The Mark Grace Diamondbacks of Arizona

It all started sometime in early 1989.  I was 11 years old at the time, so that would’ve put me in 6th grade, my first year at Conway Middle School after being Patrol Captain my last year at Conway Elementary.  Big changes in life.  We were always in the middle of potentially moving someplace.  The Gulf Coast of Florida, Southern California, maybe no where.  I was always a fan of sports and playing outside.  I still remember my first baseball bat, it was a Rawlings metal bat with green writing on it, we got it at the Rawlings Outlet at the Belz Factory Outlet Mall in Orlando.  I still have that bat.  It’s so tiny looking at it now.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to play baseball when I was younger.  I would get to play with my friends in the cul-de-sac though, and I’d do pretty well with our tennis balls.  Most of them would end up in Enrique’s backyard, which was straightaway Center Field.  I never really watched much baseball, TBS and WGN were new “Super Stations” and the only televised games were the Saturday game of the week.  ESPN was barely a blip on the radar.

I was at a mall, I think it Maryland visiting Dave and Jay (my cousins), there was a kiosk that sold baseball cards.  For some reason, I thought hey, I’ll buy each of us a pack.  They were 1989 Fleer and came with 25 cards a pack!  I remember opening mine up and looking at all of the cards, then being the type of person I am and loving numbers, I wanted to find out what the most valuable card I had was.  There was one card worth over a buck, and to think I only paid 25 cents for the pack!  That card…was a 2nd year Mark Grace, first baseman for the Chicago Cubs.  It was worth $1.25.

Exactly!

Immediately, I took hold.  Baseball.  Baseball Cards.  Mark Grace.  First Base.  Chicago Cubs.  In the immortal words of Gandalf the White “It Has Begun!”  I became a mini Mark Grace.  I began to play First Base.  I wore #17.  I watched the Cubs win the National League East in 1989, led of course by Mark Grace.  He had one of the greatest postseason series a hitter had ever had to that point, no joke.  5 games, .647 batting average, 5 extra base hits, 8 RBI’s.  It looks like that pack of baseball cards was paying off.  After the season, he was going to appear at that same Belz Factory Outlet Mall at a baseball card show, signing autographs!  By this time I had PLENTY of his cards, including the coveted 1988 Score Traded Mark Grace rookie.

Danny recently got me a Graded (means it’s awesomeness has been verified by an outside company) one just like this, but it’s a 9.5 instead of a 9, the highest known rating for this card in existence since there are no 10’s (note: this is not my actual card).

I paid to have it signed.  It was awesome, I got to say hello to him.  I also had him sign a baseball.  That was sometime in late 1989/early 1990.  December or January.  I think I still have the little ticket that you had to get punched to receive your autograph.

I followed his career.  I watched his games.  I went to his games.  He hit home runs in the games I went to (at least twice that I can remember).  Mark Grace wasn’t a home run hitter.  I was almost given one of those home run balls.  Anthony Young is NOT cool!  Mark Grace was so cool.  He dated celebrities.

Janine Turner of Northern Exposure fame. Harry Caray used to crack jokes about them dating when the camera would pan to her during a game.

He parties with fans after games.

Mark Grace doing what Mark Grace does…

He was Harry Caray’s favorite, you could tell by hearing how he spoke of him.  He was my favorite too.  Eventually I even got him to sign a baseball bat for me, that was sometime in 1994/1995, maybe 1993.  I’m sure I have that autograph ticket too.  I thought he would be a lifelong Cub, just like Ernie Banks.  He was elected to the All-Century Cubs team as the starting First Baseman.  Of course he was…he was MARK GRACE.  He is widely credited as coining the term “slumpbuster.”  Don’t ask me what it means.  If you don’t know, you don’t need to know.  You search for it on Wikipedia and it’ll simply redirect to his page.

But the Cubs now had Sammy Sosa.  It was all about him.  He hit the home runs.  Grace was deemed expendable now.  Mark Grace had the most hits of ANY baseball player during the 90’s.  He also had the most losses.  The Cubs were not good.  They were “The Cubs” afteral.  The GM didn’t even give him a call once his contract expired.  Andy McFAIL (mis-spelling intentional).  I was really REALLY angry.  How could this happen?  Well, lo and behold, the Arizona Diamondbacks came calling.  Offered him a contract.  Boom.  Done.  Starting First Baseman for them.  They had Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling.  You may have heard of them.  It was 2001.  They made it to the World Series, against the Yankees.  The effectively killed off the “Evil Empire” in the best 7 game series you will ever hope to see.  Grace did well (he even his a mammoth upper-deck home run in Yankee Stadium in game 5).  He led off the bottom of the 9th inning of game 7 against the Yankees stud of a closer Mariano Rivera with a single.  He began the rally.  Luis Gonzalez just finished it off.  I jumped and cried like crazy.  Mark Grace was a winner.  He was quoted after the game as saying “What really feels good is I wasn’t good enough to play first base for the Chicago Cubs, but I was good enough to play first base for the World Champions and that feels really good.”  EXACTLY.

