Welcome To The SnakePit

Well, that was a series and a half, wasn't it? Sweep the Giants, come back from six down, lead the division. As we pause for an off-day today, thought it might be nice for those whose names you'll see around the site, to introduce themselves to readers old and new. So, after the jump, you'll find a little bit from each of the editors and writers, forced out of them with a threat to insert a random Wikipedia biography for them, if they didn't come up with their own text. They are in no particular order, except of contribution, so you can tell who's likely to show up later to your dinner-party....

We'd love to hear all about you as well, so please introduce yourself in the comments. Reality is optional. :)

Dan: Howdy folks. My screenname is indeed my real name, I was born in Minnesota but raised (since 3 y.o.) in Phoenix, and I'm currently finishing up my Senior year at the University of Notre Dame with a major in Finance and a supplemental major in Math (which is already complete). After becoming an obsessive D-backs fan in 2008 (of all seasons to get hooked on the club...), I was first introduced to the SnakePit by a close friend of mine who lurks and occasionally comments under the name PhoenixFly in the Spring of 2009, and shortly thereafter began what has been an awesome three years by writing a series of miserable posts about the potential trade markets for future cast-aways Chris Snyder, Doug Davis, and Jon Garland. After that, I dove headfirst into the minor leagues, armed with nothing (and I mean nothing) but a rudimentary familiarity with traditional baseball statistics, BA/OBP/SLG lines, and FIP.

I'd like to believe I've come a long way since then. Luckily for me, the SnakePit has provided an outlet for me to post something for the world to see, and have people that I've come to know and trust tell me what is wrong with it - and early on, it was many, many things. Nonetheless, those early days hooked me in and made me want to know more, and I've since dived into the worlds of scouting and sabermetrics, blessed with resources such as FanGraphs, SB Nation's Baseball-Reference account, the SABR Analytics Conference, and the Arizona-affiliated South Bend Silver Hawks. I'll never be able to learn everything there is to know about baseball, but that won't stop me from trying.

When I find spare time amid my searches for employment, I occasionally play drums (rather poorly). Between that and the SnakePit/baseball, though, pretty much all of my productive free time is accounted for. Looking forward to another season, and the South Bend Silver Hawks home opener this Monday!

Clefo: Hello citizens, I am Clefo. My real first name is Charlie, which is really no big secret. I was born in Los Angeles, but moved to Tucson, Arizona when I was two years old, and I have lived there since. I am a super-duper-ultra-my-god-the-advisors-at-pima-community-college-suck Senior at the University of Arizona majoring in Theatre Arts (focus on Lighting Design and Stage Management. I will willingly show you my portfolio and resume, don't tempt me.)
I became a D'Backs fan in 1998. It was a quick re-education from ostensibly being a Dodgers fan for two reasons:

1. D'Backs games were on TV, and thus they were easier to follow.

2. The Dodgers traded away Mike Piazza early in that season, and he was my eleven year old self's favorite player. I was a weird kid.

This turned into full blown fandom. It has had some highs (Gonzo's walk off hit, being at Chase for the clinching game against the Giants last year) and some lows (being in a Denver-area Bennigan's watching Game 3 of the 2007 NLCS), but it's all been fun.

I came to the Snakepit on July 7th, 2009. I can barely recall the first few months of my being here, but it's been a lot of good internet and in-person-mouth memories for me since then.

"Clefoing" has become a thing at the Snakepit that I apparently invented. It started around opening day last year, and it basically involves WRITING STUFF IN ALL CAPS ABOUT HOW LAME TROY TULOWITZKI IS AND HOW HE ONCE GOT PUNCHED IN THE STOMACH BY A CRAZED DRUNKEN BRIAN DENNEHY AND WE SHOULD POINT AT LAUGH AT HIM HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Kishi: In a world- Sorry, wrong introduction. Anyway, my name is Devin, but I generally respond quicker to Kishi anyway. I've been a baseball fan since, well, before the Diamondbacks existed, and once I moved to Phoenix in the mid-90s and we got a team, I was all aboard. I used to (sporadically) post on my own blog about the Diamondbacks, but I've been commenting on the Snakepit since 2005, back in those ancient days where the GDT was generally transmitted by telegraph and we had a busy game if we hit double digits in the comments... Okay, only some of that is true.

