There is an energy to the 2010 D-backs that is palpable the moment you set foot in the clubhouse or on the fi eld for batting practice. It isn’t that the team got younger. It didn’t. The D-backs are, collectively, an older club than the 2009 version. And the exuberance isn’t just with the youngest players like Justin Upton of Gerardo Parra, it’s evident with everyone, from Dan Haren to Adam LaRoche, from Bob Howry to Mark Reynolds. On March 9 in a Spring Training game against the Cincinnati Reds, Conor Jackson went 3-for-3 with a pair of runs and a double, and while that may seem like nothing special inasmuch as it happened in an exhibition, it was exactly what the D-backs needed to see.

The team’s lineup suffered innumerable problems in 2009 stemming largely from the fact that the most dependable on-base machine was shut down in early May, and had been rendered ineffective even before that with Valley fever. “I’m just happy to have energy,” Jackson said, “that was my main goal coming in to this year.” Jackson is back and that’s music to the ears of his fellow D-backs who look to rebound in 2010 behind a bolstered lineup, a reinforced pitching staff and a revamped group of coaches. “I think the last thing we’re thinking about here is what we did last year,” Jackson said. “That’s the great thing about Spring Training.

We started on a clean slate.” Jackson got off to a hot start in Spring Training and kept it going, shooting line drives to the outfi eld the way he has when he’s helped carry the D-backs offense in the past. In addition to Jackson, another signifi cant focus this Spring was on Brandon Webb, who was perhaps the best pitcher in the National League from 2006-2008. A shoulder injury sustained on Opening Day in 2009 knocked him out for the year, but Webb spent the offseason focusing on a full return to health, and a full return to the D-backs rotation. Though that may be delayed a bit at the outset while he builds his arm strength, Webb is expected to contribute to the D-backs for most of this season.

“When Brandon Webb is healthy, what he does for a team’s morale and a team’s belief in whether or not we can win can’t really be measured,” Manager A.J. Hinch said. “Him alone, getting back to health, and putting him in a rotation that includes Dan Haren and Edwin Jackson and competition for the other guys, it just makes your team feel better. It makes your team feel like you have a chance to win every time he’s on the mound.” Hinch led a newly assembled D-backs coaching staff through a successful Spring Training this season. Kirk Gibson and Glenn Sherlock are the veterans. Jack Howell and Mel Stottlemyre Jr. are experienced, having joined the club during the 2009 season, but they got to work with the team from the outset in 2010, a significant luxury in a game predicated on repetition and mechanics. First Base Coach Matt Williams and Third Base Coach Bo Porter are the new guys, and both were integral immediately in Spring Training, with Williams running infield drills in workouts and after batting practice on game days, and Porter running outfield drills throughout camp.

Of course, the coaches aren’t the only additions to the uniformed personnel. LaRoche, Howry, Jackson, Ian Kennedy, Aaron Heilman and Kelly Johnson all donned Sedona Red with the intention of winning championships. LaRoche and Johnson played alongside each other in the second half of last season with the Atlanta Braves, and came up through the Braves’ minor league system together. “They bring a lot to our team in their presence,” Hinch said. “It helps for them with this team that they played together, it’s probably an easier transition for them. They’ve made themselves right at home. They don’t look the least bit uncomfortable as far as joining a new team.” The pair should lend support to a D-backs offense that was mostly carried last year by players still establishing themselves. Reynolds and Miguel Montero made huge strides last year, but nobody made a bigger leap than Upton. D-backs fans and baseball as a whole quickly ignored the fact that he was only 21 when his name was called at the All-Star Game in St. Louis.

This year, Upton should continue to rocket toward baseball superstardom, but will be well supported in the process. “I don’t want to put so much pressure on (Upton) that he thinks he needs to carry our team,” Hinch said. “One thing that we’ve established this offseason is that the additions of LaRoche and Johnson and Jackson to our lineup — and obviously Reynolds and Montero are a year older, a healthy Snyder and Drew coming back — we’ve got a lot of guys who can carry us at different parts of the year and he doesn’t have to be the only guy producing in the lineup.” The organization worked out a long-term contract with Upton prior to the season that will keep him in a D-backs uniform through 2015.

It was something of a theme for the team this winter, working out multi-year deals with young players. Reynolds signed a three year deal with a club option for a fourth midway through Spring Training, and Edwin Jackson signed a two-year deal in February. Jackson, who has now been traded three times, said he’s looking forward to staying in the same clubhouse for a couple of years. “It’s always good to have some stability,” he said. “Through the years I have spent time in clubhouses year-to-year, but now to be locked in, I can really get adjusted and get acquainted with my teammates. By two years, you know everybody, they know you, and you know each other’s habits, likes and dislikes. It’s always nice to know that you have some stability and you’ll be settled in for a couple years.”

There will be a lot of spectacular things to see at Chase Field in 2010. The defending National League champion Philadelphia Phillies come to town for a weekend series in April (23-25), giving the D-backs an early shot at showing baseball the new, improved squad in 2010. The New York Yankees, reigning World Series champs, will be making only their second regular season trip to Chase Field in June. In games that will likely fill the house, D-backs fans can buy a number of different ticket packages that can put them in the seats and help hold a home field advantage against a formidable opponent. The D-backs will take on the rival Dodgers in a pair of significant series at Chase Field, the first coming on Fourth of July weekend, when the D-backs will have three days of celebration, with fireworks presented by Gila River Casinos.

The Dodgers are on the schedule again when the D-backs close out the home schedule on Sept. 24-26. Fandemonium weekend might be complete with important games to decide the NL West, especially when you include three games against Colorado (Sept. 21-23) that precede the Dodgers series. The D-backs have a new coaching staff, several new key contributors on the field, and an edge that suggests something special is happening in the desert in 2010.

New Orleans Saints Champions of Super Bowl XLIV

Many football fans, leading with their head, viewed the Indianapolis Colts as the better team coming into Super Bowl XLIV. But when all the multicolored confetti had rained down on Sun Life Stadium, after the New Orleans Saints took down the favored Colts 31-17, the game turned out to be about heart. After the Saints won their first National Football League championship -- 43 years after they played their first game -- they talked about the once-ravaged city they represent. “We play for so much more than ourselves,” said Saints quarterback Drew Brees with his brown hair matted to his forehead. “We played for our city.

We played for the entire Gulf Coast region. We played for the entire Who Dat nation that has been behind us every step of the way.” Brees referenced trying to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina -- and a football franchise, too. Burn those bags. Put the S back in front of those Ain’ts. These Saints, finally, are Superb. “It means everything,” Brees said. “We’re here because of their strength and everything they fought through here the last few years. They’ve given us so much support, so we owe it all to our fans.”

Some 700 miles away from Sun Life Stadium, it was All Saints Night on Bourbon Street as the French Quarter rocked with something approaching Mardi Gras intensity. “Just to think of the road we’ve all traveled, the adversity we’ve all faced,” Brees said. “It’s unbelievable. I mean, are you kidding me? Four years ago, whoever thought this would be happening? Eighty-five percent of the city was under water. Most people left not knowing if New Orleans would ever come back, or if the organization would ever come back. “We just all looked at one another and said, ‘We’re going to rebuild together. We are going to lean on each other.’ That’s what we’ve done the last four years and this is the culmination in all that belief.”

‘Saints and Colts Set the Stage for Super Bowl XLIV’