Toros fold cards; Diamondbacks awaiting final shuffle

The professional baseball season in the state of Arizona for 2009 will be over in three weeks. And we can then sit back and watch the postseason with teams like the Dodgers, Cardinals, Phillies, Angels, Tigers and Yankees perform.

Our own Tucson Toros lost their best of five Golden Baseball League championship series in Calgary over the weekend. The Toros lost an 18-10 decision to the Vipers in game 4 as Calgary won the series, 3 games to 1. The Toros played their final hand by going with ace Lorenzo Barcelo, but it was to no avail as the Vipers rocked Barcelo for eight runs and 10 hits in just 3 1/3 innings.

As for the Arizona Diamondbacks, it has been a disastrous season and they are in the process of shuffling the cards one more time as the play out the balance of their schedule, which includes 18 grueling games left--six with San Diego,six with San Francisco, three with the Rockies and close it out with three games in Chicago against the Cubs. With 82 losses and counting, the Diamondbacks would probably settle for a split of their remaining games and that would leave them with a dismal 71-91 record. As it stands right now (Sept. 14) only the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Washington Nationals have worse records in the National League.

Spring training can't come soon enough for the Diamondbacks.