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Great 9news Story:
Resilient Rockies make first World Series
posted by: Jeffrey Wolf, Web Producer -- Last updated: 10/16/2007 2:04:36 PM
DENVER (AP) - It's October in Colorado. The Broncos are playing. The leaves are turning red and yellow and brown. The dominant color in the Mile High City these days, though, is purple.
It's "Rocktober" in Colorado.
The Rockies, crazy as it sounds, are in the World Series.
No Curse of the Bambino. No Wrigley Field goat. Just pure Rockies magic.
Sad-sack losers almost all their 15 seasons of existence, the Rockies have won 21 of 22 games and seven in a row in the playoffs.
Suddenly, it's cool to wear a black and purple Rockies cap around town. First baseman Todd Helton is a bigger star than the Broncos quarterback, Jay Cutler.
"I didn't see this happening," Colorado fan Jeff Zebrowksi said before the Rockies defeated Arizona on Monday night to win the National League pennant and make it to baseball's biggest stage. "Maybe two or three years from now, but not now. We're too young as a team."
As fantastic and unlikely as it may seem to that handful of long-suffering season-ticket holders who watched their team veer from early success to unbecoming circus act to essentially irrelevant, it carries an even more poignant meaning in a city that cruelly flirted with baseball for decades, only to have its heart broken again and again.
Today, the thought of the one-time purveyors of the unwatchable, four-hour, 12-11 slugfest in the World Series sounds every bit as outlandish and tantalizing as the idea 30 years ago that Major League Baseball would someday land in Denver.
Denver finally did get its team. Now the city stands one step from the next baseball milestone in what has been an emotional, memory-filled ride for any native who also happens to be a sports fan.
Yes, Denver has always been a football town - a city that attached itself to the Broncos and married much of its self-esteem and hope to heroes wearing orange and blue.
There probably will never be a feeling like the one this city enjoyed in 1977, during that improbable, impossible first trip to the Super Bowl. The Orange Crush, Broncomania. Nobody expected that. Denver had finally arrived.
Twenty long years later, when the Broncos finally won the Super Bowl - "This one's for John!" - nobody could smirk anymore when someone referred to Denver among the most credible of sports towns, right there with Philly or Houston or Chicago.
In between those football-filled autumns, there had to be something to do to pass the time. There was. It was just on a much smaller scale.
Mile High Stadium - the real Mile High Stadium that is now a parking lot adjacent to the new Invesco Field - was originally Bears Stadium, a 17,000-seater built on the corner of 19th and Clay in 1948 for the Denver Bears of the old Western League.
Within 20 years, the place was expanded and renamed so it could become a viable home for the Broncos.
Watching baseball there, after the Bears had moved into Triple-A and the American Association, was a surreal experience.
In the late 1970s and early '80s, a kid could go to the grocery store and buy a badge for $5 that was essentially a season ticket, provided he went to the game with a paying adult. An adult ticket usually ran about $5, too.
You could drive to the stadium, park in a spot that would cost $75 today, take seats about 20 rows up from third base and watch the action unfold -- one of 2,500 or so fans whose cheers echoed and ricocheted throughout the cavernous, metal, 75,000-seat stadium.
Someday, the thinking went, that stadium would be home to a big-league team.
That was always a dream that seemed close, yet so far away for Denver. Charley Finley nearly sold his Oakland Athletics to Colorado businessman Marvin Davis, who would have moved them to the Mile High City in the early '80s. A few times, the headlines screamed that it was all but a done deal. It never happened.
More than a decade later, Colorado finally got its own team.
They were embraced, first playing in front of sellout crowds at Mile High, where Eric Young hit a homer in the very first Rockies home at-bat -- a moment that stood out, until this month, as arguably the most memorable in franchise history.
In 1995, they moved to Coors Field, the retro-style ballpark that sparked the revival of the LoDo neighborhood in downtown Denver and became the town's favorite meeting place during Colorado's cool summer nights.
A playoff appearance that year portended good things to come. It didn't happen.
Turns out, the arrival of the big-time turned out to be almost as cruel as its longtime absence had been for Denver. The Rockies slowly slipped into obscurity and irrelevance brought about by poor management, bad decisions and thoroughly unlovable players.
Other expansion teams, Florida and Arizona, won the World Series. Colorado bought a humidor - not for cigars, victory or otherwise, but for baseballs. Keeping moisture in the balls was supposed to keep them from flying out of Coors Field so frequently.
That was 2002. The number of ungainly 12-11 games declined, but the bottom line - wins and losses - didn't improve.
