Fan Confidence: The Burning Down

When the summer ends we're left to pick up the pieces.  The clubhouses have been cleared, and Chase Field is empty.  We'll all need to find ways to survive the coming winter.  We'll attempt to reflect on the season that just was, and attempt to imagine what will be.  We'll find other pursuits, ones that have differing degrees of satisfaction.  But most of all we'll wait for baseball to return.

We've reached the end.  A week later than predicted by experts, but still a few weeks too early for what we all wanted.  Baseball is still going on but we're not part of it.  It's all just a little beige with the Diamondbacks in it, especially since we could have been.  

The whole winter will be spent wonder what could of been.  It's hard to blame any one player, or even the team.  They lost.  It happens most of the time.  They gave us a run we didn't think we would see this year, and we should be grateful for the numerous wonderful memories.  A sampling of great memories from this season include a variety of Paul Goldschmidt bombs, the Kelly Johnson grand slam, the grand slams at the end of the season, Ian Kennedy being a boss, the All-Star Game, booing Prince Fielder, the Wily Mo Pena Show, the Armando Galarraga meltdown (okay, that was more schadenfreude than anything) and so much more.  

I could probably write a thousand words on the various interesting and fun things we saw this season.  It's easier to remember what's great in a winning season, partially because there are more great things going on.  It reminds us that the game sure can be fun, which was sorely needed after the horrors of 2009 and 2010.  We're lucky that it was only 2 years of the basement, some teams have had more consecutive losing seasons than the D-backs have existed.  

So now we reach the end.  It's going to take a lifetime to unpack the season we just witnessed.  Over the next few months, as we try to endure the season, we'll do just that here at the Snakepit.  The door might have closed for the 2011 D-backs, but it hasn't closed here at the site.  You can't spend all your time here, though.

What will you do in the offseason?  If you live in the Phoenix area, then baseball isn't every truly over, but it's not the same.  I suppose there are other distractions to be had.  Books to read, friends to visit, movies to watch, other, lesser sports to consume.  

Finally, I leave you with one finally thought: how confident are you of the season you just witnessed?