AHEAD IN THE COUNT

Buck Showalter's little black book is now a big black binder. It contains notations on the major and minor league players he has seen the last 21/2 years, which is, precisely, all of them. This "cheat sheet,'' as Showalter calls it, was lugged to eight countries and 150 ballparks, and what isn't in the binder is logged permanently in his head. "My wife says I can't remember names of people I was introduced to five minutes later, but I can remember pitch sequences from three years ago,'' he says. "It's all about what you're interested in.'' Showalter is interested in making the Arizona Diamondbacks the best expansion team in history, and the model franchise in baseball by the millennium. If he doesn't, it won't be for lack of preparation. Nobody outprepares Buck Showalter.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are also positioned to prosper quickly. Both teams have money, while 22 of the other 28 franchises say they don't. Both have quality players who want to play for them, and they have vigorous farm and scouting systems. No expansion team has opened on such firm footing as these two.

The Diamondbacks' spring training facility in Tucson is arguably the best in baseball. Righthander Jeff Suppan, selected from Boston in the expansion draft, was pining for the Red Sox until he saw the complex. Instantly, he was sold. Andy Benes, according to his agent, had some other big offers on the table, including a couple from contenders, but took less money to sign with the Diamondbacks. They are among 250 major leaguers who live in the Phoenix area. Says Benes: "We'll be able to sign anybody we want.'' One potential free agent, Seattle's Randy Johnson, is building a Home Depot-sized mansion there. Don't be surprised if Buck hands the ball to the Big Unit on Opening Day, 1999.

Showalter racked up a zillion frequent flier miles—and gave them back to the organization—building the team. After the expansion draft, he and Mel Didier, Arizona's director of player development, made the old Phoenix to Santo Domingo to San Juan to Santo Domingo (again) to Caracas to Puerto del Sol to Caracas (again) to Phoenix milk run. They saw 13 D-back players. "I didn't want to be meeting them for the first time when they got to spring training,'' Showalter says.

Because they were building from scratch, Showalter and his scouting staff concentrated on players with sterling reputations, players such as shortstop Jay Bell, whom Showalter has known for 20 years. They looked for catchers in the 28-year-old range because, says Showalter, that's when catchers often peak. (Arizona's starting catcher, Jorge Fabregas, turned 28 on March 13.) They searched for pitchers who throw with their arm "in the slot,'' says Showalter, just like Roger Clemens, Nolan Ryan and Benes, Arizona's Opening Day starter.

Showalter's black binder is now as thick as the Diamondbacks' organizational manual, which he designed, and includes everything from first-and-third bunt plays to training-room procedures. He has enjoyed having input on most everything done by the franchise. He had the team caps revised because the A was too big. The stools in the spring training conference room were more yellow than gold in color, so he sent them back. "If it's not the right shade of blue in New York, it's no big deal,'' he said. "But we're just starting out here. We want to do it right.''

The manager's desire for perfection is shared by Diamondbacks owner Jerry Colangelo, whom Showalter calls "The Heat,'' because "he's exactly what the boss should be.'' First of all, he's involved. At the club's first spring workout, Colangelo stopped to watch a pitcher named Ynocencio de la Cruz throw. "We got him in the Rule 5 draft,'' he said. Colangelo then watched batting practice from behind the fence—he may be hands-on, but he knows his place, and it isn't on the field. "Can you imagine George standing behind a fence?'' Showalter asked.

What The Heat does, even more freely than The Boss, is spend money. This winter, he signed third baseman Matt Williams for five years, $45 million, and Bell for five years, $34 million. Crazy? Maybe it won't look so smart in 2002, when Williams and Bell will each be 36, but right now the signings give the young team veteran leadershipand one of the best left sides of the infield in baseball.

"All the NBA players want to play in Phoenix because of Jerry,'' Bell says. "In a couple of years, so will the baseball players.'' Maybe sooner than that. As spring training began, Fabregas lost his arbitration case—he got $875,000, not the $1.5 million he sought. Then, in an unprecedented move that has left owners from Oakland to Montreal gnashing their teeth, Colangelo ripped up Fabregas' contract and gave him a two-year, $2.9 million contract.

The Fabregas case doesn't mean The Heat has been spending too much time in The Sun. It just means business as usual for an owner whose guiding principle for 32 years in sports has always been the same: Invest in the product. "Jerry doesn't worry about expenses because he knows he can generate revenue like crazy,'' says Orioles GM Pat Gillick, who predicts Arizona will be among the top five revenue-producing teams in '98. "Most owners see how they can cut and save. This guy is confident he'll make money, so he spends. He doesn't think he can be stopped.''

With his dough, resources and vision, maybe he can't. Colangelo last year gave amateur free agent first baseman Travis Lee a $10 million signing bonus, which angered executives throughout baseball. But Lee"the best hitter I've seen in 45 years,'' says Didier—already looks like a bigger, stronger version of Will Clark. And it was Colangelo who snagged Showalter soon after the Yankees let him walk in 1995. Showalter was making $450,000 when he quit, and he didn't have many attractive options, so naturally The Heat gave him a seven-year, $7 million deal.

Tampa's manager, Larry Rothschild, is Showalter's equal as a baseball man, but he wasn't hired until January. Tampa's ballpark, Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, has gone from horrible to respectable after $75 million in renovations, but it's still no match for Phoenix's spectacular Bank One Ballpark, with its retractable roof, natural grass and swimming pool in the rightfield stands.

The 48,500 who show up on March 31 won't just be watching the Diamondbacks' debut against the Rockies. They'll be witnesses to a whole new ballgame.

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