"We had season tickets for a long time," said Karen Brennan of Castle Rock, an 85-mile round trip from the stadium. "We went for the first five years. The progress of the team and having to drive made us give up the season tickets."
Brennan is back now, and so are many fans who once left the Rockies behind. The turnstiles are rocking again, and people come for the baseball. Not to watch the Cubs or the Yankees or Barry Bonds or some other visitor. To watch the Rockies.
It's "Rocktober" in Colorado.
The World Series is coming to Denver.
How crazy does that sound?
Colorado Rockies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Established 1993
Major league affiliations
* National League / West Division(1993–present)
Other nicknames
* The Rocks, The Rox, Blake Street Bombers, Hurdle's Heroes, Generation R, The Rookies, The Blake Street Babies.
Ballpark
* Coors Field (1995–present)
* Mile High Stadium (1993-1994)
Wild card berths (2) 1995 • 2007
Owner(s): Charlie Monfort and Dick Monfort
Manager: Clint Hurdle
General Manager: Dan O'Dowd
The Colorado Rockies are a Major League Baseball team based in Denver, Colorado. They are in the Western Division of the National League. The team is named after the Rocky Mountains which pass through Colorado, just west of Denver. They play their home games at Coors Field.
History
Creation of the Rockies
After previous failed attempts to bring Major League Baseball to Colorado, by the early 1990s a team seemed to be a possibility in Denver. The Colorado Baseball Commission, led by banking executive Larry Varnell, was successful in getting Denver voters to approve a 0.1 percent sales tax to help finance a new baseball stadium. Also, an advisory committee was formed in 1990 by then-Governor of Colorado Roy Romer to recruit an ownership group. The group selected was led by John Antonucci, an Ohio beverage distributor, and Michael I. Monus, the head of the Phar-Mor drugstore chain. Local and regional companies such as Erie Lake, Hensel Phelps Construction, KOA Radio and the Rocky Mountain News rounded out the group. On July 5, 1991, the National League approved Denver and Miami, Florida as the sites for two expansion teams to begin play in 1993.[1]
The Rockies joined the National League in 1993, along with the Miami franchise, the Florida Marlins. The Rockies' first pick in the expansion draft was pitcher David Nied from the Atlanta Braves organization. Nied pitched 4 seasons for the Rockies.
Inaugural season
The first game in Rockies history was played on April 5, 1993, against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium. David Nied was the starting pitcher in a game the Rockies lost, 3-0. The franchise's first home game at Mile High Stadium, and first win in franchise history, came four days later with an 11-4 win over the Montreal Expos. One of the most memorable plays in the game, and in team history, occurred in the bottom of the first inning when Eric Young of the Rockies hit a leadoff home run.[2] The game was played before more than 80,000 fans, to date the largest crowd to see a single regular season Major League Baseball game.
As is the case with many expansion teams, the Rockies struggled in their first year. During one stretch in May, the team went 2-17. The team did not experience its first winning month until September, when they went 17-9. Still, the team finished the season with 67 wins, setting a record for a National League expansion franchise. In addition, despite the losses, the club saw a home attendance of 4,483,350 for the season, setting a Major League record that stands to this day. Rockies first baseman Andrés Galarraga won the batting title after hitting .370 for the season after Manager Don Baylor convinced Galarraga to change from a standard batting stance into an open one in which he squarely faced the pitcher, allowing him to see incoming pitches properly.
Ownership issues
After a 1992 accounting and embezzlement scandal at Phar-Mor tarnished the reputation of Monus, both Monus and Antonucci were forced to sell their stakes in the franchise. Trucking company executive Jerry McMorris became head of the ownership group and served as the initial public face of management. His relationship with the other partners was somewhat poor, and his role in the leadership of the franchise diminished over time until he was finally bought out in 2005 (his situation was not helped by the 1999 failure of his trucking firm and subsequent related legal issues).
The team is currently controlled by chief executive officer Charlie Monfort (a former executive with his family's beef exporting firm and also with ConAgra), and his brother Dick Monfort, who both bought out McMorris' stake.
The mid-1990s
On April 17, 1994, the Rockies beat Montreal 6-5, moving the team's record to 6-5 — the first time in franchise history that the club had a winning record. However, that would be the only time during that season that the club would have a record over .500, finishing at 53-64 and in last place in the National League West in the strike-shortened season. Despite the club's poor record, several Rockies hitters gained notoriety for their exploits at the plate, assisted by the thin air of Denver which allows balls to carry farther than they would at sea-level ballparks. Andres Galarraga, a year after winning the batting title, hit 31 homers, and teammate Dante Bichette hit 27; projected over a 162-game season, the two would have hit 43 and 37 homers, respectively. The park's characteristics did not affect just home runs either: 33-year-old outfielder Mike Kingery, a career .252 hitter who did not play in the majors in 1993, batted .349 in 301 at bats. The club once again led the majors in attendance, drawing 3,281,511 fans for the season.
