PHOENIX -- The Diamondbacks’ tribute to their 2001 World Series team brought out plenty of nostalgia over the weekend, but it also delivered a clear reminder of how much that title still means inside the organization.
On Saturday, Arizona honored the champions from 2001 in front of the current team, with staff, coaches and players introduced before the crowd. Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, the co-MVPs of that Series, were among the last names called, and Johnson’s entrance carried extra weight: he came out of the home bullpen, the same place he emerged from in the eighth inning of Game 7 against the Yankees.
Johnson and Schilling once again lifted the World Series trophy in nearly the same spot where they did it after Arizona’s famous comeback win in November 2001, when the Diamondbacks stunned the Yankees with a ninth-inning rally in Game 7 to win the franchise’s first major sports championship.
The celebration had started before Saturday’s main event. During batting practice Friday night, members of the 2001 club mingled on the warning track in front of the dugout, with current Diamondbacks stopping by to pay their respects. One player, though, made the rounds with particular purpose.
Justin Martinez, who was just a few months old when Arizona beat New York in 2001, worked his way through the group, shaking hands with as many of the former players as he could and collecting autographs on a baseball. He later described the experience with obvious excitement.
"They are legends!" Martinez said. "I was really happy to have the chance to because I'm a baseball player and I'm a baseball fan, and to see those legends out there on the field, I felt like a child."
Martinez, who threw an immaculate inning against the Rangers on Sept. 11 and recorded the fastest pitch by an Arizona player since Statcast began tracking at 102.6 mph, had the ball placed in a clear plastic case and displayed in his locker Saturday morning. He also recently returned from his second Tommy John surgery.
Of the 2001 names he met, one stood out above the rest.
"Schilling," he said. "Curt Schilling.
I saw him and I was like, ‘That's the guy that everybody talked about back in the day.' Obviously [Luis Gonzalez] and [Johnson], but they're around more often."
Johnson and Gonzalez are both around the team regularly, with each working for the club and showing up often at the ballpark.
Martinez said he wished he had more time to talk with the former players and ask about the old days, including how they attacked hitters and used certain pitches.
"I wish I had more time to talk to those guys," Martinez said of the 2001 players. "I wanted to ask them what it was like back in the day, how did they throw certain pitches. That kind of stuff."
Veteran catcher James McCann said that kind of curiosity says a lot about Martinez and about the value of those kinds of conversations in the clubhouse.
"That's being lost a little bit in today's game because the veterans are getting pushed out," McCann said. "There's less of that going on, where young guys get to sit in the locker room after the game and talk about baseball and learn from older guys' experience. So seeing him go around and just talk to those guys says a lot about J-Mart and how he wants to get better."
Martinez was wearing a 2001 World Series T-shirt while collecting autographs, and he had it on again Saturday.
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