The Title That Binds

The state's senior senator on the Diamondbacks' unifying World Series win

By John McCain

John McCain Joe Marguette/AP

If you're looking for the events that brought people to Arizona, you have to focus on the invention of air conditioning, which made summers bearable here, and on the military's decision to build bases throughout the state during World War II to train hundreds of thousands of men and women, introducing many of them to our great state for the first time.

But if you're in search of the event that brought the people of Arizona together, that's pretty simple: the 2001 World Series, when our Diamondbacks beat the New York Yankees in Game 7 before the home crowd on a perfect November night. Luis Gonzalez's bloop single to leftfield scored Jay Bell, completing a two-run, ninth-inning comeback for a 3-2 win that gave the Diamondbacks a championship in just their fourth season, a record for a baseball expansion team.

That was the most unifying event in Arizona since statehood was granted to us in 1912. I'll never forget the night of the seventh game, leaving the stadium, which is in south Phoenix, and seeing tens of thousands of our Hispanic citizens in the streets celebrating. Later, there was a parade that 400,000 people attended. Everyone was joyous that our state was home to the world champions -- and they felt that way even though they might have arrived only a week earlier. It was a pride in the state of Arizona that I think was without precedent.

Maybe the reason the Diamondbacks' victory was such a big deal has to do with the makeup of our state. You have to understand how quickly Arizona's population has grown. At the end of WWII, Phoenix had a population of barely 100,000. Now it has more than three million people. That means people in Arizona are usually from someplace else.

Many times they bring their loyalties with them. In the springtime the toughest ticket to get in Arizona is to the Chicago Cubs' Cactus League games. That's because so many folks down here are originally from Illinois. Unfortunately, that sometimes means that the crowd isn't entirely behind the home team -- like at the Arizona Cardinals game against the Green Bay Packers in September, where there were more Cheeseheads than Cardinals hats in the stands.

While we've certainly had great collegiate success in basketball and baseball, we don't have much of a pro sports history in Arizona. We've had the Suns for a long time, but the Coyotes, the Cardinals and the Diamondbacks are, like many of our citizens, relatively new to the state. Before the '01 World Series the biggest pro sports moment in Arizona came when Charles Barkley and the Suns lost to the Chicago Bulls in the 1993 NBA Finals. Charles is probably still the most popular athlete in the state, and he hasn't played here in years. He may want to run for governor in his home state of Alabama, but I think he'd be a lock to win if he ran in Arizona.

I was a mediocre athlete growing up, and that is what makes me stand in awe of the incredible individuals on our pro teams. In high school I played football and wrestled and boxed. At the Naval Academy I boxed and wrestled. All, as I say, at a very mediocre level. But I enjoyed the competition, loved the exercise and grew to hate losing.

I remain a huge sports fan, and most of the folks in Arizona know it. A lot of them come up to me just to discuss sports. I go on the sports talk-radio shows. I go to whatever pro or college game I can. My wife says I would watch the thumb-suckers play the bed wetters!

When I'm at a game, I get to hear a lot of the concerns of other folks in the stands. On the sports front two issues continue to come up: The first is the Olympic scandals and what we in government might be able to do to fix them; the second is the use of steroids. A hell of a lot of people talk to me about that, wondering whether any of today's athletic feats are performed without the help of drugs.

But no matter the issues that may bring sports down, the '01 World Series will remain a remarkable, unifying event that I'll never forget. All over Arizona you saw people wearing Diamondbacks paraphernalia. And you saw a dramatic dropoff in Cubs hats for the first time!

Issue date: January 26, 2004