1995 playoff run and the opening of Coors Field
Prior to the 1995 season, the Rockies acquired free agent outfielder Larry Walker, previously of the Montreal Expos. He would form the group known as the "Blake Street Bombers" — named after the street on which new ballpark Coors Field was located — along with Galarraga, Bichette, and third baseman Vinny Castilla, who had played sparingly with the major league club the prior season. The quartet combined to hit 139 homers in the 1995 season, with Bichette leading the way with 40 (45 projected over a 162-game season.) The team debuted in its new ballpark on April 26, 1995, in an 11-9 win over the New York Mets, and proceeded to win seven of their first eight games in the new season. The season ended with a 77-67 record, good for second place in the West division and the club's first playoff appearance as the Wild Card winner. Although much of the attention focused on the power-hitting lineup, much of the club's success was due to a strong bullpen, as relievers Darren Holmes, Curt Leskanic, Steve Reed, and Bruce Ruffin all posted earned run averages below 3.40. The pitching staff's ERA of 4.97 was the lowest in club history until the 2006 team had a 4.66 ERA. The Rockies lost in the NLDS to the Atlanta Braves, 3 games to 1. The Rockies once again led the league in attendance for the season.
Post-1995
In 1996, with all four Blake Street Bombers returning, the Rockies expected to contend, but an injury to Walker hurt the team. Walker played in only 83 games and batted .276 with 18 homers. However, outfielder Ellis Burks picked up the slack with an All-Star season, batting .344 with 40 homers and 128 RBI — one of three Rockies to hit forty or more homers that season, along with Galarraga and Castilla. The team set a major league record by scoring 658 runs at home on the season, and Burks and Bichette became the first pair of teammates since the 1987 New York Mets to both steal 30 bases and hit 30 homers in the same season. However, the pitching staff — a strong point for the team in 1995 — was beset by injuries; Bill Swift, who went 9-3 in 1995, started just three games, and the staff ERA ballooned to 5.60. As a result, the Rockies fell back to third place in the West with an 83-79 record.
A healthy Walker became the first player in club history to win the NL Most Valuable Player award in 1997, batting .366 with 49 homers and 130 RBI. Walker came very close to winning the Triple Crown that year, leading the league in home runs but finishing second to Tony Gwynn in batting average and third in RBI (teammate Galarraga led the league.) Once again, three Rockies (Walker, Galarraga, and Castilla) hit 40 or more homers; Walker also won the first Gold Glove in franchise history. As in 1996, though, the team's pitchers struggled in the high elevation and had a 5.25 ERA, and the Rockies could not improve upon their finish from the previous season.
The Rockies were broken up after the 1997 season when an aging Galarraga signed with the Atlanta Braves as a free agent. His replacement was Todd Helton, who had been the club's first-round draft pick in 1995 out of the University of Tennessee. After a 4-1 start, the club lost its next eight games and struggled to a 77-85 record, finishing only ahead of the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL West. Pitcher Darryl Kile, signed as a free agent in the offseason, struggled in Colorado, going 13-17 with a 5.20 ERA -- a far cry from his numbers the prior year as a member of the Houston Astros, when he went 19-7 with a 2.57 ERA. Kile would become one of a long line of free agent pitchers who struggled after signing with the Rockies. The team's struggles led to the firing of manager Don Baylor, the only manager in franchise history, following the season.
Jim Leyland, a two-time NL Manager of the Year who had won the World Series with the Florida Marlins two years earlier, was expected to bring the Rockies back into contention in 1999. Instead, the Rockies dropped even further, finishing 72-90 and in last place in the West as the Diamondbacks won the division in just their second year of existence. Helton was blossoming into a young developed hitter, batting .320 with 35 homers and 113 RBI; Castilla, Walker, and Bichette also hit more than 30 homers each. Once again, though, the team's pitching was a glaring weakness, as the staff had an ERA of 6.02. Kile, who was being paid over $8 million for the season, struggled mightily, going 8-13 with a 6.61 ERA, and he wound up being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals following the season. Interestingly, Kile would go on to finish fifth in voting for the Cy Young Award the following year, as he had in 1997 (the year before he joined the Rockies.) The Leyland era lasted just one year as a frustrated Leyland retired following the season, not to manage in the majors again until 2006.
