The Texas Rangers host the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night.
PHOENIX — The party was wet and raucous. For the first time in six years and just two seasons after losing 110 games, the Arizona Diamondbacks had clinched a playoff spot, sealing up a National League wild card on the season’s penultimate day.
Clad in neon ski goggles and champagne-soaked black shirts, the celebrants filled Chase Field’s signature pool in right-center. A spontaneous roll call began, summoning coaches and executives into the water, and one by one they took the plunge. Yet Mike Hazen, the team’s general manager and the architect of this surprisingly competitive club, remained planted among onlookers on the outfield turf. “You have to come up here!” special assistant Jason McLeod beckoned from above, but Hazen just smiled and shook his head. Moments later, another mantra arose — HAZEN! HAZEN! HAZEN! — and this time the executive relented. The 47-year-old GM vaulted the fence and leaped into the frothy water. After three years defined by heartbreak, it was a splashdown of pure joy. In May 2020, a seizure had gripped Hazen’s wife, Nicole, the first sign of what would soon be diagnosed as glioblastoma, a malignant brain cancer that claims most patients within two years. As the Diamondbacks flopped in that year’s pandemic-shortened 60-game season, Hazen was also managing the care of his wife and the well-being of his four school-age boys. Nicole’s decline hastened in 2021 as Arizona limped to the second-worst record in club history, leading Hazen to spend more time away from the park. Last August, when Nicole died 26 months after her diagnosis, he considered never returning. Read the full story
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