In The Belly of The Chase

After yesterday's knock down, drag out summit meeting (more on that later), Prez Derrick Hall was kind enough to personally show us many of Chase Field's cronyish crannies - like a second floor White House tour with Dubya - only our guide had a higher approval rating. And, unlike 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, no one else here was outside waiting to get in.

Impressions?

1. It's a big complex under the stands! I had envisioned a clubhouse, some bathrooms, a couple meeting rooms and a cage, but it's quite the little city down there, with a maze of corridors lined with snack bars, video rooms, lounges - in addition to the massive locker room and weight training facility.

What? No Starbucks!?!?

The kid insists this is Bob Melvin's office. Then the "C" on the cap must be for Cal - or communicator.

2. Lots of construction. On the Diamond level, they tore out a couple prime suites off home plate in favor of a glass plated common area where, if I understood Derrick correctly, anyone with a Diamond level ticket can eat while watching the game. Not sure how that'll work exactly, but if it's truly free access, it should be very popular.

Locker room's attractive, in a circular, commercial kind of way. Almost expected a US Airways Vegas rep to announce that my return flight to Phoenix had been delayed.

Not much activity in the locker room. We saw these folks hanging around Chris Young's locker for some reason. Relatives, perhaps. 

Who knew that a) coaches have a separate locker room, and b) Bryan Price was such a clothes horse? 

This pic doesnt show the row of whirlpools beyond this therapy pool, but the Sea World scale decking should convey how large an area it is. It's rumored the hook and life preserver were added in 2005, shortly after the Russ Ortiz acquisition.

Not much taste in drapes, but this is a back office.

"Randy's tire" according to Hall, located in the hallway leading from the home dugout. Intended to supplant water cooler as primary object of players' "affection".

Finally, here's a couple of about a dozen plaques acknowledging franchise history. Derrick said he'd like to eventually relocate these to his proposed centerfield museum, where all the fans can take a moment and reminisce. Splendid idea.

Many dont know it, but the cherubic Hall actually has four babies - two boys, a girl...and this colossal scoreboard of his. It's not quite as huge as I had imagined (feared). Still plenty big, but there's a green "frame" around the visual screen. It seemed more ominous looking up from the dugout than it did from the Diamond level. Like most boys, we agreed that while size matters, the value of a scoreboard, like any tool, is more in how you use it. Hall sounded excited about it's multiple functionality and assured me "its not gonna be advertisements". The board displayed the world's largest test pattern while we were there, so at this point, I'm neither fer nor agin it. I like the new sign arcing over the scoreboard though:

                                         CHASE FIELD

                             Home of the Arizona Diamondbacks

Yes, it's corporate, yes it's the "wrong" colors from where I sit, but it's big 'n proud and gives one a clearer sense of place than the old AZ Republic piecemeal signage.

A big thanks to Derrick Hall. There's 30 club presidents in the majors, and I daresay there arent three or four who'd take his initiative (he - not his assistant -emailed me twice, after I lost his initial invitation in my spam box) to reconnect with a disgruntled fan; then set aside more time to personally walk us around. Was there a business agenda here? Sure. Am I more a potential nuisance than the average fan? Yeah. Do we still disagree on a number of things. Affirmative. But baseball executives perform their duties, address their agendas in myriad ways, and it's not every day a club president escorts you and your kid around a major league ballpark. All that was his idea, not mine.  Like I say, there may not be three or four others in major league baseball.

There may not be any.