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On the fourth day of Christmas, the D-backs gave to me...

More food? Well, it is Christmas...

By Jim McLennan
Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Ooh! After azrattler dominated the first couple of day's suggestions, we had a much closer race when it came to deciding what should replace "four calling birds" in our Diamondbacks rendition of The 12 Days of Christmas. Indeed, at the time of writing (about 1:30pm), we have a three-way tie, with the following all having turned Sedona Red, having received four recs.

  • Four falling chicken fingers (aricat)
  • Four sweeps of each NL West team (Mr_Len)
  • Four Legends' Heads (thunderpumpkin87)

Which leaves it up to the judging panel i.e. me, to come to an executive decision. Each of these have their merits. aricat's suggestion is topical, being based on an incident from 2015, and also ties in nicely to the original line, "four calling birds". Mr_Len provides an optimistic look at what we would certainly like the Diamondbacks to give us in the coming year. And thunderpumpkin87 does refer to the number in question for this verse, with more accuracy than the other two options. Having carefully weighed all the options, a decision has been made, and we have now handed the envelope to the MC, who will announce that the winner is...

Miss Colomb...

Hey, who let Steve Harvey in here? Let's try that again...

Four falling chicken fingers

In case you'd forgotten, this is a very specific reference, to a game at AT&T Park on my birthday actually, April 16, when the Diamondbacks beat the Giants 7-5 in 12 innings. The park is one famous for seagulls which swirl around in the later part of the game, waiting for the crowd to leave, so they can feast on the leftovers, and as the night wore on and the game continued into extra innings, they were becoming more aggressive. In this case, Delgado was working the 12th inning, after the D-backs had scored twice in the top half on an Aaron Hill double to take the lead. But his work was interrupted by a gift from the heavens. Here's footage, from behind the grassy knoll...

[You're aiming your gaze to the right as we look at it, on the front edge of the mound] One of the local vermin had dropped its lunch, a discarded chicken finger, just as Delgado was in motion, throwing to Buster Posey. Want more evidence of the smoking finger? Okay: "Rotate, zoom in, enhance.... Print." Fortunately, there was a happy ending for the Diamondbacks. While Posey represented the tying run, Delgado got him to fly out. and held on to close out the win for Arizona, leaving the local avian fans disappointed:

As in-game delays go, this was certainly the most unusual of the season for the Diamondbacks. And two months later, when the team and Randall Delgado went back to AT&T Park, someone clearly had not forgotten, as the pitcher found a second helping of chicken finger waiting for him on the mound there:

This tasty addition brings the song to:

On the fourth day of Christmas, the D-backs gave to me...
Four falling chicken tenders...
Three free tacos...* [* terms and conditions apply]
Two gold gloves...
and a Corbin with a strike three!

I'm pleased to report that ends the bird-related section of the song, and we now get to his everybody's favorite verse: "FIIIIIIVVVVVVE GOOOOOOOOOOLDD RIIIIIIIIIIINGGSSSSSSS". I've got a feeling I know where we're going to end up heading with this one. And by, "got a feeling," I mean "already written three-quarters of tomorrow's article." I trust you will not disappoint!

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