Who’s Who on the SnakePit

It has been five years since the last time we did one of these, and there are quite a lot of ex-SnakePitters and new SnakePitters since then, so I figured we should get all the writers to re-introduce themselves. Or, in the case of Ben Seigel, introduce himself. He may be familiar from guest recaps in previous seasons, but we’re delighted to welcome him on board for the regular schedule this season. Below you’ll find self-written bios for all our writers. Well, except for a couple, who missed the deadline, so I got ChatGPT to write up theirs for them. See if you can figure out which they are... Please also feel free to pen your own bio in the comments!

Veteran presences

Jim McLennan. I’m an expat Scot, who moved out to Arizona in November 2000, watched the team win the World Series the following year… and have been waiting ever since for a repeat performance. I started writing about baseball in 2004, as a coping mechanism, and the SnakePit followed the next year. I live (for now) in West Phoenix, with Mrs. SnakePit and a useless but somewhat adorable cat called Oscar. When not on the SnakePit, I spend most of my time watching or writing about movies, mostly of the non-blockbuster persuasion, shall we say.

Stephen Burt was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1985. He grew up in a working-class family, and from a young age, he showed a natural talent for athletics and a keen mind for strategy. He excelled in high school sports, particularly track and field, and earned a scholarship to attend college. After completing his undergraduate degree in political science, Steven was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He underwent a rigorous training program, learning skills such as hand-to-hand combat, surveillance, and counterintelligence.

Over the years, Steven worked on a variety of missions for the CIA, traveling to countries all over the world to gather intelligence and protect American interests. He became known for his ability to think on his feet and his calmness under pressure. Steven’s most high-profile mission came in 2016, when he was sent to Iran to gather intelligence on the country’s nuclear program. He spent several months living undercover in Tehran, posing as a businessman and using his language skills to blend in with the local population. His intelligence reports helped to shape American foreign policy towards Iran in the years that followed.

James Attwood was born into a wealthy family in New York City in 1980. He grew up in a world of privilege, attending the best schools and socializing with the city’s elite. From a young age, he was known for his good looks and charm, and he quickly gained a reputation as a ladies’ man. After graduating from college, James pursued a career in finance, working for some of the most prestigious firms on Wall Street. However, he soon found that the high-pressure world of finance was not for him. Instead, he turned his attention to a more hedonistic lifestyle, becoming a fixture on the city’s nightlife scene.

James became known as a playboy, traveling the world in private jets, staying in luxury hotels, and partying with celebrities and socialites. He was always surrounded by beautiful women, and he indulged in a lifestyle of excess, with little thought for the consequences. As he approached his thirties, James began to question the emptiness of his lifestyle. He sought out new experiences, traveling to remote corners of the world and immersing himself in different cultures. He also began to volunteer his time and resources to charitable causes, finding fulfillment in giving back to others.

Imstillhungry95: I’ve been a lifelong fan of the Diamondbacks, and I eventually found the Pit in 2010. I lurked for a bit and then joined the site in full for the 2011 playoff run, where I developed a deep seated hatred of Ryan Braun, Rickie Weeks, Nyjer Morgan, and the Milwaukee Brewers as an entire organization. During the playoffs, I posted an unhealthy number of comments, so Jim decided to put me to work. Since then, I’ve become the longest tenured writer, second only to our Fearless Leader. You’ll see primarily entertainment oriented posts from me, including our weekly variety competition series Pit Your Wits and Place Your Bets, plus some actual, ya know, baseball related content too. Maybe.

I’m a restaurant manager for a burger chain you’ve probably heard of in real life. With what free time remains, I love karaoke, video games, TV, and being terminally online. Follow my Twitter account (and Mastodon if I can ever figure it out) for my stream of consciousness, mostly about Arizona sports.

Makakilo aka Curtis: In 2013, I grabbed the opportunity of a lifetime to move from Arizona to Makakilo, Hawaii. That’s when my life started, or so it seems.

Contributing to the AZ Snake Pit is a source of profound mental satisfaction. In 2014 the air was charged with positive ions as my first Fan Post appeared! In 2015, the first of my many series previews was posted. Some of my previews were like none ever seen. In October 2020 my weekly feature articles started, which continues to be an exciting and enjoyable challenge!

