PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - The 2021 Year in Review

Episode Date: December 31, 2021

On this episode, Derek and Jesse take a look back at the good, the bad, and the very ugly moments of the 2021 Arizona Diamondbacks season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to the very last episode of the PHNX DBAX podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, officially known as your mayor of PHNX. And I am excited and thrilled to be with you here on our last episode of the year. Of course, this show has, will be, and forever will be brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app. Now use our code of PHNX and simply for betting $1 on any NFN3. team to score any points. You will get $100 in free bets instantly. And of course, I am joined by my one and only friend in this world. Wow, that's my co-host. It's just me now, Derek.

It's the one and only 30s, Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. What's happening, man? I'm excited, Derek. This is our last show of the year. And what blows my mind more than anything, I think you found this out like a month or so ago. I've been a Diamondbacks podcast. for a long time, right? And you have two. We've both been doing this for a while with our own separate. And since I started doing this, I think I recorded my first podcast back in maybe 2013. I started consistently focusing on the Diamondbacks with the Rattle in 2017.

And I think you and I, Derek, in the last three months since we started doing this, have done way more shows than I did in the previous eight years. I can't confirm. I can confirm. We have the numbers on it. We have what we have done. I am proud of it and I'm excited to finish off this year well and get on into bigger and better in 2022. Finish the year strong.

I am in a brand new office. Luckily, I finally get things out. I got a nice desk going on. I feel whole again, Jesse, now that I have a place to podcast from. But you're right. This has been an absolute blast this year. And I mean, I have done a Diamondbacks podcast for a number of years. but I think the work that we've done over the last few months has been some of my best work and some of my favorite work.

So I am thrilled to be co-hosting this show with you, my man, because I feel like you and I, even though we didn't know each other that well prior to doing this, have really, really come together as partners in crime, you know? Like I said, now we're the only friends that each of us have at this point. So, you know, we went zero to 60 pretty quick. That's not true, though, because we got our man, Brett Johnson. Brett Johnson says, what's good, gentlemen? Always a pleasure. Always a pleasure to have you with us here, man. We love you guys being here in the comments. And we appreciate you saying that we have been killing it with content. That's all we want to do. We just want to kill you with content. That's our main goal with life. You know, here we are on the final day, final episode. We got one more day of the year, of course. But we are going to be spending that, obviously, drunk. At least I, one of us, I'll let you guys figure out which one is that. One of us is going to be drunk. One of us will have a pleasant, wholesome night with their, family. But regardless, I think the Arizona Diamondbacks, more than you and I are going to be

happy to see 2021 hit the damn door and never come back because this was quite a year for our boys in Sedona Red. You didn't have fun this year, Derek? 52 wins. No, I didn't say that, Jesse. I did not say that. I had lots of fun this year. I had fun because after a certain point, you can only, you can only laugh, right? You can only make a joke. You can only kind of deal with the situation with humor or whatever way you personally deal with the situation. That's how I dealt with it. And I'm not sure how the Arizona Diamondbacks felt about me dealing it with it with humor. But I got to plant a tree with Randy Johnson this year.

So fucking this has been amazing this year. This has been incredible year. I'll say that, you know, obviously it's probably not been as fun for the guys playing the game to watch, to play it. I will say that there were some really good. down times where I would question even playing the sport of baseball if I was any member of this roster. There were also some really good times though. One interesting thing I wanted to start off with was that I noticed that the MLB.com, who is as desperate for content as anybody these days,

put out a list of the top five most improved farm systems in MLB. So this got me looking at the numbers. And interestingly enough, they came from August. So it's not like a recent, it's not recent numbers. it's just rehashing and kind of looking back at some of the farm systems and who had the biggest leap as far as improvement. And one thing I found very interesting was the Arizona Diamondback started the year ranked ninth and they ended the year ranked ninth. So I think that for the most part, I'm not sure if the addition of Jordan Lawler was the big addition to the farm system that we thought it was as far as the rankings go. or if it's just kind of a, it seemed like it was almost like a improving and then also losing because Christian Robinson has his legal problems. And there were a couple of other guys that didn't turn out to possibly be as coveted as one stop. I think you're spot on there.

