1998 Diamondbacks Spring Training Telecast GEM
Baseball nostalgia
I’m trying to write a Diamondbacks Spring Training history post, and I’ve found that it’s nearly impossible to find stats from 1998-2005. In my investigation I have stumbled across one the coolest videos I’ve seen in a long time.
March 22nd, 1998 FULL Spring Training Game (DBacks vs A’s)
Huge shoutout to the Youtube account This Is Where You Find Baseball for uploading this gem.
Old Fox Sports Net, vintage scorebug, Thom and Bob in the booth. Tucson Electric Park, this vintage is incredible and it deserves a watch-a-long.
An electric Fox Sports graphic intro with music leads us into a Bob and Thom introduction. Brenly looks like he could still play as my friends I showed this video to have debated if Thom is wearing a hair piece.
Gotta give Bob Brenly credit, now 25 years later he sounds the exact same. His keys to game breakdown before first pitch felt like it’s from last season too. Also, how baller is it that Brenly was the announcer, broke down every Buck Showalter move for years, then got to do it himself as manager and won a World Series.
This entire post is going to be exclusively side notes and getting distracted. Pizza Hut was a major sponsor in this game, and boy do I want to know where and what the Pizza Hut Edge is.
To my disappointment the edge is just a thin crust pizza. To my further disappointment we missed the comeback in 2021.
A’s are the visitors with some interesting names in their lineup. Ryan Christenson actually becomes a Diamondback in 2000-01 and had a strange Rule 5 history, which I wrote about here under 2001. Yes, that’s AJ Hinch who also later becomes a Diamondbacks via the front office and managing the 2009-10 teams. Jason Giambi is in the middle of A’s peak. Some star A’s not in the lineup today included Miguel Tejada, Rickey Henderson, and prime Matt Stairs.
Love the “not your typical pitcher” bullet from Brenly here, pointing out that Willie Blair will dive for ground balls and break up double plays on the base paths. Willie Blair was actually a pretty big signing for the Diamondbacks on a big 3 year, $11.5 deal. His 1997 stats to earn this huge contract are comical to today’s standards as he had a 4.6 K/9. Blair struggled and got traded midseason to the Mets in an exchange of bad contract, including Bernard Gilkey who had an all time bad deferred contract. Diamondbacks decided to pay Gilkey $1M a year until 2017 vs Blair’s 3/11.5M deal. Worth noting, that trade did net the Diamondbacks Nelson Figueroa, who was flipped later on in the Curt Schilling trade.
I just love these old graphics so much. During this Brenly makes a joke about UofA getting knocked out of the tournament the day before, and Willie Blair owns season tickets to Kentucky basketball as they play Duke later that day. I know you’re curious, here’s the 1998 March Madness wikipedia page. Willie Blair is about to be a really happy man in 8 days!
Nerd.
Meanwhile Jason Giambi is having a pretty good Spring. Thom mentions here that the A’s payroll is just $14M, Angels will be $44M for example. Foreshadowing Moneyball.
Kelly Stinnett’s hockey style mask with the rattlesnake triangles goes pretty hard. He just threw out a runner at 3rd before this. Baller.
And now for the best plot twist of this video….
THATS TOM CANDIOTTI”S MUSIC.
The odds of the future Diamondbacks long time radio Greg Schulte sidekick pitching in this game is insane. Brenly notes his knuckleball is in the 50’s and his “sneaky” fastballs sits in the 70’s. This will be Candiotti’s 2nd to last season, as he pitched his final 2 seasons with his hometown A’s.
It’s pretty crazy at this time Travis Lee is the face of the franchise. Travis Lee had an unique start to his career. 1996 Golden Spikes Award winner was drafted in the 1st round by the Twins, but did not sign. Since the Twins did not make a formal offer, a loophole allowed Lee to become a rare college unrestricted free agent. Lee signed for $10M with the Diamondbacks, which was insane for the time. The Athletic did a great write up about it here. Travis Lee’s 1998 rookie season was great, but other than 2001 he never really matched or beat it. Diamondbacks did cash him in for Curt Schilling, so the signing was a success as he did produce in Arizona, but Travis Lee will always have one of the more unique career paths in baseball history.
As Bob and Thom break down Opening Day vs the Rockies, it’s funny to see the Todd Helton “can he replace The Big Cat” Andrés Galarraga…. he got elected into the Hall of Fame this year. Galarrgaa did hit 41 homers with 140 RBI in 1997, but the Rockies gamble to hand 1B over to Helton paid off.
Kelly Stinnett drives in the first run of the game on a double. Next up is Darnell Coles, who was actually the Diamondbacks hitting coach from 2019-2021. A 14 year MLB vet, Coles would be released just 6 days later on Opening Day and retired afterwards. Coles grounded out to first scoring David Dellucci to give the Diamondbacks a 2-0 lead.
Additionally, want to take a second to point out a rare miss in the vintage Diamondbacks jerseys. The lighter purple helmets aren’t great. The updated purple helmets we see in the current throwbacks are so much better. With that said, I hope the Diamondbacks go back to the simple “A” with black jerseys again someday.
