SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — Dessert enthusiast Torey Lovullo discovered an easy way to receive plenty of his favorite frozen delicacy.
Apparently, all he had to do to have chocolate peanut butter ice cream delivered to his home was manage the Arizona Diamondbacks to a World Series appearance.
"I don't know how (the fans) got my address," Lovullo said. "Some of (the ice cream) was hand delivered with no postage on it. They were just showing up on my doorstep."
Losing the fall classic on your home field to the Texas Rangers would be a good excuse to eat everything in sight, or perhaps sulk in the self-pity of what could've been, referencing his comments made immediately after the Diamondbacks lost Game 5 at Chase Field.
"I didn't suck my thumb or go camping, but I did spend a lot of time alone," Lovullo said. "I spent a lot of time very quietly dissecting what happened and going through what went right and wrong. A lot went right. I was very proud of that and it never stopped."
Neither has the franchise's belief to not be content with winning the National League pennant. As pitchers and catchers officially reported to Spring Training on Wednesday morning, Lovullo and the Diamondbacks reiterated the winning standard swirling among the clubhouse.
"I think there are maybe 7-8 guys who haven't arrived yet," Lovullo said. "I looked around that room and saw a ton of position players. We're looking about 90% of the roster here already, and I think it's been that way for several days. That speaks volumes about how committed these guys are. They're hungry. They're very hungry."
Perhaps no winning bite in the postseason was as flavorful for the Diamondbacks as the NLDS beatdown of the NL West champs during the regular season. The Diamondbacks force-fed some expired milk down the throats of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the form of a three-game sweep, leading to the Dodgers' unprecedented 10-year, $700 million investment in the form of two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani.
While his arm won't be available until 2025 due to offseason elbow surgery, Los Angeles strengthened their immediate starting rotation in other ways by trading for Tyler Glasnow and restructuring his contract in the form of $136.5 million over five years, as well as signing Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a 12-year deal worth $325 million.
The Diamondbacks didn't mimic the $1.1 billion offseason plan by their division rivals, but they refreshed their roster with free agency additions Eduardo Rodriguez (4-year, $80 million) and Joc Pederson (1-year, $14 million), and trading with the Seattle Mariners for power-hitting third baseman Eugenio Suarez.
"If we assume we can walk into this building with those additions and repeat what we did last year, we are sorely mistaken," Lovullo said. "We've got to recommit, rededicate and redefine, and we can't take anything for granted."
Arizona's two-decade absence between October baseball has put the pitching staff in unfamiliar territory, notably Zac Gallen, whose offseason training program altered due to the D-Backs' extended playoff run.
"It's a good problem to have -- a shorter offseason," Gallen said. "I was talking to (Astros infielder) Alex Bregman not too long ago, and we were joking, 'You know how it is.'
"I'm hoping that this is the start of a standard for us. We have the feeling in this clubhouse that we should make the postseason every year. That's a goal we strive for. I hope guys are holding themselves accountable. That's our goal, to be there and give ourselves a chance to finish the job."
Combining both regular season and postseason, Gallen set career-highs in wins (19), innings (243.2), and quality starts (22), failing to pitch at least six innings just 13 times in 39 starts.
Thanks to Arizona's first World Series appearance since 2001, Gallen's competitive stubbornness might've been exposed to more compromise and understanding when it comes to Lovullo's decision to manage his innings during the regular season.
"Torey and I have such a good relationship, I can go to him with something," Gallen said. "It's a good ebb and flow. I know the training stuff here, the management, they're going to be precautionary about things. Throwing 200 innings doesn't really win you anything. You've got to throw quality 200 innings."
"When he doesn't want to come out of the game, he tells me the same thing every time," Lovullo said. "(He says), 'That's BS', pretty much every time. We laugh about it. I don't like to share those comments, he doesn't like when I do, but that's pretty funny. He doesn't say BS. He says the full word."
The analytics for not just Gallen's in-game workload, but the entire team, is sturdy where it matters. It's also open to adaptation, due to Lovullo's desire to avoid a nostalgic thought process.
"My biggest fear as a manager is being caught in 1995, or 2005, or 2015," Lovullo said. "I have to evolve as a manager. I get to make every baseball decision that I want. Nothing is forced down my throat from the front office. I have great convos centered around the analytics.
"It's kind of corny, but if I'm going to have a glass of iced tea, I want it to be the perfect glass of iced tea. I'm going to put a little bit of sugar, a little bit of honey, and if I want to make it even better I'm going to put a little bit of lemon in it.
"The lemon is the analytics. I want to make the perfect glass of iced tea every single time. If I use it 5% of the time, and it helps me win a moment, I'm going to lean on it. I'm not sitting there studying and saying this is the reason I'm doing it. My gut is telling me and screaming at me. We have a lot of good people in the dugout, and I'm combining all those things to create that perfect iced tea."
Iced tea and ice cream. The Diamondbacks and the World Series. Those things just go well together.
Arizona sports
The city of Phoenix is home to five major professional sports league teams; The NFL's Arizona Cardinals, NBA's Phoenix Suns, WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, MLB's Arizona Diamondbacks and NHL's Arizona Coyotes.
The Cardinals have made State Farm Stadium in Glendale their home turf and the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix is home to both the Suns and the Mercury. The Indoor Football League’s Arizona Rattlers play at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale. The Coyotes play at Mullett Arena on ASU's Tempe campus.
Phoenix also has a soccer team with the USL's Phoenix Rising FC, who play at Phoenix Rising FC Stadium in Phoenix.
The Valley hosts multiple major sporting events on a yearly basis, including college football's Fiesta Bowl and Guaranteed Rate Bowl; the PGA Tour’s highest-attended event, the WM Phoenix Open; NASCAR events each spring and fall, including Championship Weekend in November; and Cactus League Spring Training for 15 Major League Baseball franchises.
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