I think if Jordan Lawler doesn't get hurt, if, you know, Corbyn Carroll doesn't get hurt. Oh, right? You know, you kind of took a bit of a step back there. All of those things contribute, contribute to those rankings. And at the end of the day, Derek, they're just rankings. And they're not really that important at the end of the day anyway. So at the end of the day, the Diamondbacks have a good farm system. And to me, that's what really matters moving forward.

Right. What matters is they're ranked in the top 10. And that is a vast improvement from where they were prior to, again, you could say what you want about Mike Hazen. I know he's definitely not a lot of people's favorite GM in the valley. but there's times where you've got to say that Mike Hazen did do a good job of at least getting this franchise back on track because at one point things were bleak and when I say bleak I mean the main roster was bleak the farm system looked bleak everything looked bad for us for a minute and you know you look back at what they were able to do a few years ago in the draft and some of the additions to their farm system that they made they really did a good job of improving it

And I just want to give a shout out to one of our favorite people in the world, Chris Melton. We love you, Chris. I'm here. Good sirs. This is my favorite baseball show. And you're one of our favorite baseball fan girls. I hope your mom is doing well, by the way. Tell her I love her and give her my best.

Robert York. What's up, Robert York? And Robert York says, I'm all optimistic about 22. Sue me. Me too. Me too. I don't know why. I think, like I said before, the only, there's nowhere to go.

but up, right? Even if they, let's just say they lose 115 games next year. Not that's, that's an awful. That's an awful. Wow. As we start off the last show of the year. But is, I mean, is that going to bother you or is it just going to be the same, right? It's like, even if they do a little worse, it's still going to be just as bad, right? They've already hit rock bottom. It's just how long does the losing extend for, right? I don't think that's going to be the case next year. I do think that they're going to be a much better, team. I think it's going to surprise people despite the fact that it's a lot of it is based on injuries and lack of personnel and some other factors, right? So you can't necessarily just say, oh, 2021, they were just a bad team, right? I talked about with the Cardinals, right? And I hate to, because the Cardinals, they don't have shit on what we have as far as injuries go, right? But just like, just like in Major League Baseball, there were a lot of teams experiencing injuries, right? It wasn't just the Diamondbacks. And same thing in football, right? There's a lot of teams. But at some point,

you do have to look at the key losses that these teams have, like the Cardinals have had over the last few weeks, that impact their success. The Diamondbacks had key losses. You know, when you talk about, we talked about Cotel Marte only playing basically half the season, and that's your best player, there's some time, there's a point where you have to say that strongly impacted the success of this team in 2021. There is a lot of, I mean, you can attribute this to a lot of things. I think Jack Summers said it well when he was on our show a couple weeks ago when he said the Diamondbacks were probably going to be better in 2022 just by getting out of bed, right? Like just by playing the season with even the exact same players that they had.

They're probably going to be better because to your point, there were just a lot of very unprecedented things that happened this year with this team. Losing four or fifths of your starting rotation at once is not normal. It happens. It can happen. and unfortunately the Diamondbacks went through that this year and they lost 17 games in a row as a result of it. But it's not normal. And even if you just took the exact same roster, Derek, and played the season over again,

the Diamondbacks would probably have some regression to the mean even just because of that. So I think you can be abundantly confident the Diamondbacks will be improved in 2022. And of course, I once again agree with Chris when she says, I feel like the coaching staff changes are huge. And yeah, man, like, there's, there is just this excitement for me personally about that. It could be completely misplaced. We could see this team be just as bad next season as this past season, right? But that's not fun.

That's not positive. That doesn't make you be able to, like, have good dreams at night. I want to have good dreams. I want to sleep good at night, Jesse. So like I like to think that this coaching staff is not only going to improve the young players coming up and give them just this huge advantage in their career of being under such an accomplished coaching staff. But I really think that they're going to impact the current players on this team. You know, the quality of these guys and the ability to make baseball players better is it's not really quantifiable.

Right? Because again, when we talk to Mather, when we talk to Brather, when we talk to Braylor, Brent Strom when we talked to Jeff Bannister, these guys are humble guys that give all the credit where they feel the credit is due, and that's the players, right? To them, they're not the one stepping out on the field standing in that box swinging at those pitches, right? So it's the person that did it to them, right? But when you look at Joe Mather, for instance, and what he was able to do with the Cincinnati Reds as far as the improvement in hitting with that team, you can't, you can't just say that it was, oh, these guys all feeling confident in themselves. So that's why they were

better. Obviously, there was information, there was coaching that was passed along to their player that improved their hitting. And that's, again, that's something I'm very excited to see about this team. At time, I felt like this entire team was hitting the exact same, you know, that at 2.40, you know, 240 with eight home runs and 70 RBI in a season. That's what it felt like every, you know, single guy. Drew had 70 RBIs, Derek. No, I just said it was a feeling, Jesse. I didn't say that.