I love Hawaii with its energy, joy, wonder, and aloha! I marvel at the mental habits of baseball players. My writing highlights what people said, interesting statistics, creative points of view, and what could optimistically happen.

Everyday players

Patrick Pilcher (Turambar): 5th generation Arizonan and long time Pit contributor along with being a founding member of the Brute Squad plus the brainchild behind the Bruteside Chats.

I started hanging out and writing on the pit some time in 2009 and became famous (in my own mind) as I started writing the weekly Beercaps and several hundred thousand craft beers later I’m still a fan, though depending on the season I’m either jaded or elated.

The Pit has always been a fun place for me as I seek to vent my frustration or jubilation about the Dbacks and I’m confident it’ll be that way for me and others for years to come.

Keegan Thompson: I’m making my return to regular writing for the Snakepit after taking the 2022 season off. Life smacked me hard in the face last year, but fortunately I learned some valuable lessons along the way and am blessed to get back to the things I love.

I’m an Arizona native and began lurking on the Pit sometime around 2014. I didn’t start commenting and writing for the site until 2017. My time here began as a mental escape from an unpleasurable job (see above) browsing here and Inside The Zona during my breaks. The site has seen some extremely talented writers who put their own spin on the team purely through their own passion which I have always appreciated. I’ve met some of my best friends in life through this site for which I am grateful.

If you catch me at a game, you’ll find a new addition to my family as my wife and I welcomed our first child in November 2022. My greatest joy in life will be sharing my love for the game with her and experiencing it all again through her eyes.

Wesley Baier aka Wesley aka @WESSENTIAL I’m a born and raised Arizonan, living most of my life in the Tucson area. In a previous life, I worked as a private chef and caterer, but for the last decade I’ve worked as a freelance writer and as an activist for various causes that are important to me. (Shoutout to SACASA, SAZNORML + American Kratom Association!)

I’ve recently embarked on a career as a YouTuber, podcaster, and stand-up comedian. In my free time I enjoy hiking, camping, gardening, and being out in nature. I also spend a lot of time researching random historical and scientific subjects out of curiosity. I have been a Diamondbacks fan since 2001, and writing about their farm system since 2010. I’ve been writing about baseball in a more professional capacity for the ‘Pit since 2017. I’m the worst Diamondbacks fan on this website, as I openly dislike actually watching regular season Major League Baseball, and only watch games that I’ve recapped the last few years. If you see one of my “hot takes” and disagree, know that I actually disagree with myself most of the time.

Spencer O’Gara. I am a Crime & Intelligence Analyst for the City of Whitehall, Ohio (it’s less controversial than it sounds, I promise; next time I’m in Phoenix, feel free to ask me about my job). I was born in Chicago, raised in Phoenix. I moved to Phoenix in the summer of 2002, so the hype of the World Series (which I had watched back in Chicago) was still high. Dad wanted me to be a Cubs fan. Mom wanted me to assimilate. Take a guess who won. I fell out of baseball in the late-2000s when my teammates grew and I didn’t, so I couldn’t really play anymore (my final growth spurt was in college and I’m still only 5’4). But when I moved to Missouri for college in 2012, it all came back. I resisted the urge to be a Cardinals fan thanks to my dad’s Cubs influence, and I dove back into the Diamondbacks.

I started writing for the SnakePit in late 2021 as a guest reviewer for a few players (Duplantier, Ellis, VanMeter & Perdomo). Then I asked Jim if I could write up some prospect articles, which he nicely allowed and I became a weekly Reviewer for the 2022 season. I LOVE doing this and hope to continue for years to come!

Matt Lopez: A Snakepit member since 2009, and a founding member of the Brute Squad. I participate in the Bruteside Chats, and am responsible for the weekly Meme Monday super-fun-time write-up.

Dan Pinney (Dano_in_Tucson): I grew up playing little league shortstop in southern New Jersey, learned to score a baseball game before I mastered fractions, and was in 4th grade when the Philadelphia Phillies won their first World Series in 1980. Moved to Arizona in 1983, but we didn’t have a baseball team yet, and my interest in the game waned. It picked up again in 2001, when I watched the Diamondbacks beat the hated Yankees in a variety of bars in NYC, where I lived at the time. My mom, who still lived in Arizona, was an enormous Diamondbacks fan from the start, and by the time I moved back to AZ in 2005, I was as well.