I've developed a pretty special talent with the Diamondbacks of getting attached to players and then seeing them traded away- consult my Webb and Haren jerseys or my Reynolds t-shirt for further details. As such, I try not to get attached to players much, but it doesn't always work. I do SnakeBytes at the ‘Pit in addition to the occasional recap, and I like to give really awful nicknames to players- sometimes people complain about it, but the Green Lantern title stuck around, dammit.

Snakecharmer: Hi! I'm ‘charmer. My nickname is pretty self-explanatory. My real name is Jenny. I live in enemy territory - the San Francisco Bay Area, to be exact, so I only get to go to about 7-8 games a year, but I see my Diamondbacks on TV and connect with fans via the ‘Pit. I became a D'backs fan after the 2001 World Series victory, but I'm not a bandwagon fan because a) I wasn't even a baseball fan before that, so this is my first team, and b) I have suffered through 2004 and 2008 with the best of them. In fact, I think I first found the ‘Pit in 2004, via the SBN flagship blog Athletics Nation. Jim and kishi and ‘skins and hotclaws and soco and soon-to-be-mrssoco were here, and...... well, maybe a few others. ;) The number people who commented in the GDTs was usually in the single digits, hitting the century mark in comments was cause for a huge celebration, yadayadayadagetoffmylawn. I wrote the Roll Call tool after we started to get more than 100 GDT comments with regularity to help Jim out, ‘cuz I'm nice like that. But, I have seniority and I get to use the banhammer, so don't trifle with me or my margins. And if you use poor grammar, beware.

Despite my distance from the team, you'll find I'm one of their biggest fans (at least in California). They're my boys, and I love getting to see them and meet them (I'm an autograph collector) whenever I can. I made my first sojourn to Spring Training this year, and it rocked, as did the accompanying JenFest. I want to try to make it to a few regular season games in AZ again this year!

Wailord: Wassup. My name's Ryan, but the name I've used on the Internet (since January 4, 2004, I'll have you know) is "Wailord" and I'm an 18-year-old in Las Vegas -- until college. When people ask why I'm a Diamondbacks fan, I often respond with "long story", but there's no way I'm filling as much of this page up as the rest of the writers so I gotta find *some* way to get content. When I was younger (eight or so), my mom was buying polo shirts with MLB logos for my dad and I, and she asked if there was another team I'd like to have the shirt of. It was an alphabetical dropdown, and the then-Anaheim Angels and Diamondbacks were at the top. I'd already played for the Angels in Little League, so I had their stuff already. Wanting to see something new, I asked for a Diamondbacks shirt. It's probably worth mentioning that up until this point I'd had zero interest in sports whatsoever. I went to school the next day and got a book on the Diamondbacks (there was actually one geared towards children, too) and read it. I then began watching their games on TV, fell in love with baseball, and eventually football as well.

I found the ‘Pit when I was 16 or so and commented semi-regularly until I was asked to step in for Azreous, who had to step down from his writing position. I now do Saturday recaps for the Diamondbacks games on the SnakePit. I used to run the weekly 'Pit Your Wits contest on here as well, but I sorta went crazy on AP classes this year to prep for college next year so Clefo's taking that over. As for personal stuff... I'm going to college at the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls, OR and majoring in Software Engineering (yay), and I play and watch as much StarCraft II (the video game) as I have the time for. Like, I watch a lot of it. Probably more than baseball because it's always on. The end.

Jim: I'm the mad scientist who created this monster. Who knew, back in 2004, when I began my pre-SnakePit blog, so that Mrs. SnakePit wouldn't have to listen to my rants, that it would turn into an all-consuming beast? I'm probably the only man running a site devoted to baseball who has never actually played the game: I was born and grew up in Scotland, y'see, so if you want an explanation of the rules of cricket, let me know, and I'll free up a couple of weeks. My first trip to Phoenix was in 1997, when BOB was still being built, so I've been a fan of the D-backs since Day Zero. I moved out here in 2000, and needless to say, the following season hooked me for life.

It's been an interesting ride, with the ‘Pit being responsible for memorable moments like batting lessons from Cal Ripken or being compared to Colonel Gadaffi, and watching my "baby" turn into what it is today has been amazing. But it's the people here that are truly the most fun, and that keeps me going through the long, dark Armando Galarraga starts. When not ‘Pitting, I watch a lot of movies no-one else would bother with, read as time permits, and hang out with the missus at SnakePit Towers in W. Phoenix. It's mostly ‘Pitting though, since I enjoy my life as a crypto-fascist dictator.

soco: I was born on the side of a mountain and was considered a savant from the start.

