Just a random selection of interesting bits and pieces - none of them perhaps quite enough to merit a full post in themselves, but put them together and, hey presto, a nice, easy article for a Tuesday lunchtime. :-) First off, the Diamondbacks announced that there will be no season-ticket price increases for 2010. Yeah, pretty much a no-brainer that one - the fall from grace experienced by the team this year means pitching renewal and a price-increase would have been a difficult proposition. Good job they didn't take the Rattlers approach and promise playoffs or a refund. Whatever happened to the Rattlers?
Anyway, more on season tickets, some love for Mark Reynolds, and where Conor Jackson likes to eat [a clue: maybe he's at the same table as Augie], after the jump.
A couple of other points to note on the season ticket front. By sending out the renewals now, it gives fans a lot longer to pay for them - the press release says ten months, but given that takes you about 50 games into the 2010 season, I'm not sure if that's right. Still, it should make it easier: I know one of the reasons we backed out of our shared package this season, was the difficulty of funding some fairly large lumps of cash.
Renewals will also be eligible to win some unique experiences as part of a 30 Prizes in 30 Days promotion. These include a 30-minute batting session with Mark Reynolds and a 30-minute fielding session with Chris Young. Let's hope they don't get those mixed up - a fielding session with Mark and batting session with Chris would be potentially lethal and quite depressing respectively... Some seats will also get a $10 per game food/merchandise credit, free parking and no price increase for the 2011 season too, but I think those seats are likely to be just a little out of our price range.
Mark Reynolds is quite good. Yeah, we've known that for quite some time, but swatting four homers in three games at Citi Field - including the longest bomb in stadium history - seems to have got Special K some attention. Hey, if it doesn't happen on the East coast, it doesn't happen at all, right? But even the NY media had to sit up and take notice of the Reynolds 'Recking-Crew over the weekend, pointing out that he now has as many home-runs, in 12 Citi at-bat, as David Wright.
Similarly, Mark Travis describes Reynolds and Pablo the Buffet Slayer as "The best baseball players no one in the world is talking about." No-one in the world? Insert picture of an owl with a deeply-quizzical expression here. Still, nice to see the rest of the world catching up with what we've known all along. Well, most of us anyway. As marionette gloriously pointed out, few Fanposts have been proven so wrong, so quickly, as this one by olshamus, from May 27, slagging off Reynolds and Byrnes:
Mark (I couldn't hit a baseball if it was the size of a watermelon and sitting on a tee) Reynolds needs to go back to Kentucky and raise horses or grow tobacco or do something productive.... neither one of these guys should be allowed to wear a baseball uniform, call themselves baseball players and be paid for what they don't do.
Oops. Reynolds' line since then - .294/.378/.624 for an OPS of 1.003. ohshamus's line since the end of May - zero activity. Probably wise... Finally, if you're looking to track down Conor Jackson, Justin Upton or Chris Young, useful information can be found through their likeme.net profiles. Mastro's Ocean Club seems the most popular restaurant, though CoJack opts for Pita Jungle, which we already know Augie has visited [though was, apparently, less impressed by the service...] Shade at the W also gets two votes out of three, and all three players nominate Wrigley as their favorite place to play - which seems a little suspicious, not least since Upton has all of three career games there! But it's nice to get a bit of an insight into the personalities behind the players, something we don't often get.