Chase Field

Chase Field
Originally uploaded by bdinphoenix

The most important man in the ten year history of Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks is not former owner and founder Jerry Colangelo. That distinction goes to a mechanical engineer named Willis Haviland Carrier, who received a patent in 1906 for his invention of an “Apparatus for Treating Air”. Carrier’s invention permitted his paper company employer to use four color printing without the colors becoming mis-aligned due to heat and humidity in his factory. There is no indication as to whether Carrier received a raise from his $10 a week salary.

Carrier’s invention has enabled the Diamondbacks to entertain baseball fans in their state-of-the art facility, Chase Field, in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. Looking like a transplanted airplane hangar, Chase Field has a retractable roof, panels on one side of the arena that permits stadium management to open the panels, as well as the roof when the weather permits. In Phoenix that does not occur often.

Daytime temperatures have gone as high as 123 degrees and it is not uncommon at game time to have temperatures in the 110-115 degree range. But in Chase Field, with the roof and side panels closed, the air conditioned stadium can feel as comfortable as your living room.

On the night I went to watch the Diamondbacks play National League west foe San Francisco the weather was perfect for baseball. The roof and side panels were open and the Diamondbacks were in first place, 3.5 games ahead of the second place Dodgers. The announced crowd of 23,604, looked sparse in the cavernous environs of Chase Field. While I am no expert on crowd size, I had the feeling that the only way there were 23,604 people in that stadium was if a sizeable number of them had come disguised as empty seats.

I arrived early and there were friendly stadium hosts and ushers everywhere. They were even friendly when they asked political petition carriers, a Phoenix pastime, to leave the stadium area so customers would not be hassled. I moved quickly and easily to my seat, stopping to get a Diamondback hot dog and a beer on the way. The concession worker even gave my ego a huge boost by asking me for identification to prove I was 21 years old. I can tell you that at my age of 61 that rarely happens. The hot dog was huge and the beer was cold and together almost made a meal. Some fans seated near me chowed down on some chicken tenders and French fries and next to me a fellow and his wife had one of the biggest ice cream cones I had ever seen.

Fans at Chase Field certainly have a clear view of the baseball field. There are unobstructed views to the field and some fans were even using a swimming pool behind the center field wall. I suspect Chase Field is the only stadium in the world with its own pool. Unfortunately Chase Field is so large that I could not get the same feeling for the game that I had received earlier at Camden Yard. We could just as easily have been watching a football game, which Chase Field hosts during the college bowl season, or a tractor pull, which Chase Field also hosts from time to time.

Chase Field, while an engineering and architectural marvel, is certainly proof that bigger is not always better. It also did not help that the Diamondbacks, losers of five of their last seven games, were thoroughly outplayed by the Giants. Looking tentative at the plate, the Dbacks were overwhelmed by the pitching of San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum. With no Barry Bonds to boo on the Giants roster and the Diamondbacks doing very little at the plate, the fans biggest cheers came when center fielder Chris Young fired a bullet from center field to home plate to prevent a Giants runner from scoring.

Giants catcher Bengie Molina, coming off a week in which he was recognized as the National League’s player of the week, hammered a pitch into the left center field stands to give the Giants a 3-0 lead they never relinquished. By the ninth inning most of the fans had gone home and the Diamondbacks suffered a 3-6 defeat.

Now to visit southern California and the Angels, Dodgers, and Padres.