June 15

They just came off a 21-game stretch that read: S.F./L.A./@S.F./@L.A./Hou./@Bos./@NYY, and added a half-game onto their lead in the NL West. When the Diamondbacks returned home, they lost Junior Spivey to the disabled list, then Curt Schilling actually lost a game while maintaining a 12-to-11 wins-to-walks ratio. Randy Johnson, with the help of Roger Craig, is still searching for the touch on his slider. The D-Backs also acknowledge they need a veteran starter and another setup man for the stretch run.

But lest this all seem like long days in the Arizona sun, the Diamondbacks showed the boys on the East Coast that they'd better be well-scouted come September and October.

	"	The great thing about this team is that there are so many guys, especially those pitching, who know the difference between winning and losing. And that losing stinks. "
		— Mark Grace, Diamondbacks first baseman

"The Diamondbacks are like the Mariners," says Red Sox manager Grady Little. "They're very tough to play because they have a lot of dimensions. They have good defense. And they play the game the right way, hard all the time. Our players gained a lot of respect for them in our three-game series (which the Snakes swept)."

"I feel the same way about them now that I felt last fall," says Yankees manager Joe Torre. "They're a veteran team that plays hard, plays smart and plays with respect."

"I'm a D-Backs fan (and his in-laws are season suite holders at Arizona's Bank One Ballpark), so I was pretty excited to be on the same field as the world champions," says Red Sox third baseman Shea Hillenbrand. "I was really impressed. You know they're winners, but they don't strut. I respect them even more after playing them. They're good, and they're good for the game."

Even if Schilling and Johnson win and win and win and win again, there is no guarantee of another Arizona October tequila sunrise. The Giants and Dodgers are both very good and very dangerous.

"Even if we're completely healthy, we're going to be in a tough race all season," says D-Backs manager Bob Brenly. "But this is what we expected, isn't it?"

The coaching staff expects Johnson to get out of his small funk, and insist that it's not his back but his slider that has troubled him. They soon hope to get Matt Williams back, and we might see Matt Mantei again. Rick Helling has also started to locate like he did when he was at his best with the Rangers.

"I think what we have here is a willingness to play any style," says center fielder Steve Finley. "We hit a lot of home runs, but one of the reasons that we lead the league in runs is that we're able to do the little things. Guys like Craig Counsell will do anything to score a run."

"Counsell is one of those players who no one thinks is a star, but he makes a team win," says Brenly. "I think if you managed him, you'd never take him out of the lineup. We have a lot of attitude guys here. Take Mark Grace. Last year, I pinch hit Greg Colbrunn for him, and when I started to explain and apologize by telling him he'd never had success against (Cardinals lefty reliever) Steve Kline, he told me to be quiet. He said, 'If you think he has a better chance in this situation, I do, too.' Now that (Erubiel) Durazo is back, it's hard on Gracey, because he's only playing a couple of days a week. But he's right with everyone -- first to the park, last to leave, first in the trenches."

The strain on the pitching staff when Johnson isn't winning every time out is the strain on the middle of the staff, which has necessitated Byung-Hyun Kim recording more 4-plus out saves (nine) than any other closer in baseball by a large margin. So you can be certain that owner Jerry Colangelo will find cash in a cactus to get another pitcher or two.

Still, they have reached the Ides of June in first place, and for all Spivey -- whom Grace says "is the real deal, a star" -- and Counsell and others have done, Schilling is the single biggest reason they've been so successful.

"I've never been around anyone who is anywhere near as prepared to pitch each start as Curt," says Craig, who traveled to the East Coast and, as former mentor to Brenly and bench coach Bob Melvin, was given a World Series ring by Brenly. "I played with Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, and I have to say Curt and Randy are comparable. I mean it. They both work and prepare so hard it amazes me."

	Curt Schilling Starting pitcher Arizona Diamondbacks Profile
	2002 SEASON STATISTICS GM W-L IP BB SO ERA 15 12-2 109.1 11 150 2.96

And enough already with the 30-win stuff, because Schilling is going to get only 34 or 35 starts, which means he has to win all but either two or three of his remaining starts.

"I laughed the first time I was asked about 30 wins, I thought it was a joke," says Schilling. "That's a speculation thing, but it's got to be impossible."

In the era of the five-man rotation, starters get 6-8 fewer starts, and the only two pitchers since Denny McLain's 31-win season in 1968 who have come close were Steve Carlton (1972) and Bob Welch (1990), who each won 27.

The 30-win thing isn't reality. Schilling's brilliance is. At 35, his career is on an ascending plane. Why?

"Cuz I want it to be," he says. "I haven't looked at this getting older as anything but getting wiser. I know now never to enter any start without being completely prepared; in the past, I had occasional starts where it wasn't all there."

With each passing season, Schilling becomes even more adept at what he does best -- command his 93-96 mph fastball to every quadrant of the strike zone.

"On any given night, my fastball's anywhere from two to six pitches," says Schilling. "I throw a straight four seamer, and I try to work both corners of the plate. But there's middle in, down and in, up and in, middle out, down and away, and out and away. And depending on the hitter, you have anywhere from two to six fastballs, depending on how aggressive a guy is at the plate. Everything works off that. I pitch to the box. The strike zone is a box to me. And the hitter adjusts to that box, and the umpire adjusts to that box. It's a very simple theory and the hitters and the umpires adjust it for me."

Age has multiplied his sagacity.

"I think my understanding of myself, more importantly is one of the reasons why my numbers are getting a little bit better," says Schilling. "In addition, again, to us playing as well as we do on the days that I pitch. You can't put a game plan together lying about your weapons. You have to know yourself, you have to trust yourself, and you know I go out there every fifth day feeling like I know everything I could possibly know about the nine guys I'm gonna face ... and I know what kind of stuff I'm gonna have.

"If I walk out on the mound and the game starts and that stuff is above average, then I go from there. And if it's not, I go from there, too. I have really gotten to the point now where that fifth day is so very similar from start to start, that I don't, that there's no bumps in the road, so to speak."

Hours after each start, Schilling prepares for his next start by lining up opposing lineups, pitchers and conditions.

"The most important thing is the video," says Schilling. "When I was preparing to face Nomar (Garciaparra) in Boston, not having played the Red Sox very much, obviously being in the National League, I've got eight or 10 at-bats against him from interleague play (while pitching for the Phillies). I feel like I'm gonna watch myself get him out seven, eight, nine, 10 times, over and over again. I'll be out there and, uh, nothing is going to shock me. I'll know what he looks like in the box. I'll know his approach. I'll know how he reacted to my stuff two years ago, and I go from there. I just feel like it gives me an edge.

"And I feel like I do that with every hitter and the more at-bats you have against me, I think the bigger advantage I have because I've seen you cheat. I've seen you cheat on the fastball count. I've seen you behind in the count, ahead in the count, and all those things. I feel like I have the ability now to take that out there with me."

While Schilling is confident, he is fueled by what fuels so many athletes -- fear of failure.

"I'm still as nervous and afraid about fear of failure; it's a huge motivator for me. People expect a lot more from me than I would tell you I expect from myself. I'm trying to survive, I'm trying to get those first three outs in the first inning and go from there. That doesn't change. From Game 7 of the World Series to my last start, that never changes. That's what I think keeps me going. The fear of failure, if you use it right, is a tremendous motivator."

From Schilling and Johnson to Counsell and Rod Barajas to Mark Grace, the motivation carries from game to game, rings or no rings.

"The great thing about this team," says Grace, "is that there are so many guys, especially those pitching, who know the difference between winning and losing. And that losing stinks."