I meant that was like what, like, but even that is a lot, right? Yeah, like that was the biggest problem was there weren't that many RBI. There weren't that many home runs. There was certain things missing. And I think especially the power was missing from this team. And that's something that the Cincinnati Reds did very well under Joe Mather, is they hit the shit out of the ball, right? And Brett brings up, obviously, my favorite hiring,

which is the Brent Strom hiring. He says the Brent Strom hiring alone has me excited. Future NL. Sy Young winner, Zach Gill, Zach Gallen, inbound. And I don't want to get too ahead of myself, but let me tell you. That guy is capable. He is capable of being that. So I don't know. I don't know.

I might be with Robert York and being a little crazy for being excited. but I just, I had, I have a lot of hope for the future, let's say. And again, there's not, there isn't anywhere else we can go but up. So I feel like this organization is headed in the right direction because they have to go up. But I wanted to ask you, favorite moments of the year. We're going to talk on this episode about some of our worst moments of 2021, the top moments of 2021. But I wanted to start off with fun. Was there, did you have fun this year watching Arizona Diamondbacks baseball, Jesse?

On a few select nights, I did have, I did have fun. No, yeah, there were definitely, there were definitely moments. I think the biggest one for me personally, because I was there to see it, is I was at the very first game that Seth Beer played for the Arizona Diamondbacks. And he hit a home run. He had a home run in his first at bat. I caught it on film from the stands in Seattle. And it was incredible.

Just being there for that moment and seeing him. The Diamondbacks have had a few players who've done that over the years. I think Harardo Parra homered in his first big league at bat. I think they've had a couple of other guys who have done that as well. Mostly, they mostly did on the other side of other guys doing it in there at bats on opposing teams as well, like Trevor's. Yeah, sure. Sure. Yeah.

That was fun, though. That was fun. I wonder if you heard me yelling Seth Beer's name from Phoenix. because I felt like I was projecting loudly about how excited I was. I was screaming. I was yelling. It couldn't have been more of a, I don't know, like a storybook debut, right? Yeah.

I did a little piece about it that never saw the light of day. But, I mean, I know everything about that. How long it went. Diego Castillo was who he ended off of, the perfect end boss in a video game. It was great. Seth Beers' home run was outstanding. I want to say that for me personally, I, as this is, this is going to be the, I've said a lot of hypocritical things in the four months we've been doing.

I'm ready, I'm ready for it, Derek. But this is probably going to be one of the most hypocritical. I really enjoyed David Peralta's TikTok videos. I did. The ones that curse the team and brought horrible season upon them. I wrote about the curse of Baxter the 4th. I had Baxter the second confirmed for me that he believed everything I said in that article. So I have a Baxter on record as agreeing with me.

Wow. Okay. I didn't know that. Beyond the grave. I don't know. I've said that they were dead, but you know how that works with mascots. But I will say that the TikTok videos brought me so much joy in the beginning of this season. That was fun.

That feels like such a long time ago. It feels like a different season, right? It literally feels like it was another season. I don't know what to say other than it also felt at the time like a bit much, right? Even before we had the epic collapse, even before we had the longest losing streak in franchise history this season and the longest road losing streak in MLB modern era history. Right, right. we uh it felt it felt like we weren't in a position to really be dancing right and to be celebrating i just loved it so much that i didn't care at the time right it felt like you know

it felt like one of those things that yeah there could be people criticizing you know the record and and how much they're having fun but i've always felt like the having fun and keeping it light in the clubhouse is a big part of a team success right so at the time we weren't exactly We weren't exactly historically bad. We weren't epically bad. So it felt like the kind of thing that could potentially get us out. Yeah. And to get the winning going, you know, to have everybody be light.

And to be honest, after they went on those losing streaks, I think that was the thing that was missing the most. There was no fun. There was no merriment. I even heard Tori bring it up a couple of times about how somber the clubhouse was and how that wasn't really helping their situation, right? You know, trying to keep guys spirits light, amidst multiple losing streaks during a season like this is pretty difficult, you know?

