This column appeared in the Arizona Daily Sun.
SNAKES SAVOR PAST, BUT LOOK TO FUTURE
By Ed Odeven
PHOENIX (April 1, 2002) — The hardest feat in professional sports is to win back-to-back championships.
The easiest way to slip is to become complacent and let the feelings of invincibility seep into a team’s collective psyche.
Make no mistake about it: The defending world champion Arizona Diamondbacks will not march from city to city in 2002 and pat themselves on the back.
Those feelings of championship euphoria lasted until left-hander Randy Johnson fired his first fastball of the game on Monday. (Officially, today’s pregame World Series ring presentation ceremony marks the end of the pandemonium that followed Luis Gonzalez’s game-winning, Game 7 hit in last year’s Fall Classic.)
The D-backs embrace a we-mean-business-now attitude, and it all starts with Bob Brenly. The second-year skipper’s professionalism and blue-collar persona guarantee the team…
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Ed Odeven Reporting 