That team had a new name for me.  They would forever be known as the Mark Grace Diamondbacks of Arizona.  He didn’t lead them with the best stats, they had a LOT of players who played better, they were LOADED.  He batted 7th, he used to bat 3rd for the Cubs.

But to me, it didn’t matter.  I didn’t watch any more Cubs games on WGN.  I didn’t root for them to win.  I was glad the Marlins broke their hearts in 2003, they deserved it.  They punked out Mark Grace.  I do still have their jerseys and hats, I even get some new (vintage…note the pictures below) ones every now and then.  I’ll go to a Cubs game this Spring Training.  I still don’t have a Mark Grace jersey, but I will one day.  The Cubs are now the Evil Empire to me.  I really don’t care how they do anymore.  Forget the curse of the Billy Goat.  This goes way beyond that.  They traded style and substance for flash and steroids.  What have you done for me lately?

Mark Grace retired after the 2003 season.  Baseball lost its luster for me after that.  How could it now?  This was a cosmic connection that we had.  Look at this quote from him…

“I like donuts. I like Krispy Kreme donuts a lot. Too much”

Seriously?  Anybody who knows me knows that those words have probably come out of my mouth at one point or another.  I had nobody to root for.  I was more of a player fan, not a team fan.  I am still like that now.  Luckily Fantasy Baseball came calling, but I have since retired due to my obtaining the Triple Crown this past season (Baseball, Basketball and Football championships).  Mark Grace had wanted to become a manager, but nothing panned out.  The Diamondbacks offered him a job as the Color Commentator on their TV broadcasts.  Josh told me he was hilarious, but you could only see him on those local Arizona games.  Booo.

We now live in Arizona.  Last week the Mark Grace Diamondbacks of Arizona had a Fan Fest.  It’s basically a free event where you get to go out on the field and mingle with players, play games, see the stadium, fun stuff like that.  I HAD TO GO.  We penned this in (no pencil, this was not being missed for anything) and made our way.

They estimated that between 10,000-15,000 fans attended throughout the day, most where there to see Mark Grace.

By the time we got there, all of the autograph “donation tickets” were sold.  Mark Grace was sitting there, next to Kirk Gibson, practically calling out my name, asking to sign an autograph for me.

So close…yet so far away! At least the gentleman working the empty line entrance let me go up and take a quick photo.

They acknowledged that this was a problem that would be rectified next year.  I’d gladly have paid more than $5 to get his autograph again.  They’ll work on it, Mark Grace will make sure.

Anybody that lives within driving distance of a ballpark, you REALLY have to look into whether your team has a Fan Fest.  I went to an Angels one a long time ago but it was pathetic to say the least.  I mean, it was in the parking lot…NEXT to the Stadium.  Was it too out of repair to let the fans inside?  Hopefully they fixed that.  I even got to sit in the teams dugouts.

This was actually the visitor’s dugout, but you could go into either one and play around.

We decided to go underground, into the clubhouse.  They had an underground set of batting cages.

Mark Grace used to take swings in these cages.

The clubhouse was really cool looking.  It was a wheel and spoke design, with the spoke being a large open space for gathering and probably wrestling.

Nothing like your High School locker room, huh?

It was a very cool experience to be there.  They even have a Fatburger inside the stadium and the prices aren’t as ridiculous as you may expect.  The quality was pretty near close too, but alas, only fat fries are offered, no skinny fries.  We walked around a lot, bought 12 t-shirts for $2.25, and I even bought a game worn fitted hat for $7.00.  Good condition too.  Can’t beat that.

If you’ve made it this far, I know you’re probably thinking WOW, that was long, well maybe next year you’ll get to have Mark Grace sign something Adrian.  YOU THINK I’M DONE TELLING MY STORY?  THIS IS THE LONGEST POST EVER!  OF COURSE THERE IS MORE.

Like I said, they had players mingling around, doing interviews (Mark Grace hosted a couple of the Q&A’s, most questions were directed at him for the one I saw), throwing wiffle balls to kids, taking pictures with fans.

Taking pictures with fans.

TAKING PICTURES WITH FANS!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, behold, our Family Photograph.

Former Diamondbacks Reliever Mike Fetters, Emily, sleeping Morgan, me and Mr. Mark Grace!!!

You know this one is a) going up on Facebook as b) my PROFILE PHOTO!  I already told Emily, sorry, but the zoomed in icon view is going to be Me and Mark Grace, you’re getting cropped out unless people want to view the full picture.  He patted me on the back and afterwards noted how Morgan was sleeping and cute and stroked her back too.

Most.  Awesome.  Day.  I.  Could.  Ever.  Imagine.

I tear up writing about it again.  I’m really a big fan.

We’re going to some games this year, maybe get some package or something.  We don’t have Cable TV, so I’m not sure how I’ll get to hear or see his broadcasts, but I’ll find a way.

And next year, we’ll get that autograph.  I have a year to figure out on what…