And baseball is a mental game. It's a mental game where you start feeling that pressure. You start feeling the desire to end bad streaks and to move on from certain things. And then it only makes it worse. Could you imagine if the Diamondbacks had kept doing it, though? Like after they broke this 17 game losing streak, if they released a TikTok video. Oh, man, that would have, it would have been arrogant, sure. Confident? Absolutely. hilarious, 100%. Undeniable, hilarious. No matter how you felt about it, there's no way you couldn't feel that it wasn't hilarious. But one thing I wanted to address was we, you and I, we were supposed to be in studio together. And we were. Today and Tuesday. Yes. Once again, as a reminder to everybody out there in society,

COVID remains undefeated. You cannot beat COVID, okay? You're down 30 to COVID. You might think you're coming back, but you're not. You're down and you're not coming back. That's the way that this works. I was headed to San Francisco next weekend for a sketch comedy fest where I was going to see some my favorite comedy stuff from the late 90s.

There was going to be a live stage reading from the cartoon Futurama. I was going to see my guy, Michael Ian Black, fellow snackologist and Viva Variety, 25th anniversary. I had all these tickets for stuff. I had plane tickets. It's all done just so today they came out. They canceled the whole thing. Wow. So again, it's just a reminder of what we're getting back into

and a reminder for everybody to be safe. All right. I want you guys. I don't want to get all into disagreements or anything. I just want everybody to be safe. No matter what method you choose, just remember that this is an unfortunate at time and it's keeping things like me and Jesse from being together in the studio and I don't like that. I'm not happy about it. But my favorite moment of the year, Jesse, is this moment right here. This moment right here when you and I finally got to be in studio with me dressed up as a pinata,

you with a baseball bat. This was a top 10 moment for me. My eyes are kind of terrifying in that. I don't know how I feel about that. You absolutely look scary right there. But let's also remind everybody that you really had a chance. You had a chance that everybody would probably love to have. And let's see what did they? Oh, I thought it was going to be a little ink. You can go a little. I don't want to.

I'm not trying to carry. I know. I know. I know. Oh. What was that? What was that? You gingerly tapped me.

Do you know how many people would pay thousands of dollars for that opportunity to openly strike me with a stick? my God, Jesse. You're right. You're right, Derek. Now that I know you a little better, I would just whack you as hard as I possibly could. So next year will be better. I know that you have an opportunity now that you're here in Phoenix to jump on the Draft King Sportsbook app and finally get in on some of these offers. P-HMX code will get you $100 in free bets for betting $1 on any team to score. And that money will come to you instantly. Then you can turn around, bet your money on other games, get your single game parlay action. on, which we've talked about. Obviously, the single game parlay option lets you combine multiple bets from the same game for a bigger payout. Best thing, though, as I've been trying to give you guys the insider tip on, is that when you get into the same game parley submenu, there's new options, options that you might just not be able to make a straight bet on. So get into the same game parlay options. Find a couple of different combinations. You know, I don't care what Shane Defenbach or

Johnny Venerable say. I will take a cowards parlay any day, and I will happily take that money straight to my bank, literally, literally to my bank is where I'm going to take that money. But remember, if Draft King's is safe, secure, and reliable, best of all, you can deposit and withdraw your cash whenever you want. And that code, again, is PHMX to bet just $1 on any NFL team to a score. And as long as they do, you will get $100 and free bets should they do so. Remember, 21 and over only, Arizona only, new customers only. Restrictions apply. See DraftKings.com slash sportsbook for details. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-5-2-2-4. 700 and Jesse it's time we're not going to we're not going to end on a low note so I wanted to know

I wanted to know your worst moments of 2021 let's let's we don't have to pinpoint it but what what what moments from this team really just saddened you what moments ruined your day when you saw or heard about this uh I I know for me I know the one I know one right off the of my head. Sure, go for it. It's the goddamn final game of the year, Jesse. It was the final game of the year. You know that. The game they won on a walkoff, Derek? They won it on a walkoff. What are you so angry about? We were in the middle of the tank season and they screwed it up on the last game of the year. I was so angry. I couldn't even, I can't even begin to tell you how like unbelievably angry I was. I couldn't form words to describe my anger about their ineptitude

about losing when they needed to and winning when they needed to. So I don't know. I don't know. What about what about you? I think it was the time that Ketel Marte went on the DL for, or I guess the I should say, for the fourth time of the season. It was, yeah, the hamstring kept festering throughout the season. But no, I mean, it's hard to, it's hard to pinpoint one exact moment.