In 1999, the Rockies made history as they played their Opening Day game against the San Diego Padres in Monterrey, Mexico; this was the first time that an MLB team opened its regular-season schedule outside the United States or Canada.
The Dan O'Dowd era
On August 20, 1999, Bob Gebhard, the only general manager in franchise history, announced his resignation. A month later, the Rockies named Dan O'Dowd as his replacement. After hiring Buddy Bell as the club's third manager, O'Dowd proceeded to make a series of offseason deals that would change the face of the franchise. Popular outfielder Dante Bichette was traded to the Cincinnati Reds. Later, he traded Kile to the Cardinals and, in a four-team trade, sent Vinny Castilla to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. With those two deals, Larry Walker remained as the only player from the Blake Street Bombers still with the team. Walker wound up playing in only 87 games in 2000 due to injuries and hit just nine homers, as the Rockies had a completely different look from prior years. Perhaps not surprisingly given the injury to Walker and the trading of two of the team's most popular players, the Rockies finished third in the National League in attendance in 2000, marking the first time in club history that it did not lead the league in attendance.
Despite the major changes made to the team in the offseason, the team wound up with its first winning season since 1997. Helton, in his third full year in the majors, was becoming a bona fide superstar, winning the batting title with a .372 average and also leading the league with 147 RBI while hitting 42 homers. However, he finished just fifth in MVP voting, perhaps due to the fact that the team finished fourth in the division and also possibly due to bias by voters due to the fact that he played half of his games in hitter-friendly Coors Field. 2000 also marked the first of five consecutive All-Star Game appearances for Helton. The pitching staff also improved its ERA to 5.26, helping the team to an 82-80 record.
Although previous big-name pitchers, including Bill Swift, Bret Saberhagen, and Darryl Kile, had struggled in Colorado, following the 2000 season O'Dowd made two very splashy signings in the free-agent market, signing Denny Neagle to a five-year contract worth $51 million, followed five days later by signing Mike Hampton to an eight-year, $121 million contract. Two years earlier, Hampton had won 22 games and finished second in voting for the Cy Young Award as a member of the Houston Astros, while Neagle had been a 20-game winner in 1997 for the Atlanta Braves and had won fifteen games in 2000. The two star pitchers were expected by the Rockies to change the team's fortunes.
Instead, the two flopped, much as their predecessors had. Hampton, after a strong first half in 2001, completely fell apart in 2002, going 7-15 with a 6.15 ERA and demanding a trade following the season. Neagle went 19-23 in three years with the Rockies; he was injured in 2003 and never pitched in the majors again before the Rockies released him after the 2004 season. The Rockies went 73-89 in both years that Hampton and Neagle were in Colorado, and the amount of money owed them (the Rockies paid a sizable portion of Hampton's salary even after he was traded to the Atlanta Braves) crippled the team for the next several years.
Under previous general manager Gebhard, the Rockies had largely neglected their farm system and mostly relied on signing veteran free agents from other clubs; this was possible due to the high attendance numbers in the club's first few years of attendance. However, as attendance began to dwindle -- the Rockies fell to just sixth in the National League in attendance in 2002, and ninth in 2003 and 2004 -- the club could no longer afford to build through big-name free agents. In 1999, the Rockies spent their first-round draft pick on Baylor University pitcher Jason Jennings; three years later, Jennings went 16-8 with a 4.52 ERA. In the process, Jennings became the first Rockies player to win the National League Rookie of the Year award.
With Hampton out of town and Neagle injured much of the year, Jennings became the centerpiece of the Rockies' pitching staff in 2003. Despite a fourth straight All-Star season by Helton and 36 homers by outfielder Preston Wilson, the Rockies finished just 74-88. In addition to Jennings, though, young pitchers Shawn Chacon and Aaron Cook showed promise.
In 2004, the Rockies acquired Vinny Castilla, who had been with the club for its inaugural 1993 season, once again, and he hit 35 homers. However, Wilson and Larry Walker spent much of the season on the disabled list, forcing the Rockies to play Matt Holliday, who had been slated to start the season at Triple-A. While the Rockies struggled to a 68-94 record -- the second worst record in club history -- the club's Triple-A affiliate, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, went 78-65. Declining attendance meant that the club's payroll could no longer support a franchise stocked largely with veterans from other clubs. In addition, Walker, who had been with the team since 1995 and was widely regarded as the best player in team history, was now 37 years old, and injuries prevented him from playing much of the time. Because he could still be useful to a contending team, the Rockies traded him to the St. Louis Cardinals in August for three minor-leaguers.
