[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 21583]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 21583]]

             ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS, THE WORLD SERIES CHAMPS

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from North Dakota for 
arranging my time to speak. I will talk about two things: First is the 
victory


last night in the bottom of the ninth inning of the Arizona 
Diamondbacks in the baseball World Series. Naturally, we Arizonans are 
very proud of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
  I am proud of the New York Yankees, and I am proud of the people of 
the city of New York. Ever since I was a little kid, I was a New York 
Yankees fan because my grandfather used to listen to the games on the 
radio back in the Midwest I became familiar with the statistics of all 
of the great players of the New York Yankees throughout the years, 
mostly through the good but through both the good and the bad.
  They have been the most successful franchise in baseball history, of 
course, and when the events of September 11 occurred in New York City, 
all of America, in a sense, became New York Yankees fans. When they won 
the American league pennant and went to the World Series for the first 
time probably in their history, Americans were pulling for the New York 
Yankees rather than the other team which, of course, had always before 
been the underdog, and mostly Americans pulled for the underdog. But 
this time, they were pulling for the New York Yankees; everybody 
except, that is, the Arizona Diamondbacks fans.
  Four years ago, Arizona got a baseball team. At that point, I became, 
at least in the National League, an Arizona Diamondbacks fan. My 
fantasy was to have a World Series that involved the American League 
champion, the New York Yankees, and the National League champion, the 
Arizona Diamondbacks, in which both teams would do very well and which 
would be won by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the bottom of the ninth 
inning of the seventh game.
  Lo and behold, that is exactly what happened, a dream come true for a 
baseball fan all of my life and somebody who likes both of these teams 
very well.
  Obviously, I rooted for the Diamondbacks. I understand the 
disappointment of the New Yorkers who lost but, of course, as we all 
know, New Yorkers have more often than not been on the other side and 
have tasted the fruits of victory.
  All Americans appreciate the valiant battle both teams put up and 
certainly what the New York Yankees were trying to achieve for not only 
themselves as a team but the people of New York. In a larger sense, all 
Americans participated in this series fully aware of what it meant to 
the people of New York and, frankly, it meant that same thing for all 
of the people of America because we could not go to the series with the 
Yankees playing without thinking of the events of September 11.
  Yet in another way, the series having been won by a new, fresh team, 
the Arizona Diamondbacks, I think also is a great thing for America. As 
a Diamondbacks fan, it is especially gratifying that after just 4 short 
years, the Arizona Diamondbacks won the baseball World Series, the 
shortest period of time ever in the history of baseball.
  It was not by accident. The Arizona Diamondbacks wanted to play the 
very best in the World Series. They wanted to play the New York 
Yankees; they got that chance. They wanted to beat the very best, and 
in Mariano Rivera, the New York Yankees' relief pitcher, that is who 
they had to beat in the bottom of the ninth. And they did. It takes 
nothing away from Rivera or the rest of the Yankees who are truly a 
class act, but what it shows is that there has now begun a new dynasty 
in baseball--the Arizona Diamondbacks. They won 100 games in their 
second season, did not win the National League pennant but did very 
well.
  Naturally, we were very proud of them. Now to win it all in the World 
Series really caps it off for Arizona fans.
  My hat goes off to the general partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, 
Jerry Colangelo. Jerry is known in the sports world as a very 
successful sports entrepreneur, a real fan, and also a participant. He 
himself played ball in his youth and, coming from Chicago, obviously 
was involved in the key franchise of the Chicago Bulls, came to 
Arizona, and helped create the Phoenix Suns, a very successful 
franchise in its own right.
  He was the natural person to whom the leaders of Phoenix came when 
they wanted to put together a major league baseball team. And he said: 
I really have my hands full with the other things I'm doing, including 
the Phoenix Suns and in getting a new stadium, a new place for the 
Phoenix Suns to play ball; and he said: We would have to have a brand 
new ballpark: that would take a lot in terms of public support, and I 
would rather not be involved in it.
  But he was the logical choice, and reluctantly he agreed to take the 
leadership in bringing together the Arizona baseball franchise. He did 
that. He raised the money. He provided the leadership. He got the 
BankOne ballpark built with a beautiful stadium in downtown Phoenix 
with a retractable roof that goes back and forth in 6 minutes, a 
beautiful natural turf ballpark in which to play.
  His philosophy was to create a winner. Jerry Colangelo is about 
winning. He is not a guy who just wants to field a team and then 
perhaps take 20 years to get to the World Series. He thought the 
Arizona fans deserved a winner at the very beginning, and that is what 
he set about to create. Naturally, it did not come free, and as a 
result, because a new major league baseball franchise cannot 
participate in most of the revenues from the league for I think it is 
about 5 years, it was very costly to the people who supported the team, 
and financially, obviously, they are not in as good shape as some other 
teams that have been there a lot longer.
  So this will be a big boon to them not just from a fan support base 
but financially as well. Therefore, I really appreciate what has 
happened for Jerry Colangelo. He deserves the very best, as does his 
management team, his son Bryan, and all the others who worked to make 
that a great family and a great team in the State of Arizona.
  I note that I talked to Jerry Colangelo this morning. He had received 
a congratulatory call from President Bush, himself a great baseball 
fan. And hopefully some of the Diamondbacks will be able to get to 
Washington in the not too distant future to meet with the President. He 
is also on the way to Chicago for the baseball owners meetings, and 
there are some big decisions the owners have to make about this great 
American pastime.
  I just wanted to share with my colleagues my joy, and I am sure I 
speak for all the people in Arizona, the way they feel about the 
Arizona Diamondbacks this year, the way they have kept together as a 
team. They have had to play a very tough National League Western 
Division, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants, who 
were challenging them every step of the way. San Diego was a tough team 
for them, as were the Colorado Rockies.
  All of those teams deserve a lot of credit. But in the end it was the 
Arizona Diamondbacks who marched through the other teams and ended up 
beating Atlanta to take the pennant and I think, in facing the New York 
Yankees, faced the best the American League had to offer. It was 
obviously a victory in which all of Arizona can take a great deal of 
pride. And I hope fans across the United States who may have been 
pulling for the Yankees for other sentimental reasons this year will 
take a good hard look at the upstart Arizona Diamondbacks who deserve a 
lot of credit, having beaten the best, and will be around for a long 
time to come as a great baseball team playing our great national 
pastime.
  A final word on this. I was talking to somebody this morning who 
said: You know, during this series, which has to go down as one of the 
greatest series in the history of baseball, the way the games were won 
in Yankee Stadium and in the bottom of the ninth in the seventh game in 
Phoenix, a lot of America was focused on having fun with our national 
pastime and not thinking about some of the more serious and difficult 
issues we have had to face. One of the ways we can show the terrorists 
that they can have absolutely no chance of beating the American spirit 
is to continue to do what we


enjoy, and that includes enjoying our great national pastime, baseball. 
So my hat is off to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

                          ____________________