Frank Gennario was on board on Opening Day. The actual Opening Day for the Arizona Diamondbacks franchise. And he has held season tickets every year. His fandom is among the stories being highlighted as part of the USA TODAY Network’s search for the nation’s ultimate sports fan. A select number of fans will advance to a bracket-style competition this fall to crown a champion.
It was October 1999, and Chandler resident Frank Gennario, an Arizona Diamondbacks season ticket holder from Day 1 of the franchise, kept getting asked which team he wanted to win the New York Mets-Diamondbacks playoff series.
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Gennario, a New York City native and Mets fan who is now 68, carried his love of the Mets in his heart living and working in Arizona since 1982. Right up until Todd Pratt’s Game 4-winning walk-off home run that won the series for the Mets.
“My heart was in my stomach,” Gennario said. “Anybody that’s a sports fan and knows that gut feeling, for three days I was down in the dumps. At the end of it, I said, ‘I know where my heart is. … I’m a Diamondback fan now.’ Because I was literally sick.”
Gennario has missed just six Diamondbacks games at Chase Field since Opening Day 1998, three of them this year because he attended his son Tony’s wedding in Sonoma, California, in May. He’s at upwards of 2,200 games over almost 28 seasons, and even before the Diamondbacks existed, had season tickets to minor league Phoenix Giants and Firebirds games.
Tony was a Diamondbacks batboy who is now a clubhouse attendant. His college graduation was another reason Frank missed a home game.
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As a Firebirds season ticket holder, Frank had higher priority for his choice of where to sit and chose field-level seats at Chase Field that in those days were $25 a ticket. At first he was behind the visiting dugout, but as the years went on, other season ticket members near him ended their memberships, and fans of other teams began scooping up the tickets near Gennario’s seats.
Eventually he moved to the Diamondbacks’ dugout side, along third base, and is at the ballpark night after night with some of his closest friends who have become like family. Some of the fans he originally sat with moved from the first base side to his side, where Gennario has settled in.
Arizona Diamondbacks fan Frank Gennario, who says he attended every home game of the franchise’s existence except 6 games missed for family emergencies and celebrations, was in attendance to watch them play the Colorado Rockies at Chase Field on Aug. 10, 2025.
“I can’t imagine moving. Best seats in the house,” Gennario said. His tickets now cost about $100.
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Good fortune helped him attend a game and make it to his daughter’s Chandler High School graduation on the same night. Gennario left after five innings to make sure it was an official game, then got to the school before the ceremony started.
“That was a close call,” he said.
When his daughter was planning her wedding for early October, Gennario good-naturedly told her that if the Diamondbacks were in the playoffs, he’d be at Chase Field.
“If I’m not at the wedding, I don’t pay for the wedding,” Gennario told his daughter laughing at the memory of the moment. “She got married November 15th.”
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The Luis Gonzalez single in Game 7 to win the Diamondbacks their only World Series title stands out, of course, as Gennario’s most memorable moment at a game. But the most meaningful was what the club did for him and his family after his grandson died at age 2.
The day the child died, Gennario didn’t attend the game. A few days later, the team surprised him by arranging for Frank to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a game.
There was no mention of his grandson. And then came the public address announcement that Tony, a batboy at the time, was behind home plate to catch the pitch.
“I knew nothing about it,” Gennario said. “Every time I think about it, it chokes me up a little bit.”
Arizona Diamondbacks fan Frank Gennario, who says he attended every home game of the franchise’s existence, with the exception of 6 games missed for family emergencies and celebrations, takes score as he watches them play the Colorado Rockies at Chase Field on Aug. 10, 2025.
Diamondbacks president Derrick Hall was there and suggested that Tony sign the ball, as is tradition when a player catches a first pitch from whoever throws it. The ball has a place of honor in one of Gennario’s three rooms in his home full of Diamondbacks memorabilia.
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“That’s my most prized possession,” he said, fighting back tears. “That’s a moment that really meant (a lot). On a personal level, that tops everything.
“The Diamondbacks, they set that up. They sent a flower arrangement that was bigger than my grandson’s casket to the service. It is family. It really, really is. They’re incredible.”
Arizona Diamondbacks’ Ultimate Fan
Hometown: Chandler, Arizona by way of New York City.
Team: Arizona Diamondbacks.
Years of fandom: Almost 28, since Day 1 of the franchise.
How it started: A big baseball fan with memories of attending Mets games as a kid, Gennario moved to Arizona early in adulthood and started attending minor league games in Phoenix. When the city got a major league team, he was all in with season tickets.
How it’s going: He has missed only a handful of games since Opening Day 1998.
Most memorable moment as a fan of the Diamondbacks (and why)? Following the tragic death of his grandson, the Diamondbacks organization invited him to throw out the first pitch. To his surprise, his son Tony was behind the plate to catch the pitch. Tony, a Diamondbacks clubhouse employee, signed the ball from the first pitch and Frank calls it his most prized possession.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Frank Gennario finishing 28 years of Diamondbacks fandom