Arizona Diamondbacks

The Arizona Diamondbacks are a professional baseball team based in Phoenix. They play in the West Division of Major League Baseball's National League. From 1998 to the present, they have played in Chase Field. Also known as the D-Backs, Arizona has one World Series title, in 2001, becoming the fastest expansion team in the majors to win a championship, doing it in only the fourth season since their expansion in 1998.

Franchise history
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 a large number of people relocating to the state from the Midwest and the Northeast, as well as from California, many teams (most notably the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, New York Mets, and the Los Angeles Dodgers) have normally had large followings in Arizona.

On March 9, 1995, Arizona was awarded a franchise to begin play for the 1998 season. A $130 million franchise fee was paid to Major League Baseball and on January 16, 1997, the Diamondbacks were officially voted into the National League.

Since their debut, the Diamondbacks have won 5 National League West titles, 1 National League Championship pennant and the 2001 World Series.

Diamondbacks broadcasters
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.

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 that for the 2008 season, all regionally broadcast Diamondback TV games will be shown exclusively on Fox Sports Arizona; and a few could possibly be shown on the national MLB on Fox telecasts. Fox Sports Arizona (or FSArizona) 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.

From 2009 to 2012, Mark Grace and Daron Sutton were tagged as the main broadcasters of the Diamondbacks with pre-game and post-game shows on FSArizona, being hosted by former big-league closer Joe Borowski.

On June 21, 2012, Daron Sutton was suspended indefinitely, amidst rumors of insubordination. Then on August 24, the team announced that Mark Grace had requested an indefinite leave of absence after being arrested for his second DUI in less than two years. (Grace was later indicted on four DUI counts ) For the remainder of the 2012 season, Sutton was replaced by Greg Schulte (Jeff Munn replaced Schulte on the radio broadcast) and Grace was replaced by Luis Gonzalez. At the end of the 2012 season, the team announced that neither Sutton nor Grace would be returning for the 2013 season.

On October 18, 2012, the team announced that Bob Brenly would be returning as a broadcaster, and that he would be joined by former ESPN personality Steve Berthiaume.

The flagship Spanish language radio station is AM 710 with Miguel Quintana, Richard Saenz and Oscar Soria.
 * Spanish broadcasts

Games were televised in Spanish on KPHE-LP—with Oscar Soria and Jerry Romo as the announcers—but this arrangement ended prior to the 2009 season due to the team switching fully to Fox Sports Arizona and the lack of carriage of KHPE-LP on the Cox cable system.

All-time leaders

 * Hitting
 * Games Played —Luis Gonzalez (1999–2006)- 1,194
 * At Bats —Luis Gonzalez – 4,488
 * Hits —Luis Gonzalez – 1,337
 * Batting Average —Greg Colbrunn – .310
 * Runs —Luis Gonzalez – 780
 * Doubles —Luis Gonzalez – 310
 * Triples —Stephen Drew* – 52
 * Home Runs —Luis Gonzalez 224
 * Runs Batted In —Luis Gonzalez – 774
 * On Base Percentage —Luis Gonzalez – .391
 * Walks —Luis Gonzalez – 650
 * Strike Outs — Chris Young* – 814
 * Slugging Percentage —Luis Gonzalez – .529
 * Stolen Bases —Tony Womack – 182


 * PitchingRandy Johnson 04.jpg pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks.]]
 * ERA —Randy Johnson (1999–2004, 2007–2008) – 2.83
 * Wins —Randy Johnson – 118
 * Losses —Randy Johnson/Brandon Webb* (2003–2010) – 62
 * Games —José Valverde* (2003–2007) – 253
 * Saves —José Valverde – 98
 * Innings —Randy Johnson – 1630.1
 * Starts —Randy Johnson – 232
 * Strikeouts —Randy Johnson – 2,077
 * Complete Games —Randy Johnson – 38
 * Shutouts —Randy Johnson – 14 (Perfect Game May 18, 2004)
 * WHIP -Curt Schilling – 1.04

* signifies current major league player
 * all stats as of 11/8/2012 from the Arizona Diamondbacks website.

Ford C. Frick Award recipients
Names in bold received the award based on their work as Diamondbacks broadcasters.


 * Joe Garagiola

* Played as Diamondbacks

Retired numbers
On June 23, 2010, the Diamondbacks announced that the team would retire its first jersey number by honoring Luis Gonzalez. Gonzalez played with the Diamondbacks for eight seasons, 1999 to 2006, attended five All-Star games representing the team and had the game-winning hit to win the first World Series in franchise history. His number, #20, was retired in a pre-game ceremony which was held at Chase Field on August 7, 2010 in front of a sellout crowd of 48,946. After the ceremony, the Diamondbacks won the game against the San Diego Padres 6–5 after a walk-off home run by Chris Young, who also led the game off with a home run in the Bottom of the First Inning.