Pitchers hitting!! Willie Blair completely whiffs on a knuckleball and ends up straddling the plate. Brenly said earlier “he’s not your typical pitcher” and Blair lives up to it next pitch with 0-2 knuckleball in the dirt that gets past AJ Hinch, 3rd run scores and Blair hustles down to first safely. Willie’s got that dog in him.
TOUCH EM ALL DEVON WHITE 5-0 DBACKS!!!
People do forget how awesome Devon White was. In my Random Diamondbacks Stats post, the very first stat is that 1998 Devon White posted a 20/20 season (22 HR & 22 SB) in the Diamondbacks inaugural 1998 season. Also, Thom refers to Devon as D-Vo and that’s a sweet nickname.
Look at these 90’s fits, what a hat. You know this couple LOVES Major League. (Well known fun fact, but the Spring Training scenes in the 1st movie were shot at Hi Corbett Field, here’s a link to the cool and long history of that park.)
Going back to jerseys, while the purple helmets aren’t it, the numbers with THIS TEAL SHADE and not the neon teal the Diamondbacks are trying to make a thing are incredible. Purple names, a cool teal number, the inaugural season patch, these jerseys rock.
AJ Hinch’s tough inning behind the plate continues as he bobbles a pitch and Andy Fox steals 2nd. Thom and Bob dive into Andy Fox a little bit more here, as he joined the team 2 weeks earlier from the Yankees in a savvy Fox for Todd Erdos and Marty Janzen trade. The 6’4 2B had a really nice 1998 season hitting 9 HR and 14 SB in 564 PA’s slashing .277/.355/.396. Fox never matched those totals again, but was traded in 2000 for OF Danny Bautista, who was key member of the 2001 World Series team.
Drastic improvement to umpire uniforms have been made since 1998. Why is the NL logo so low on the shirt?
Travis Lee is the 9th hitter of the inning and smacks a double to center to make it 6-0 for RBI #16 of the Spring. I get his hype entering the 1998 season now.
Great shot here of the full jersey, patch, and helmet. Once again, love these graphics.
Jay Bell smashes a triple off the top of the wall to score Lee and make it 7-0. Candiotti with a cool 7 earned runs in the 2nd inning.
I go to a lot of baseball games, not only is this dude eating a full lemon but someone 2 rows back is eating one too!?! Is this a Tucson thing? Is this why Spring Training died in Tucson? Makes you think.
After giving up 7 runs in the 2nd, THE A’S ARE MAKING CANDIOTTI HIT AND LEAVING HIM IN THE GAME.
The rest of the inning is spent talking about the near by air show going on in the background, Brenly highly recommends checking it out next time you’re in 1998 Tucson.
Apparently before the Aflac trivia question, it was the Gatorade trivia question! Answer is…
1st base coach Dwayne Murphy! Brenly mentions he won 6 gold gloves too!
PLAY BY PLAY MAN CHANGE ITS GREG SCHULTE! It’s so wild that they’re literally breaking down future Schulte side kick Tom Candiotti’s day in his very first air time.
Willie Blair (not your typical pitcher) loses a high hop in the sun….
But recovers in time to make last out of the 4th, simply a play not your typical pitcher makes. 4 scoreless innings in this Spring Training outing may be his Diamondback high point.
We get a Cactus League update, only 10 teams in 1998! And 3 back then played in Tucson (White Sox and Rockies).
In every shot of Buck this game, he looks so cool. It’s hot out but he’s still looking fresh in that jacket no matter what.
Meanwhile Art Howe (yes, the Moneyball manger) looks ready for a brawl.
In case you were wondering, this is STILL the number to call for tickets.
Kelly Stinnett HAVE A DAY, SAC fly scores Travis Lee to make it 8-0. And yes, Tom Candiotti is still pitching. 4 IP, 8 ER, ouch.
After Bob Brenly yells “what is that'“ someone must tell him it’s the Tucson Electric Dragon. I bet he eats lemons.
Next shot we get a kid looking through the wrong side of binoculars.
Willie Blair dodges a line drive up the middle, because yeah, he’s not your typical pitcher.
Bob Brenly continues his NL West breakdown. Dusty Baker is apparently on the hot seat, but Brenly disagrees and is right as the Giants are pretty good and evenutally go to the World Series in 2002 with Dusty. Bonds goes on to hit 37 HR, 120 RBI, 1.047 OPS in 1998. My earliest memories of Diamondbacks games include the entire crowd being terrified every time Bonds to came to the plate as he usually destroyed the Diamondbacks. Take a look at his Bank One Ballpark career:
Tom Candiotti is still in the game…. but gets his first K of the game in the 5th fially!
Brenly, Garagiola Jr, Schulte. Candiotti on the mound. Diamondbacks royalty.
Blair finally gives up a run in the 6th after Ryan Christenson take him yard.
After AJ Hinch’s double, Ben Greive walk, Jason Giambi lines into a double play to end the inning.
