Rescued from baseball's scrap heap last month, Diaz, primarily a designated hitter, is helping fuel a surprising turnaround that has the team in the hunt for a playoff berth.

Such is Diaz's pull that some fans already are kicking around the idea of ditching the box seats and heading for the outfield hill, with hopes of chasing down one of his moon shots.

"Now," Diaz said after he wowed the picnickers Sunday with a 480-foot blast, "I'm just getting my power back."

Oh, so there's more, huh? This after five homers in eight games. That, and three in three consecutive games leading up to a Tuesday night showdown against Wichita, including one that caromed into a promotional bass boat near the flag pole and another that bounced into the Conco parking lot, an estimated 450-foot shot.

All this comes as the Cardinals near the midpoint of their inaugural season, and Diaz's story line is one of a handful playing out as the Cardinals continually find ways to spark more interest at Hammons Field. The Cardinals, now 29-28, are threatening to crack the minor leagues' prestigious, top-five list in attendance figures.

When the Cardinals took the field Tuesday night to play the Wichita Wranglers, they did so seeking their 11th win in 15 games. Before Tuesday, the club had a total attendance of 209,530, or an average of 7,225. That was good for seventh in the minor leagues and second in the Texas League behind Frisco, which is drawing an average of 8,566 and benefits from a ballpark location in suburban Dallas.

Diaz is one of a handful of new players who have helped with an impressive turnaround. The team lost 15 of its first 22 games and now is above the .500 mark for the first time. Only 13 of the original 24 are still on the team, many others having been purged.

Still, Springfield general manager Matt Gifford wasn't sure if Diaz would enhance the club's general admission ticket sales. Those tickets cost $5, but the club is hesitant to market individual players out of concern that their perceived gate attraction may not be so lucrative considering players may not be around for long for one reason or another.

"The problem is, he's hitting them over (the outfield fans)," Gifford joked. "We need to tell him to back off a little bit."

Monster shots

No doubt, Diaz has put on quite a show. A homer Friday night to the left of the center-field evergreens caromed into a promotional bass boat and won Diaz and a fan a fishing trip with a professional angler. From his bat on Saturday night came a grand slam that traveled over the concourse beyond the left-field bullpen, over the chain-link fence and needed one bounce to land in the parking lot where Conco parks its cement trucks.

Those, however, were trumped by a moon shot on Sunday afternoon, a 480-foot, tape-measure hack that landed just to the left of the scoreboard. Ruddy Yan, the Frisco Roughriders center fielder that afternoon, didn't even bother to turn around and give chase.

"That was a shot and a half," said Boyd Allen, the fan who tracked down the ball near the chain-link fence.

Allen said he usually buys box seats, but with Diaz around, may make the outfield his preferred location. He thinks Diaz could win over fans in southwest Missouri.

"I think he's well on his way after today and last night," Allen said.

Even 9-year-old Chelsea Polonus of Battlefield was urging her dad after Sunday's game to buy her a Springfield Cardinals jersey with Diaz's number on the back.

"I'm a Cubs fan, and there isn't going to be anything Cardinal in my house," Eric Polonus said.

"C'mon," Chelsea urged him.

When the suggestion was made to Gifford that Diaz ought to receive a commission for selling extra general admission tickets, Gifford just grinned.

"I think he'd be a fan treat for Frisco in the home run derby," Gifford said, already promoting the slugger and politicking for a belated All-Star nomination. "When he connects, I don't think anyone hits the ball harder."

It's been that way in the outfield hill. A lot of excitement. Even when Diaz arrived on May 19, three of his batting-practice homers nailed the Coca-Cola sign on the lower left-hand side of the scoreboard.

That opened eyes, but so did Diaz's size. He arrived weighing 311 pounds, the result of a nearly eight-month layoff after nursing a broken ankle that led the Minnesota Twins to release him from their Triple-A Rochester roster in the offseason.

That didn't steer the Cardinals the other way. Instead, acting on a tip through assistant general manager John Mozeliak, St. Louis farm director Bruce Manno invited Diaz to extended spring training but didn't set a date by which Diaz had to impress.

"You don't want to cut the opportunity short and then realize you didn't wait long enough," Manno said.

Diaz's normal playing weight is around 265, but he has been issued a size 52 jersey — the largest in the equipment room — and a pant size of 44? inches around the waist.

Diaz said he is down to 299 pounds. He is now using a bat that measures 34? inches in length and is placing the nob of the bat in his palm, thus allowing Diaz to cover much of the strike zone.

"I'm impressed with the way he comes to the ballpark every day," Cardinals hitting coach Dallas Williams said. "He's on the treadmill. He's getting his work in. He's a pretty good example of what guys should be doing."

Marketing

You have to wonder what kind of marketing blitz would be suitable for Diaz.

T-shirts perhaps? Naming the outfield hill "Diaz's Deck" would be a possibility. Unfortunately, "Juan Gone" was taken long ago by former Texas Rangers slugger Juan Gonzalez. Cecil Fielder, a former big-league slugger with the Tigers and Yankees, all but owns the rights to "Big Daddy," a suitable nickname for Diaz considering his two toddlers will be arriving to town with his wife later this month.

Who knows? If he keeps this up, he might even steal Papo Bolivar's fans, who love to holler "Pahhh-po" before his at-bats.

A grand marketing scheme may be difficult, though. Diaz speaks broken English but speaks softly. His smile, however, could be the perfect thing for a billboard and clever way to woo more spectators.

However, the Cardinals are following a long-standing protocol in the minor leagues by not doing much promoting of specific players.

"As soon as you market a player," Gifford said, explaining the possibility of a sudden departure, "then you've just sunk your marketing. The highest-profile player we've had was Rick Ankiel, and we didn't market him.."

For now, Diaz will have to settle for watching fans scramble after his home run blasts. He has spent nearly a decade in the minors and has seen much. Then again, he has never been on a team that had a bass boat as a promotional tool. There is talk that the boat will be given away at season's end, although the club has yet to make that official.

Diaz just laughed at the thought.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with a boat," he said.

Use it for target practice, perhaps?