I mean, I guess losing their 17th consecutive game or, you know, setting the record for the longest road losing streak or tying the record, whatever. Which one bothers you more? Which one bothers you more? Setting a franchise record for losing streaks or setting an MLB modern era record for a losing streak. I mean, I guess the MLB modern era one sounds a little bit scarier. Sounds worse. Yeah, even though it isn't, right, because that's just a road. losing streak, so it means there could be

Yeah, there's sprinkled. It's not as devastating as a 17-game consecutive losing streak, but you're right. MLB history is long, and it's almost unbelievable to think of a team making MLB history in a bad way at this point. Yeah.

You mean to tell me there wasn't a team that lost 50 games in a row? You mean to tell me that there wasn't? Yeah. Really, that's it? I mean, that just showed you how random baseball is, even with how bad certain teams are, they don't lose that much that often in a row. They just had so many games. Like, I don't know if one stands out in particular, but they had so many games throughout

the season where it was like, you know, I think they're actually going to get this one. Like, I think they're actually, I think they're actually about to win a game. And then their bullpen, which we've talked about at length, would just come up with creative ways, Derek, of finding, finding ways to cough up the lead late in the game. And it was just disheartening, you know, night after night after night, just seeing that happen over and over and over again. You know what? One's broke my heart more than just that.

It's similar to that. But it was the games where the starting pitcher might have given up a handful of runs to get them behind early. But then they did a sufficient job of fighting back. Yeah, sure. And blew it, right? Right, right. They got within one run, but then the bullpen came in, blew it, gave up four.

They were able to get three back, but then they lose the game by two total. Like, some of those games were the ones that made me want to quit reporting on this team. I wanted to call my boss and say, you weren't getting an article tonight. And I just wanted to leave in the sixth inning is what I wanted to do. I mean, that's, that really is the moments I think that are probably maddening for someone like Tori Lovell right? Because at times you feel like in a court over the course of the game, you got momentum back on your side, things turn or turning your way, and then everything just falls right apart again, especially when, you know, for Lovolo, those, the managerial decisions that

didn't work out. The times where he decided to leave a guy in and the guy blew it in the next batter or the times where he went and pulled that guy and then the next guy freaking blew it when he went in the game. I can't tell you how many of those moments I saw as well. So I don't know, man. It's it's frustrating. We shouldn't dwell on it too much. Chris says, what is worse? Getting blown out or close to game losses. The answer is yes. They're both terrible and we experience way too many of them this season. I'll say blowout losses are boring. When you see them get down six, seven runs in the first three innings, you know they're not going to come back from that. Then what's the point of even watching the game? And again, as a member of the media,

I am stuck there watching every moment. So I ask you to tell me, what is the purpose of me being there, right? But at the same time, you know, I would rather watch a good sporting event regardless of the outdoor. You know, people are really mad about the Cardinals Green Bay Packers game. And to be honest, that was one of my favorite games of the season just because it had all this drama and there was these two really good teams. And it came out of the last play. It was fun. It sucked that the Cardinals lost, but it was still a fun game to watch.

I would much rather watch those, even if it's the entire season than watching blowout losses. So I suppose that the close game losses, even though they are a little bit, they sting a little bit more. There's some pain there. Yeah, there's definitely some pain there. I actually, I thought it was interesting. I was rewatching today an interview that Mike Hazen did with MLB Network. This was about a month ago, probably.

And he mentioned that in the interview. He mentioned this stat where the Diamondbacks lost more one-run games than any team since the 1935 Atlanta Braves, I believe is what he said. And there's a lot of pain there, right? I mean, I think especially for a team that's really struggling to get over the hump, I think for them in some ways, those are the games that sting the most, you know, when they try to sleep at night. because you know that you were right there. You had a shot to win the game. You were right there in it. And something just happened at the end of the game that kept you from finishing it off, right?

Rather it was their defense, their bullpen or whatever it was. And so the Diamondbacks are very well aware of just how much they struggled in those close games this year. And I guarantee you there was a lot of heartache in that clubhouse over those games in particular. Yeah. And I think that when you talk about that, that could be the real. reason why internally they have more hope, right, than people feel like they should. Because when you remove that many one-run games, how can you not feel at least a little bit hopeful that all of those could have wanted.

