Diamondbacks Hope Window Remains Open a Little While

The retractable roof at Bank One Ballpark may be open for Game 1 of the World Series tonight, but how long will the window of opportunity stay open for the Arizona Diamondbacks?

“We are what we are,” first baseman Mark Grace said, smiling, “and I think we’ve accepted the fact we’re old ... and we have to win now because we probably won’t be around for long.”

A veteran team whose average age of 32 years, 133 days was the second highest among the eight playoff teams (Seattle’s was 32 years, 164 days), the veteran Diamondbacks used their window to win a National League pennant. Now comes their World Series opportunity against the dynastic New York Yankees and they understand it may be their first and last shot, that they may not have enough years left to create their own dynasty.

Oldies but goodies?

Well, pitchers Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, their top starters, are 37 and 34, respectively. Grace is 37, Steve Finley 36, Matt Williams 35, Luis Gonzalez 34 and Reggie Sanders 33. Craig Counsell is the youngest position player at 31. Then there’s the bullpen, which includes Mike Morgan, 42, and Greg Swindell, 36.

Said Gonzalez: “We knew this opportunity was closing a little and we needed to win now.”

Of course, experience counts. Johnson put it this way: “We kept hearing how we were a veteran team, a very old team, but I think the reason we’re here and the reason why nothing ever really fell apart was because of the veterans.”

Throw the window of opportunity theory at managing general partner Jerry Colangelo and he says: “I don’t know when a window is open or closed. I just know we’ve got a great group of guys and I have confidence in the people we signed. I don’t think any of them look in the mirror and say, ‘We’re old.’ I mean, they believe they’re professional players with a lot of baseball left.”

General Manager Joe Garagiola Jr., concurred, of course.

“I don’t think we ever saw it in terms of a certain window,” he said. “I think that’s a function of one of the emerging trends in baseball, that maybe the public hasn’t caught up with, and that is that the productivity of players is much later chronologically. The conventional wisdom used to be a guy past 30 was on the back nine. Now, with the approach players take to year-round conditioning and with better medical care, that window can be easily extended five to seven years.

“Look at what guys like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Rickey Henderson did this year. Look at our team. You can do the numbers and say the average age is whatever, but Randy Johnson has never pitched better, Curt Schilling looks like he’s coming into his best years, and Luis Gonzalez is far more productive than when he was in his 20s. So, I think the notion that we’re in this finite period of time ... well, we never bought into that.”

Said Grace: “Nobody expected us to be here from Day 1. We were picked third or fourth in our division and we took that as a personal challenge. Everybody was saying we were going to break down, we’re a bunch of old guys. Well, I guess the old guys are standing at the top of the hill [as] one of the best two teams [in baseball].”