pitcher Trevor Hoffman was second place in the voting with 12 first-place votes and 77 points.

In preparation for the next season, the Diamondbacks made several significant trades during the offseason. The Diamondbacks and Brewers made a trade on November 25, 2006. Johnny Estrada, Greg Aquino, and Claudio Vargas were dealt to the Milwaukee Brewers for Doug Davis, Dana Eveland, and Dave Krynzel.[7] On Sunday January 7, it was announced that Randy Johnson would return to the Diamondbacks on a two year contract, pending a physical. He was obtained from the Yankees in exchange for Luis Vizcaino, Ross Ohlendorf, Alberto Gonzalez and Steven Jackson. The Yankees will pay million of Johnson’s million salary. The Diamondbacks and Florida Marlins made a deal March 26 to acquire RHP Yusmeiro Petit in exchange for Jorge Julio and cash.

The Diamondbacks announced in early September 2006 that their uniforms, which remained largely unchanged since the team’s first season, would be completely redesigned for the 2007 season.[8] Details were supposed to be kept from the public until after the 2006 postseason as per MLB rules, but the Diamondback page from the 2007 MLB Official Style Guide was somehow leaked around September 25, and local media broadcast printed the new design for all to see. Of great surprise to many fans was a brand new color scheme; apparently the original colors used by the franchise since Major League Baseball awarded it to Jerry Colangelo’s ownership group in 1995 were to be discontinued.

While some fans applauded the redesign, most of the reaction to the new color scheme, which included the changing of the historical purple and traditional Arizonan colors of copper and turquoise to a reddish color known as "Sedona Red" similar to that of the Phoenix Coyotes and Arizona Cardinals color schemes, was pointedly negative.[9][10][11]

Many fans went so far as to call the 2007 D-backs a new and completely different team, calling the 2007 season a "re-inaugural year"; some fans in Tucson had banners reading; "Arizona Diamondbacks 1998-2006 – Arizona D-Backs 2007- " or "Exit Diamondbacks Enter D-Backs" and "Exit Purple Enter Sedona."

The official unveiling of the uniforms came at a charity event on November 8 in nearby Scottsdale, where several of the players modeled the uniforms on a runway, and posed for publicity photos.

The distinctive "A" design remained unchanged save for the colors. The stylized snake-like "D" logo, also used since the early days for the road uniforms, was slightly redesigned and a completely new shoulder patch introduced. The lettering on the jerseys was completely redesigned.

"Sedona Red" became the dominant color scheme used throughout Chase Field and in all marketing and promotional materials for the Diamondback ballclub.

After winning the opening game of the season on March 31 on the road against the Cincinnati Reds, the Diamondbacks found themselves with the best record in Major League Baseball, 20-8, by the start of May. At that time, they also led the NL West by 6.5 games. They lost the first series in May against the New York Mets, the first series lost since the opening series against the Reds. The Diamondbacks continued to lead the NL west despite only being 47-48 at the All-Star break.

On July 17, 2008, Tony Clark was traded back to the D-backs from the San Diego Padres for a minor league pitcher, Evan Scribner.

On August 5, Dan Haren signed a four-year, .75 million deal with the Diamondbacks worth a guaranteed .25 million through 2012 and including a .5 million club option for 2013 with a .5 million buyout.[12]

Orlando Hudson, one of the more consistent offensive D-backs players in 2008, underwent season-ending surgery on his left wrist August 9 in the wake of a collision with catcher Brian McCann of the Atlanta Braves. Hudson is due to become a free agent at the end of the season and speculation is that he will not be re-signed with the Diamondbacks, because he wants money.[citation needed]

LF Eric Byrnes was on the 60-day disabled list from late June, with a torn left hamstring, and was out for the remainder of the season.