Like, yeah, we're not a great team, but we should be winning more of these, right? Like we're just kind of getting the wrong side of the coin somehow. Another thing that was an interesting stat that I can't find right now, but their ability to come back in games was almost. non-existent. Like when they got down, they stayed down. Yeah, if it was trailing after, I think, six innings, they basically, I think they won like four games all year at trailing after six innings. That's something that this team has never been that bad at, right? There's always been this kind of factor with the Arizona Diamondbacks that they can come back, you know,

and I don't know. I think that that was something this season that we hardly ever saw. So again, that attribute to the losses. Ruler 14 asks his 2022, bounce back year. I think we both say yes. Zach Gallin finally lives up to his potential. Seth Beard, New Paul Goldschmidt. I like that.

Oh, wow. All right. Bullpen actually pitches. Look, there's four things there. And if Ruler 14 is right, if those four things can happen, this team wins 50 more games than they did this season. That's what I'm saying.

But all right. What is it? I don't mean any of that. know that's true, but Chris Melton says that she has a theory that the D-Backs donated their success to the Sons. D-Mex won some at the end and cost the Sons the finals conspiracy sports. Yes, yes, I'm with her. That last game of the season cost the Sons the championship. That's how I feel.

That does kind of track. It kind of tracks with like being an Arizona sports fan that one team, each team is kind of getting in the other's way. Yeah, of course. It kind of fits. Yeah. Not to mention the fact that like when the Sons and the Cardinals, both were doing well, I was like this, no, no, no, no, I don't trust this at all. I can't, we don't get one nice thing, let alone too. So let's like not because, and then of course,

the Cardinals did not. Well, we talked about that, like I think on a show a couple weeks ago, where we talked about how the Sons and the Cardinals are so incredibly good right now. And it's kind of like the Diamondbacks and the coyotes have a responsibility to balance, to balance it out. right like Arizona sports has to be average we're allowed to have some good teams but for every good team we have to have a bad team right for every elite team we have to have a bottom feeder team right it's like Thanos is sitting on camelback mountain with the infinity gotlet looking over the valley of the sun and saying to himself uh everything in perfect balance as long as two teams are trash and two are good uh most of the time it's the mercury but you know whatever we'll take what

we can get uh and we'll take you guys going over to go ph mh We'd love you to become a member. You'd become a member. You'd get yourself a free t-shirt over at the P HNX Locker.com. We'll talk about those t-shirts. I love them so much. I'm not wearing one tonight because I went with contemplative, mantro man Randy Savage as we look back on the year. But don't worry, I will be back in my Arizona, PHNX gear very soon. You guys could go over, though, and get that annual membership. Get yourself a free t-shirt. Get it for yourself. Get it for your loved ones. If you don't feel like doing the annual membership option. We do have a month-to-month option. You'll get your first month for just 50 cents. So you can try it out, a little aptif. And if you like it, you stick around.

We have all sorts of content coming to the website. Jesse and I, our lives are in disarray right now, but we promise you, you'll see some baseball articles up very soon on go phnx.com. As a matter of fact, I have one that I'm cranking out tonight. It's what I promised. It's a little bit more detail going back about my casting of the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks. We have some resolutions. We have some year and review kind of stuff coming. So we hope you guys enjoy that on the first week of 2022. But before we go, Jesse, I cannot, we can't end this without talking about our favorite

moments because here's the thing. Arizona Diamondbacks baseball might have been a giant pile of trash in 2021. But that doesn't mean you can't go into that pile of trench and find some useful things, right? Yeah. You find stuff people threw away. One man's trash is another man's treasure. So let's talk about some of our favorite moments from 2021.

I will say that now, especially looking back upon it, the double header in Atlanta. Yeah. With Bumgarner and Zach Gallen pitching masterfully back to back against who would eventually be the World Series champions now looks like such a great moment from this season that in hindsight is even better than it was at the time. That's so true. That was honestly in retrospect, that is a game.

So when Tyler Gilbert threw his no hitter, I was not, I was on vacation. I was away. I only caught the very end of the game. So I felt like I didn't get the full experience. But that day, I think it was April 25th when Madison Bumgarner and Zach Gallen pulled off their magic in Atlanta, it was a magical day to be a Diamondbacks fan because that was still part of the season where this team was actually looking like they were going to be okay. And with Zach Allen and Madison Bumgarner pitching at that level, you really felt like you might have something.

