Arizona Diamondbacks Baseball Team

Shawn Green's negotiations with the Arizona Diamondbacks to waive his no-trade clause are in serious jeopardy, sources said Wednesday night, and the slugger could end up playing for the Dodgers despite their best efforts to trade him. Despite the uncertainty regarding Green, the Dodgers completed a deal for left-handed starter Odalis Perez, contingent on a physical Friday.

It took off-season trade talks with at least four teams, but the Dodgers are close to unloading slugger Shawn Green to the Arizona Diamondbacks and taking another dramatic step in reshuffling their roster and redistributing payroll. The only person who could derail the deal now is the 32-year-old slugger, who according to industry sources has not given any assurances to the Dodgers or Diamondbacks that he is willing to waive his no-trade clause.

PHOENIX -- The Colorado Rockies had lost once in 25 days with Willy Taveras in the dugout, charging from fourth place in the National League West to Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. So the decision to put Taveras back at the top of his lineup for Thursday's NLCS opener wasn't one Colorado Manager Clint Hurdle made lightly. But it's one that turned out successfully, with Taveras scoring the go-ahead run to spark the Rockies to a 5-1 over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

DENVER -- Tony Clark, protected from a bone-numbing chill by a cotton pullover, looked out at the slate-gray skies over Coors Field late Sunday afternoon and feigned indifference to the weather. "What elements?" the Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman said. "We knew coming in it was going to be chilly. We knew there was going to be a possibility of rain." But the Fogg, apparently, caught them by surprise.

DENVER -- The Arizona Diamondbacks might be down 0-2, but they're not out of the best-of-seven National League Championship Series, outfielder Eric Byrnes said Saturday. In fact, if you ask him, they have outplayed the Colorado Rockies even though the scoreboard hasn't reflected that. "I'm sure you guys are all probably writing us off. I don't blame you," he told reporters before a brisk late-afternoon workout at Coors Field.

DENVER -- Shortly after Willy Taveras went to the sidelines with a strained quadriceps last month, the Colorado Rockies embarked on a historic winning streak, leaping from fourth to second in the National League West, beating the San Diego Padres in a one-game playoff to earn the league's last postseason berth, then sweeping the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL division series.

DENVER -- Trailing 3-0 in the series, Arizona Manager Bob Melvin stuck by his decision to keep Brandon Webb, the league's reigning Cy Young Award winner, in the dugout for Monday's fourth game of the National League Championship Series rather than pitch him on three days' rest. "He's never done it before," Melvin said of Webb, who led the league with 236 1/3 innings pitched. "The history of it, the volume of work, all those things. I didn't want to do that to him for all those reasons."

As Devon White backhanded Rey Sanchez's long fly ball to secure the Arizona Diamondbacks' first victory, Manager Buck Showalter stood on the top step of the dugout and savored the scene. "You only get these moments once and I wanted to see the joy it brought not only to the players but to the fans," Showalter said Sunday night after his Diamondbacks edged the San Francisco Giants, 3-2.

It is opening night, the first official game for the Arizona Diamondbacks as a member of the National League. The real thing. The debut of major league baseball in the Valley of the Sun. Amid the beat, in and out of $355-million Bank One Ballpark, Brian Anderson, the former Angel and Cleveland Indian left hander who now pitches for the Diamondbacks, provides a little perspective.

The not-so-mighty Angels and Dodgers struck out in their pursuit of free-agent left-hander Randy Johnson, who agreed to a four-year, $52.4-million deal with his hometown Arizona Diamondbacks Monday. Angel General Manager Bill Bavasi and Dodger General Manager Kevin Malone hoped to fill considerable voids in their rotations with Johnson, who is now the highest-paid pitcher in baseball, and both teams--along with the Texas Rangers--made offers to Johnson in the four-year, $50-million range.