Will Phoenix sports fans ever catch a break? Devin Booker's hamstring just the latest blow
Those Phoenix friends I have who grew up here or raised families here always shot me a knowing glance when I got optimistic about the city’s pro sports franchises.
Now I know what they meant.
The Diamondbacks can’t hit. The Cardinals don’t have a quarterback. The hockey club is apparently in the throes of an ancient Indian curse. The Mercury's best player is in a Russian prison. And Devin Booker is out with a bum hamstring.
Can’t say my friends didn’t try to warn me.
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Let’s start with the baseball team.
They got rid of Dave Stewart and demoted Tony La Russa a few years ago as the guys in charge of acquiring baseball talent. They replaced Stewart with Mike Hazen and told us he was a genius hybrid mixing analytics and old-school baseball. And when Hazen still had a roster mostly populated by Stewart and La Russa’s guys, they won some baseball games, even reaching the playoffs in 2017.
I was ecstatic.
The people who’ve been around longer than me just shook their heads. They gave me the look a farmer gives a city slicker who’s about to walk behind a donkey and get kicked in the teeth.
Since that wild-card win, Hazen has lost Paul Goldschmidt, one of the best first basemen of his generation, a slew of high-quality pitchers (Zack Greinke, Patrick Corbin, Robbie Ray, Taijuan Walker and Archie Bradley) and the most useful utility guy you’d ever want to meet in Daniel Descalso.
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Hazen’s Diamondbacks finished in last place in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. They lost 110 games last season. And now they can’t hit.
The Diamondbacks, again in last place, scored one run over their past three games entering play on Wednesday, when they finally broke out in a big way. Still, in the 11 previous games, they had failed to score more than two runs six times, and they’ve been shut out three times.
That smacks of failure in the batter’s box and at the computer keyboard.
But, hey, at least the Mets and Dodgers are set to hit Chase Field, giving people a chance to root for teams they left — at the expense of fans trying their best to root for the home team, which is giving them nothing to cheer for.
At least there’s football, right?
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Where is Kyler Murray?
Not so fast. The Cardinals are holding voluntary workouts and Kyler Murray isn’t there.
First, skeptics said the Cardinals shouldn’t even have Murray. Now that he’s changed everybody’s mind by proving himself as one of the most dynamic young players in the sport, there’s a chance the team could lose him?!
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The Cardinals made a trade to draft a quarterback from UCLA, Josh Rosen, who was hailed as a brainiac, but who turned out to be an overthinker. Instead of taking what the defense gave him, he tried to score a touchdown on every play.
The team had a rookie coach (Steve Wilks), a rookie offensive coordinator (Byron Leftwich) and a rookie quarterback (Rosen) and then everybody tried to act surprised when it didn’t work. The coach got fired. The offensive coordinator went to Tampa Bay and won a Super Bowl. And the quarterback got replaced by Murray, who wants a new contract.
Cue the rumors, speculation and whispers! Will Murray play? Or won’t he? Will he get a contract? Or get traded?
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All we can say for sure is that he’s not here now. And while the workouts are “voluntary,” it would be nice if he volunteered to be in town with his teammates.
The fired coach, by the way? He’s suing for discrimination. The team has said Wilks’s allegations aren’t true.
At least we have hockey, right?
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Are the Coyotes cursed?
Not really.
Leaders in the Hopi tribe said last year that they weren’t consulted about the Coyotes’ kachina logo, which is a hit with fans, but sacrilege to ancient cultural, religious traditions.
Maybe it has something to do with why the Coyotes are in last place and on a seven-game losing streak?
Or why they drafted a bully and then cut him before he ever wore the apparently accursed sweater?
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Or why their best player, Clayton Keller, is out for the year with a fractured leg?
Maybe it’s a coincidence? I’d just like to see the two sides get together and work things out.
For now, don’t we have the Mercury heating up?
Related: 5 reasons Coyotes are worth watching despite low win total
'They wouldn't move the Suns'
Let’s not get too crazy.
Phoenix’s WNBA team made the finals last year, but had to play in a college gym during the playoffs because their home arena was booked for a pop concert.
Brittney Griner, one of the most dominant players in the history of the sport, pointed out the inequality best. “They wouldn’t move the Suns,” she said.
That same inequality contributed to her current status as a Russian prisoner.
Griner was arrested after authorities accused her of having cannabis oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. She faces years behind bars.
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She never should have been over there, especially as international tensions increased over Ukraine; and she wouldn’t have been over there, if U.S. athletes playing women’s sports were paid like their male counterparts.
But the Suns! Surely, we can cheer for the Suns, right?!
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Ouch: Report: Booker could miss 2-3 weeks with right hamstring strain
Booker's hammy is latest lament
They made the finals last year. They were the best team in the NBA this year. And we’ve got Devin Booker! He’s one of the brightest stars in the league!
Book clubbed New Orleans for 31 points in the first half of their playoff game Tuesday night. Then he got hurt, sending a collective groan through a fanbase that has been on the wrong end of the greatest game in NBA history, a referee scandal and a coinflip.
The Suns said in a statement that the hamstring strain was “mild.”
That’s good because without Booker, fans were going to be hot, as in steaming mad.
But now that I’ve been through all this, I understand what my friends were trying to tell me.
The pro teams around here are usually like donkeys, looking to make a you-know-what out of fans and observers who get too optimistic.
Reach Moore at gmoore@azcentral.com or 602-444-2236. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @SayingMoore.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Booker's hamstring newest cloud on frustrating Phoenix sports horizon