I mean, that really could be a pretty good number one, number two punch for them moving forward. And I feel like that also, in retrospect, wound up being the last, you know, a fond day of Diamondback's baseball pretty much throughout the entire season up until the no hitter. There wasn't there wasn't much joy after April 25th. It was kind of a turning point, unfortunately. but but that day in itself was was incredible and in my mind Madison bumgarner through a no hitter that day and I don't care what anyone else says he said it yes my man that's right two no hitters this year two of the Diamondbacks four no hitters in team history happened this season the other one Tyler Gilbert obviously was a huge moment for me I've talked

about yeah I got emotional Jesse I felt things that I felt alive Jesse well you were there I mean you were there in the stadium to witness that, which is going to be special for anyone. It was, again, it was one of the only, it was one of the only moments that I've witnessed historically like that, right? So it was special to me to see a complete game, no hitter. But I think another big part about it was just the way it developed. You know, I know that sometimes when you go to a baseball game, it's very easy not to pay attention to everything that's going on on the field. It's a little different when you cover baseball games

and you're not exactly talking to other people or drinking or having a good time like you normally would be attending as a fan, right? But the one advantage is you do watch a lot of the game. You pay attention to a lot of the game. You see little details and things like that. So I've felt very special getting to cover that game, right? I don't think had I been there in the stands as a fan,

would I realize what was going on? on when I did. And it's like it started small, you know, and it built up to this big crescendo and it ended up coming through, which was, I think, the most surprising thing. Because as I sat there watching that game, I know the one pure emotion I had more than anything was doubt. I doubted every, like, every minute. I kept looking at the pitch count.

I kept looking at how much time. There's no way. Yeah, exactly. I kept doing the math in my head. I was like, wait a minute. nah, he's not going to get through the eighth without being over 100 pitches. And there's no way of Lovola's going to let him come back out for the ninth. If he's over 100 pitches, I know that for a fact.

And then that magical eighth inning happened where he threw three pitches and got three outs. Or I think it was three pitches on three outs or maybe four or something like that. But basically through next to no pitches in the eighth inning. And then like I remember other people in the media were just going about their business like it was a normal day. And I'm sitting in my chair like, you guys, you guys, you guys know what to happen. Even the ones that did, they're like, don't. Don't. Just wait.

I know you want to tweet it out. Just don't. Just wait. Don't say anything. Right. You know, and I think all of that, all of that made for me, just a magical experience. Like, not only being there for it, but for me personally, the little moments I had, the little discussions with, with the other members of the media, you know, going up to guys, going up to Gilbert being like, you think? And he's like, oh.

You know, but nobody wanted to talk about it. But yeah, Chris, Chris was there. And also, Chris, by the way, we need to get Chris Meltton season tickets, both on the road and at home. Because oddly enough, the debacks won every game that she or her mom attended. So obviously, we know what needs to happen there. Any other great moments that you could think of, Jesse? I know Seth, you brought up Seth Beers' debut, but that, again, for me, was another, like, amazing moment. Yeah.

We had plenty of jokes about Seth Beer, talking about wanting his jersey, all the cheers jokes. But honestly, this guy was killing it in Reno. And then he came here and didn't seem to miss a beat. So I know earlier in the show you alluded to the last game of the season as being one of the low points of the season. Just given the unfortunate reality of what likely will transpire in the draft, but the Diamondbacks not getting the number one overall pick because of course they're, you know, one of their few comebacks of the, there we go, tank season again. One of their few comebacks of the season came at the very worst time according to just about

everyone. But I also would call that one of my favorite moments of the season, Derek, because you and your wife and your daughter were there and me and my family were there. And we were just fans for the day. We weren't up in the press box. We were just hanging out together, having a good time. And it was hilarious when Josh Van Meter hit that one. It was fun to be there in person and share that moment with my family and your family and to be there all together.

Yeah, you're absolutely right, man. Yeah, it was a great day. And that's what baseball at times is all about, right? I mean, again, going back to that stupid-ass Bob Page book that I want to throw up my window. The one thing that this entire team was based on was this fairy tale-like vision by Joe Giorgiolla and this the idea that, you know, families in Phoenix, Arizona needed a place to go, eat, have time together, and watch sports, right? There was no, at that time, there was no concerns about wins or losses.