On August 11, 2008, Dallas Buck, RHP Micah Owings, and C Wilkin Castillo were traded to the Reds (in last place in the NL Central at the time) in exchange for OF Adam Dunn. Dunn, who was tied for the major league lead with 32 home runs, was expected to provide a significant boost to an offense that has struggled to score runs for most of the season. Dunn seemed quite positive about being traded to a ballclub in first place in its division in August.[13] The move was seen by some fans[who?] as a belated attempt by the D-backs to counter the trade by their division rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers, for Boston Red Sox power-hitting OF Manny Ramirez on July 31 and also to compensate for the injuries to Hudson and Byrnes, generally considered two of the more "power-hitting" Diamondbacks on a team which has relied heavily on pitching and defense in recent years.

Owings, once considered an excellent pitching prospect for the Diamondbacks, struggled in the 2008 campaign with a 7.09 ERA after April 21.[14][dated info]

On August 31, the Diamondbacks acquired former World Series MVP David Eckstein to fill the hole at secondbase which was opened after Orlando Hudson was placed on the disabled list. Eckstein was traded from the Toronto Blue Jays for Minor League pitcher Chad Beck.[15]

They finished the season with a record of 82-80, (good for second in the NL West to the Los Angeles Dodgers).

The primary television play-by-play voice for the team’s first nine seasons of play was Thom Brennaman, who also broadcasts baseball and college football games nationally for FOX Television. Brennaman was the TV announcer for the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds (along with his father Marty Brennaman) before being hired by Diamondbacks founder Jerry Colangelo in 1996, two years before the team would begin play.

In October 2006, Brennaman left the Diamondbacks to call games with his father for the Reds beginning in 2007, signing a 4-year deal (his FOX duties remained unchanged).

The English language flagship radio station is KTAR. Greg Schulte is the regular radio play-by-play voice, a 25-year veteran of sports radio in the Phoenix market, also well-known for his previous work on Phoenix Suns, Arizona Cardinals and Arizona State University (ASU) broadcasts. In February 2007 he agreed to a contract extension through at least the 2011 season.

Jeff Munn is a backup radio play-by-play announcer; he served as the regular public address announcer at Chase Field in the early days of the franchise. He is well-known to many Phoenix area sports fans, having also served as the public address announcer for the Suns at America West Arena (now US Airways Center) in the 1990s. He is also the play-by-play radio voice for ASU women’s basketball.

On November 1, 2006, the team announced that the TV voice of the Milwaukee Brewers since 2002, Daron Sutton, would be hired as the Diamondbacks primary TV play-by-play voice. Sutton was signed to a five-year contract with a team option for three more years. Sutton is considered one of the best of the younger generation of baseball broadcasters. His signature chants include "lets get some runs" when the D-Backs trail in late innings. Sutton’s father is Hall of Fame pitcher and current Atlanta Braves broadcaster Don Sutton.[16]

Former Diamondback and Chicago Cub Mark Grace and former Major League knuckleball pitcher Tom Candiotti were the Diamondbacks primary color analysts for the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Former Diamondback player (and current Diamondbacks minority owner) Matt Williams also does color commentary on occasion, as does former Cardinals and NBC broadcast legend Joe Garagiola, Sr.., a longtime Phoenix-area resident and father of Joe Garagiola, Jr., the first GM of the Diamondbacks (as head of the Maricopa County Sports Authority in the early 1990s, Garagiola, Jr. was one of the primary people involved in Phoenix obtaining a Major League Baseball franchise).

The Diamondbacks announced in July 2007[17] that for the 2008 season, all regionally broadcast Diamondback TV games will be shown exclusively on FSN Arizona; and a few could possibly be shown on the national MLB on FOX telecasts. FSN Arizona is currently seen in 2.8 million households in Arizona & New Mexico. The previous flagship station, since the inaugural 1998 season, was KTVK, a popular over-the-air independent station in Phoenix.

Spanish broadcasts The flagship Spanish language radio station is KSUN AM 1400 with Miguel Quintana and Arthuro Ochoa as the regular announcers. They are sometimes joined by Richard Saenz or Oscar Soria.

Games are also televised in Spanish on KPHE-LP with Oscar Soria and Jerry Romo as the announcers.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_Diamondbacks

Debt Management UK-A Sophisticated Mantra For Debt Free Life

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