SCOTTSDALE, AZ — Spring training opening day for the Arizona Diamondbacks has arrived and manager Torey Lovullo spoke with ABC15 before the first pitch about what he is looking for in these early games, the team’s mindset heading into the season, and the lasting impact of the "Snakes Alive" rallying cry.
The interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity:
ABC15: Fans come for the excitement—even though the games don’t count—but from a coach's perspective, what do you focus on during spring training?
Torey Lovullo: I look at these games through a different lens. It's less about the results or the response to certain things. It's more about the movements; how the players look and how they act in certain situations. So of course, I want home runs and strikeouts and all the good things that are associated with the common fan, but I got to evaluate things a little bit differently. It can be a little bit of a challenge.
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ABC15: Any exciting names in the lineup today? Anyone you’re particularly watching?
Torey: The position players have been here for only five days, so I got to be mindful of the ramp-up. You're going to see probably half the starting lineup out there today. The other half will start in the game tomorrow, and then I [have] to stagger it. There's a lot of rules and regulations that come from Major League Baseball. I know a fan wants to see Corbin Carroll play every single day, but that's not going to happen. We got to ramp these guys up slowly.
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ABC15: What are your predictions? What are we feeling?
Torey: I feel like we're going to do something special. I just told the guys, it's going to be a lot of hard work that has to go into today, tomorrow and beyond. And at the end of the year, I want to tell a great story. So what does that mean? I don't know. There's going to be a lot of great moments, a lot of hardships, a lot of learning moments, but this is a really good cast of characters. It's a special brand that's sitting inside of that clubhouse right now that wants to go tell that story.
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ABC15: I found this [sign] on a newsroom desk. Snakes alive. I am new to the Valley. How do explain to people what this is? And how are you going bring that spirit back?
Torey: Well, there was one gentleman that came up with this, and he took this piece of paper, and we started to see it all over the stadium. And I don't know if he did all those prints himself, but it's a very, very simple Xerox copy, right? And the gentleman, it caught fire, and he was out here last year. I remember signing autographs. Handed me one I have in my office, but this is a special moment. Special moment. This was a thing that kind of threw us into the mix in the middle of a World Series run. So, I see the word chaos down there to embrace the chaos. Those were a couple triggers for us when when we see this, we know where it came from. It was a special.