There was no concerns about anything else other than bringing a baseball franchise to the valley, right? And then when they did and they didn't win, we were like, we don't want this. And Jerry Calangelo said, yeah, that's what I thought. And then shit changed drastically, right? But, you know, it is those moments that that was the vision of Geregiola and the fact that he wanted this city to have this team. And for this reason, right, for the reason of you and I,

getting together for our friend Chris and her mom having that family time together and all of our all of our fellow debacks fans that get to go enjoy this team like it's weird in a way losing winning that world series so early on I think really changed the eye level for people as far as this team goes changed expectations and you know honestly if we didn't have that world series in our back pockets I think a lot a lot of people would be more content with losing and just going to see the Arizona Diamondbacks. You can say what you will about it, but, you know, it's also that event that made people fans for life.

So I don't know which way you could really go on that. I'm glad that the Arizona Diamondbacks did bring us our only championship, our only major championship in Arizona's history. And I am proud to cover this team. I strongly think that this team is going to turn things around in 2022. And I think we're going to have a lot more top moments to talk about. about at the end of 2022 as we headed into 2023. But we will be here.

Not only then, we will be here next week and every week and every week day until the end of time. That's what we're here. Pretty much. Yeah. We're just, we're here to just always be there for you. And we're so happy that you guys have joined us. We're so happy you guys have tuned in, especially about a team that wasn't very good.

We can't thank you enough for the support we've received. And we're happy to bring you this coverage. on the diamond backs that we know Arizona is craving, right? We know there isn't a source for this. We're happy to be that source. We're happy to be here for you guys every day. And we really hope you guys are enjoying what we're doing. Please leave us a, you know, shoot us a DM, leave us a message.

Do whatever you need to do to get any information to us about, you know, what you guys think, any improvements, anything you guys want to see out of this show. And by the way, we do have a billboard. We do have a billboard. We do have a billboard. There you go. Much love to Chris. Much love to all of you guys.

We thank you guys for checking out the show. Just reminder, go over to phtonxlacker.com. Get those sweet, sweet t-shirts. We have a shirt for whatever your favorite team is. Apparently mine is the coyotes with the number of coyotes shirts I bought. But we have a vast, beautiful array of shirts. And we hope you go check it out over at phtonxloker.com. Remember, we also have sticker packs.

And the sticker packs are pretty incredible. I need to absolutely cover my new desk area and my laptop. in the new PHNX sticker packs, but you can get those over at the PHNX Locker.com. Get yourself a nice little holiday gift package because, you know, we know how it is, right? Jesse and I have had some conversations about me being bitter about present giving this holiday season, but you know it is, right? We're supposed to, it's all about the gift giving. It's that's what it's about getting good gifts, right?

So if you didn't get good gifts this holiday season, give yourself a good gift, go over to phtonx locker.com. And of course, give yourself a membership at go phnx.com and make a little money over at Draft King's sportsbook using our code of PHNX. We thank you guys again so much for joining us not only this day, but every day this entire year. And we thank you so much for the sport. And we hope to see you in 2022. Of course, you can follow me on Twitter at cap underscore Kman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs.

But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Facebook. and Instagram. If you're listening to us right now in your favorite audio podcasting app, be sure to subscribe to us there. Leave us a five-star review. Five-star review in honor of a non-five-star year, right? But even though the debacks weren't five-stars this year, I believe we were. So leave us that review. Also go over to YouTube, subscribe to us there. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss any of the other Arizona sports content coming out of PHNX. Sons, Cardinals, coyotes. Don't miss a moment of it. We had a Neas-William. My favorite defensive player from when I was younger.

Talk to my favorite wide receiver today. Surprised him on the Cardinals show. By the way, I'm co-workers with one of my favorite wide receivers. A man who helped me win a fantasy football championship at one point. So go over a general. The Cardinals are doing. Shout out to Frank Sanders. Love you, Frank.

I'm supposed to get the same. He wants me to go get the tattoo. I might go get the tattoos. So me and Frank, Frank might be tattooed brothers. We'll see what happens. There you go. Of course, we thank you guys so much. for checking out the show and just being here with us this year.

On behalf of Jesse and myself, we appreciate you guys sticking around with us and being a part of the PHNXDVax family. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you talk about it after the season is over.