D-backs hope to prove critics wrong again

PHOENIX -- Asked whether he would play up the underdog role to his upstart Arizona Diamondbacks, who are preparing for tomorrow's NL Division Series opener against the host Brewers, Kirk Gibson initially bristled.

"Who says we're the underdog?" the grizzled manager fired back. "I don't think we feel we are. That's the most important thing."

But the more Gibson talked, the more it sounded as if he was relishing the role of dark horse.

After perfecting the chip-on-the-shoulder thing during 17 big-league seasons, it seems Gibson doesn't mind if his team plays that way, too.

"We don't need credit from people with their comments," he said. "We just need to validate ourselves through our performance and if we do, they won't have a choice to give us the credit. And if we don't? Then who cares. We'll move on."

Gibson instilled an us-against-them mindset from the first day of spring training, telling his players to become their own experts, let their hard work and play on the field dictate where the team was headed, not where the prognosticators said they would go.

It couldn't have worked out too much better.

Predicted to be headed toward another so-so year after a pair of 90-loss seasons, the Diamondbacks were one of the surprises of baseball, earning their first NL West title since 2007 on their way to winning 94 games.

-- AP