They’re Praising Arizona

They are dressed in purple, the color of daybreak or dusk, depending upon one’s bearing.

Shawn Green and Troy Glaus, Los Angeles exiles, stand beside each other early this spring morning, draped in the colors of the 111-loss Arizona Diamondbacks.

L.A. kids, L.A. baseball, L.A. gone, Glaus followed an Angel press release out of town, and Green will have all but $500,000 of this season’s $10.5-million salary paid by the Dodgers, just to go.

On what Green called a “great” team, he will bat fifth, behind Glaus, and play right field. Glaus will play third base, surgically redone shoulder willing; through a few spring-training starts, it has been.

Once believed to be one more utility bill away from disaster, the Diamondbacks remade their roster in the off-season. Eight of their 2004 opening-day starters have been replaced, nine including their manager, 10 including their chief executive, an organizational do-over that came with a $22-million payroll reduction, to $58 million.

By the end of last season, injury and circumstance had turned the 2001 World Series champions to dust. Luis Gonzalez, then recovering from shoulder surgery, said he once looked out over the field and thought, “You know, in a spring-training game, you’ve got to run at least four regulars out there. Bud [Selig] might be calling.”

Bob Melvin is the Diamondbacks’ fourth manager since July, counting Wally Backman, who served 72 undistinguished hours in early November. Melvin lost 99 games as manager of the Seattle Mariners last year, got his new job when the Diamondbacks realized Backman wasn’t their man at all, and, well, reclamation work is reclamation work, no matter from which last place one comes.

“This division has turned before quickly,” he said, meaning the National League West. “In ’01 and ‘02, we were the team. Then all of a sudden it flip-flopped. It can turn just as quickly.”

It will depend some on the men from L.A., Green run off by a Dodger front office unwilling to foot the last $16 million of an $84-million contract, Glaus a free agent the Angels coolly replaced with the younger, cheaper Dallas McPherson.

The Diamondbacks, who scored the fewest runs in baseball last season, signed Glaus for $45 million over four years, taking over the final months of Glaus’ shoulder rehabilitation, and completed a trade for Green after three or four tries.

They’ll stand in the middle of a lineup that has added Royce Clayton, Craig Counsell, Jose Cruz Jr. and a healthy Gonzalez, behind a pitching staff without Randy Johnson and redone with Russ Ortiz, Javier Vazquez, Shawn Estes and Brad Halsey.

In shallow left field, Green and Glaus loosen their arms beside each other, situated so that when they throw they can continue their conversation, the left-handed Green to Glaus’ right.

After an off-season of change and anxiety, they arrived together at an organization in need of change itself, and in need of them, everybody quite satisfied with the union one month in.

“You just kind of move on,” Green said. “I enjoyed my years in L.A. tremendously. I have a lot of great friendships there I’m leaving. But had I been back in L.A. a lot of those close friends were gone anyway. Last year’s championship team was completely dismantled. So, it makes it a lot easier to move on. If a team stays together and you’re the guy who leaves, you feel like you’re missing out. But when a team is dismantled there’s a different attitude.”

By the time he waived his 10-and-5 no-trade rights, restructured his contract and found a place in Phoenix, Green had seen his closest friends leave the organization, one by one. Paul Lo Duca and Dave Roberts were traded last summer. This off-season, Adrian Beltre signed with Seattle, Alex Cora signed with Cleveland and Steve Finley signed with the Angels.

He had an idea who would go next.

“I guess the way I look at it, anything that’s happened I haven’t taken personal,” he said. “I think that’s the way a lot of guys feel. We’re not vindictive. It’s obvious the organization didn’t want me. It’s also obvious the organization didn’t want Beltre, and Beltre was, really, the best player in baseball last year. It makes it easier.

“If I was singled out to move, it would make it a lot more personal.”

Asked specifically about his feelings toward the Dodgers, Green smiled thinly, knowing it was coming. He rocked back on his blocky hips and fixed his eyes on the notebook and pen poised before him.

“Um,” he began. “Ah ... you know, I guess I can say ... uh ... you know, I’ll say I’m pulling for a few players and the coaching staff. And off the field, I’m pulling for, like, the trainers and the field personnel.”

He shrugged, the best he could do.

“L.A. is always going to be L.A.,” he said. “It’s a storied franchise, great fans, 3 million-plus every year. Great stadium to play in. There’s always that side of things, so people are always going to want to play there. All I know is, I know of about five or six guys that really want to beat the Dodgers. A few of us are in the National League West.”

Green said he would maintain his home in Irvine, where he would be close to family. He has a 2-year-old daughter and his wife is three months pregnant with their second child.

Glaus moved everything to the Phoenix area, however, having left behind “that little 60-mile bubble” he lived in most of his life. He also left a few pals in Anaheim and spurned one in Detroit -- Troy Percival had recruited him for the Tigers.

“We taught each other the ropes, how to do things,” he said. “That, I’ll miss.”

In fact, after having chosen the Diamondbacks after considering varying interest from Detroit, the Dodgers, Seattle, Boston and Baltimore -- the Red Sox and Orioles wanted him to play first base -- it took him two days to tell Percival.

By then, there was no Angel interest to ponder, despite the 40-plus home run seasons, the World Series most-valuable-player award and that it had all come before his 28th birthday.

“It was a bit unexpected,” he said. “I figured there’d be some conversation. But you know what, let bygones be bygones. At the end of the day, it’s a business. If that was their decision, fine. There’s nothing I can do to change it.... Hey, it’s their organization.”

So, Glaus was among the first in on the 111-loss Diamondbacks, along with Ortiz. And then they picked away at their roster, gradually moving the late-season starters back to the minors, or back to the bench, where they needed to be for another year or two.

It remains a project, finding 40 more wins on a budget, with the payments on deferred salaries coming due by the year, Glaus and Gonzalez off surgery, Green off two below-average seasons, the three Gs the heart of the made-over order, none of it a sure thing.

“The owners would come down and say we’re OK financially,” Gonzalez said. “When you defer a lot of people like we did -- I’m one of the deferred guys still. I’m going to be getting paid for a long time -- when they come down and say, ‘Hey guys, we’re all right. If we need something and we’re in the hunt, we’re going to go out and get it,’ that’s all you need to hear. Our owners are successful guys. They’re not going to sit and watch us lose 111 games again, I guarantee you that.

“In the off-season, I didn’t know at first what direction they were going to go. Then I saw Bob Melvin signed as our manager, then Glaus and Ortiz. I said, ‘These guys are going for guys that know how to play the game and they’re going out there trying to win again.’ ”

And, if the Dodgers were going to help by paying for their right fielder, Gonzalez said with a grin, “We’ll take it. If they’re going to give it away, we’ll take it.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Before waving goodbye ...

Troy Glaus spent seven seasons with the Angels. Shawn Green was with the Dodgers for five seasons. A look at the numbers during their Southern California days:

TROY GLAUS

*--* Year G H HR RBI Slug% Avg. 1998 48 36 1 23 291 218 1999 154 132 29 79 450 240 2000 159 160 47 102 604 284 2001 161 147 41 108 531 250 2002 156 142 30 111 453 250 2003 91 79 16 50 464 248 2004 58 52 18 42 575 251

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SHAWN GREEN

*--* Year G H HR RBI Slug% Avg. 2000 162 164 24 99 472 269 2001 161 184 49 125 598 297 2002 158 166 42 114 558 285 2003 160 171 19 85 460 280 2004 157 157 28 86 459 266

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Source: Major League Baseball