Oh, you want more than that? Well. Sorry ladies, and men confused by my avatar, but I'm married and have a son. We both like baseball (no word yet from the son, but he doesn't have a choice) and we even travel specifically to see new parks. My "Diamondbacks" origin story isn't particularly interesting and can be found elsewhere on the site. I've loved baseball since I was a kid, and I still play in the form of vintage base ball, along with a few of the other people from the site.

I have a degree in political science from Arizona State University, and no I don't want to talk politics with you. I intend to go to graduate school in a few years, though what that specifically will be will likely depend on what I'm doing around then (masters in economics or statistics are two front runners).

I tricked Jim into making me a writer by offering to do a couple recaps back in 2008, though I had already been on the site since 2006. I then was drafted into being a mod when all the other mods went on vacation. They've regretted giving me power ever since. I'm known most for writing Fan Confidence posts that are weighed down with overwrought and overthought concepts. I'm the go-to guy for baseball book recommendations, baseball history, and baseball social aspects.

ZM: Hey kids! I'm Zavada's Moustache. I mean, no, not really, because then I would have spent the last year or so at the bottom of a drain somewhere after Clay shaved it off.

My name's Stephen. I moved to Phoenix just before my third birthday and got sucked into cheering for all the teams that play here. I started cheering for the Diamondbacks when they arrived in 1998, with as much gusto as a seven-year-old who didn't much care for baseball could, but to be honest, I sort of lost interest during the great Shea Hillenbrand-led teams of the early-to-mid 2000s.

As a teenager, I rediscovered baseball during 2006 (of all the random years). Something about Claudio Vargas and Johnny Estrada just spoke to me, I guess. I read Moneyball on a whim and I was hooked once and for all by 2007, the worst team to ever be the best team in the NL. I like to think that my baseball knowledge has come a long way since then, when I avidly wanted the D-Backs to trade Stephen Drew to the Padres for Brian Giles. This was not my proudest moment.

Currently, I go to college in Tacoma, Washington, about an hour south of Seattle. I'm an English Literature major, which may seem like an odd choice for someone who writes about baseball stats in his spare time, since numbers of any other type terrify me. However, I wholeheartedly believe that statistics and narrative can coexist in baseball, and I hope to convey that in my writing.
For those of you who don't know, I've written the Series Previews for AZ Snakepit since being promoted to the staff last year. So if you enjoy puns and angry rants about the Giants, give them a read. If not, then this may not be the site for you.

Marc: Yo, what up dawgs? My name is Marc (formerly known as Sprankton) and I am a twenty-three-year-old with an obsession of Wes Anderson movies and orange juice. I've been living in Arizona since I was a wee youngin but I originally sprouted in lovely Colorado. Say what you want about the Rockies but Colorado is still duh bomb.

Despite playing some basketball and baseball throughout my childhood, I never really got into sports and could not understand why people were so fascinated with them. I mean, why would I want to watch other people play a game? Seriously? That sounds worse than stamp collecting. It wasn't until a couple of years after high school that I started to notice some of the joy in watching and following baseball, however.

In 2008, living on my own and working a terrible job, I suddenly began turning to ESPN as an outlet to my crappy days. It was all I had; I couldn't afford the internetz but I did get free cable in my tiny studio. Slowly, day by day, I became more interested in each sport and team. I kept seeing clips of Tim Lincecum and Cliff Lee along with Joe Mauer and Dustin Pedroia. Everything was refreshing to see and each lousy day at work yielded some awesome highlight that got me more interested.

Then it just sort of happened like a switch was turned on - I was 100% obsessed with baseball. The stats, the history, the complete awesomeness of socializing at games, it was like I had missed out on my whole life. In the offseason following the 2008 campaign I searched all over the internet (yay! I could afford internet at this point) to try and find out what was happening with guys like Randy Johnson and Adam Dunn. Eventually, that lead me to the Snakepit, chock-full of everything I ever wanted to know about anything. Plus, a lot of stuff I didn't want to know about.

I lurked for a while until the 2009 season began and then I jumped on board. Now, here I am, still trying to understand stats like SIERRA and writing about it in the process. I love it.