Now this is interesting. I never really connected the dots that the Diamondbacks had a split network coverage. This sparks my memory of 3TV Sunday day games too. Bob and Greg mention this covers the first 27 games of the season, meaning just 7 were on FSN. Upon further review, I found a 1998 pocket schedule on Ebay which only showed September, but gives us a good picture of the TV schedule back then. Looks like 3TV got Sunday’s, week day games were split up, and Saturday’s were never on TV.
I also definitely just bought a Diamondbacks pocket schedule from 1998. And maybe 1999-2001 too. Bring back the pocket schedules!!
Tom Candiotti’s day is finally done (5 IP, 8 ER, 5 BB, 9 H, 2 K (1 was Blair’s K which he advanced to 1st on a Wild Pitch)), and the A’s bring in another future Diamondback in Aaron Small. In June of this season the Diamondbacks claim Small off waivers, and he pitches well (3.69 ERA in 23 games out of the bullpen). Aaron Small fails to make the team in 1999 and begins a long 4 year road back to the majors with eventually Atlanta during the 2002 season.
Darnell Coles rips a double to score 2 and make it 10-1. It’s a shame Spring Training stats from 1998 are impossible to find as this may be the last RBI of Coles career.
Following the 2023 Diamondbacks playoff 3-3-3 inning play by play format, Thom Brennaman is back in the booth in the 7th. Didn’t expect to hear some vintage Schulte in this game, so that was awesome. It’s pretty impressive that the Diamondbacks got Thom and Bob as they were the national game broadcast crew for Fox prior to 1998. No Saturday and 3 TV Sunday games allow them to stay as the national crew in 1998.
WILLIE BLAIR COMING OUT FOR THE 7TH INNING IN A 10-1 SPRING TRAINING GAME, WHAT! Nothing says 1998 baseball like the fact that I haven’t heard the pitch count been brought up once. There may be no one keeping track of it to be honest.
Also it’s the 7th inning and this is the very first time we’ve seen the reporter, some guy named Barry. The subs have just entered the game defensively as we get a mid game Jay Bell short interview.
Bob Brenly does mention Willie has a “low pitch count today”, but doesnt actually say what it is.
This must have been pretty cool to attend. I remember attending the Coyotes Glendale Open House as a kid. If anyone went to this, please reach out to me would love to hear about it!
5 innings later the jet show is still going strong! 2 for 1 show today at the ballpark! At the 1:44 mark of the video we have a perfectly normal 1998 quote by Bob Brenly.
NL West breakdown continues with the Dodgers. Love back in 1998 they were still a “talented team that has come short of their on paper expectations”. Brenly notes that this season may time for Paul Konerko to get his chance, but the Chaparral HS alum was traded to the Reds that season, then Chicago that offseason before playing 16 years and hitting 432 for the White Sox. Big Dodger mistake. Thom and Bob then start talking about how the long time O’Malley family sold to FOX, and the rivalry the Dodgers (FOX) and Ted Turner’s Braves (TBS) now have.
After 7 innings of 1 run ball, Willie Blair finally gets to go home and watch his Kentucky Wildcats win in the Elite 8. Russ Springer enters the game in the 8th. Russ Springer had a long 19 year career in the MLB, and an interesting Diamondbacks career. Springer was an expansion draft pick, traded in his first season, then re-signed anyways with the Diamondbacks in 1999. Unfortunately Springer missed his chance to be a major part of the great Diamondbacks title team as he got injured and missed most of 2001 and all of 2002. Springer did go on to pitch 8 more seasons post injury.
The Discover Playback Payback replay of the game is our lemon guy missing a foul ball! I’ve been checking, this is the only lemon sighting I’ve seen so far.
Amazingly it takes until the 8th inning for a bench player to get an AB today. Diaz was sent down to AAA camp before the game, but still appeared in this game. Diaz entered in Jay Bell’s spot, Andy Fox moved over to SS in the 7th.
The Miller Lite “What’s On Tap” graphics have been clutch, here’s a look at who’s had the best Spring. In case you’ve never seen Tony Batista’s batting stance, enjoy:
Bank One Player of the Game: Kelly Stinnett
Kelly Stinnett entered this Spring in a competition for the backup catcher spot to Damien Miller, but actually ended up playing a team high 92 games in the catcher spot.
Love the purple Sharpie on the lineup card, buying into the colors!
In a game where the starter went 7 innings, of course the closer enters the game too. Gregg Olson went 30-30 in save opps in 1998, which for a 65-97 team to have a perfect closer is wild. Gregg Olson may quietly be one of the best RP’s in franchise history. What’s funny is he told Thom that his curveball hasn’t been good this Spring, guess he figured it out in time for Opening Day.
Bob Brenly lets us know that his son is the bat boy today. Michael Brenly grows up to be the Red Sox bullpen catcher and now works in their front office.
An error does come around to score in the 9th, but the Diamondbacks win 10-2 and improve their winning streak to 3 games. SLAPHANDS!
ROGER, ASSEMBLE THE PEACEMAKERS AND PLAY DBACKS SWING!
Huge shoutout to the Youtube account This Is Where You Find Baseball for uploading this gem. They have more Diamondbacks games up and I’m sure to do this again!
-@GoldyHappens