I started doing guest recaps at the SnakePit maybe six or seven years ago (?), and then was invited to join the staff, and I’ve been writing about our often hapless boyz ever since. In civilian life, I teach English and argumentative writing to 9th graders here in Tucson, but let’s not talk about work. Cheers.

Upcoming prospects

DBacksEurope aka DBE: As my nick “probably” reveals, I am from Europe, in particular The Netherlands, although I live in Spain nowadays. I have always loved baseball but in Europe we mostly play football/soccer, so that was my go-to until I got nausea from “modern football” aka teams owned by Arab oil moguls who spend billions of euros on mediocrity. In the 90s my team was the Braves thanks to Andruw Jones, but after I returned to baseball in the 2010s I decided to be a Diamondbacks fan. Why? Not sure. The team being some kind of an underdog is important. Goldschmidt certainly had to do with it as well, my first “baseball” cap (a Phoenix Suns one) probably too. And it seems I am one of few in the baseball world who has always liked the Diamondbacks outfits. Maybe the lack of a large history was an easy hop-on also. I didn’t take into account the huge time difference with Arizona and the West Coast though so most days I am destined to see game summaries or finished live streams.

But at least I am not blacked out anywhere and if you press me I am able to watch any baseball game, because I love baseball in general. I lurked for a while on the AZSnakePit and think I started commenting in 2017 and now write at least weekly on here. Normally I just start writing or investigating something that triggers me and I have no clue where it ends. I like to write about the “nobodies” in baseball, hence my Random D-Back articles and the urge to write end-of-season Player Reviews about guys that had a cup of coffee with the Diamondbacks. I am an IT Project Manager so I am accustomed to spending a lot of time (and other people’s money) on things no one seemingly cares about (like my articles), but just like the people do with whom I normally interact, I hope you have fun and a great time when you read my stuff. Cheers!

Justin: I have been on the Snakepit since 2009, I believe only Wes, April, Jack, Hacks, Lopez, Turambar and of course Jim are holdovers from that era. I had already been on DBBP for a couple of seasons. How I found DBBP is actually an interesting story. I had discovered Baseball-reference a few years before. BR used to let individuals sponsor players’ pages. On one of the Dbacks player pages there was a sponsored by Jim/TAP thing for DBBP, “The forum that doesn’t suck.”

My original screen name here was justin1985, and my current account is a completely different account. I left for a period of 4 or 5 years, coming back in 2017 I think. For some reason, I had created this account (justin27) to post on five for howling only and then forgot justin1985. I decided it wasnt worth attempting to resurrect it. Justin1985 deserves to be forgotten about…. I’ve matured since then….

Growing up in Tucson, I went to alot of spring training games and Tucson Toros (at the time, Astros affiliate) games. The Pima County Library system had a thing where you could get a punch card and if you read 6 books, or whatever it was, you could use the punch card as a ticket to a Toros game. I really do think that if the Dbacks never existed I would have ended up as either a Rockies or Astros fan.

My first exposure to baseball was my Italian Grandfather who was a lifelong Yankees fan. I never went to any games when I lived in CT, but a Yankees game would always be on the tv at my cousins or grandparents’ In 1998, my brother and I went to CT to visit over the summer, and I remember my grandfather asking me about Buck Showalter, Andy Fox (former Yankees), baseball down here, etc. I was 12, going on 13. Maybe it’s weird but that kind of made an impact.

As I am sure many know, I am half Scottish and half Italian. I am interested in both countries’ pasts and in WW2 history. Both of my grandfathers and a great-uncle fought for the Western Allies.

Ben Seigel: I grew up playing little league baseball in a small town in Louisiana and watching the Atlanta baseball team (mostly through TBS as they were the only baseball to watch in the 90s) before moving to Maryland and becoming an Orioles fan. While I might be aging myself a bit, the D-Backs 2001 World Series win was one of my first conscious baseball memories and I loved watching them vanquish the hated Yankees. Once my parents got Directv in the mid-2000s, we were finally able to watch the Diamondbacks more regularly, but my fandom kicked into high gear once I moved to Tucson for grad school at U of A (Bear down) in 2016. I have since moved around quite a bit - including Texas and Wisconsin - before settling down in Philadelphia this past year, but I have managed to keep up with the D-Backs through MLB.tv. I first started writing guest recaps for the SnakePit in 2021 and am excited to be more permanently writing with all of you!