Generation-R
The trade of Walker set in motion a series of moves that would lead to a complete overhaul of the club's roster. Castilla and Jeromy Burnitz, who led the team with 37 homers in 2004, were allowed to leave as free agents following the season. Catcher Charles Johnson, who had been acquired along with Wilson in the Hampton trade, was traded to the Boston Red Sox. Royce Clayton, the club's starting shortstop in 2004, also was allowed to leave. Along with Holliday, who had performed ably while Wilson and Walker were out, the club promoted Garrett Atkins, Brad Hawpe, Clint Barmes, and J.D. Closser, who spent most of 2004 in Triple-A. Jennings and Chacon combined with Joe Kennedy, Byung-Hyun Kim, and top prospect Jeff Francis to form the team's starting rotation. Other than Helton and Wilson, virtually all of the team's regular players were under the age of 30; the Rockies dubbed this group "Generation-R."
The result of all the moves was a 67-95 record in 2005, which tied for the worst record in franchise history, as the young players -- many of whom had never been everyday players in the majors prior to that season -- struggled. Helton and Wilson -- virtually the only experienced players on the team -- struggled as well; Helton hit just 20 homers, the fewest of his career, and missed the All-Star Game for the first time since 1999 and also went on the disabled list for the first time in his career. Wilson also spent time on the disabled list and, as the Rockies fell out of contention, was traded to the Washington Nationals. After starting the season 15-35, though, the team had some success later in the year, going a respectable 30-28 in August and September as the youngsters became more experienced. However, perhaps because of the trade of Walker and several consecutive losing seasons, the team fell all the way to fourteenth in the National League in attendance; for the first time in team history, the Rockies drew under 2 million fans for the season.
The 2006 season started with some promise; the Rockies were 44-43 in the first half of the season and were in contention in the NL West for much of the season. However, the team faded in the second half and wound up at 76-86, tied for fourth place in the division. Despite this, several of the young players showed promise. Matt Holliday hit 34 homers and was named to the All-Star Game; Garrett Atkins batted .329 and hit 29 homers. In addition, the pitching staff posted a 4.66 ERA -- the best in team history -- and starters Jason Jennings, Aaron Cook, and Jeff Francis had good seasons.
2007: "Rocktober"
The Rockies began the 1st half of the 2007 season following the Dodgers, the Diamondbacks, and the Padres for most of the season. However, by August, Colorado showed a steady series of wins, while the Division-leading Dodgers began to struggle.
By September, the Dodgers were eliminated by the Rockies from playoff contention, and the Diamondbacks were expected to clinch the National League West division title, while the Padres held a steady lead on the National League wild card spot. The Diamondbacks eventually clinched the NL West division title, but the Rockies shot up with one of the greatest comebacks in baseball history. They were a major-league best 20-8 in September, after trailing 6 games on September 1st. They won their last 13 of 14 games, including 11 in a row, the most of any team in the 2007 season and an all-time franchise record. Their 90-73 regular season mark set a franchise record. They also finished ahead of the Dodgers in the division for the first time in franchise history. Furthermore, Colorado set the single-season MLB record for fielding percentage by one team (.98925).
As a result of the Rockies' remarkable September run, the team finished the regular season tied with the Padres for the wild card spot in the playoffs. The two teams played a regular season play-off game at Coors Field on October 1 to determine the wild card. The game lasted thirteen innings, and although the Padres got two runs off of a Scott Hairston home run in the top of the thirteenth to break a 6-6 tie, the Rockies came back in the bottom of the thirteenth by scoring three runs off of closer Trevor Hoffman to win 9-8. Second baseman Kazuo Matsui started off the inning by hitting a double. Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki followed with a double of his own, thus, allowing Matsui to score. Left fielder Matt Holliday then came up to bat and hit a triple, scoring Tulowitzki. After an intentional walk to first baseman Todd Helton, the Padres pitched to utility infielder Jamey Carroll, who then hit a sacrifice fly, allowing Holliday to score from third base. Matt Holliday's winning run came off of a controversial slide in which home plate umpire Tim McClelland called Holliday safe, despite replays being inconclusive as to whether Holliday had actually touched the plate. Thus did the Rockies complete the fifth greatest regular season comeback in Major League Baseball history.[3]
With the win the Rockies made the playoffs for the first time since 1995, and went on to face the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS. Colorado won the first game in Philadelphia, 4-2. The Rockies also won the second game in Philadelphia, 10-5, with the help of Kazuo Matsui's 4th inning grand slam. On October 6, 2007, the Rockies completed a three-game sweep of the Phillies by winning 2-1 in Colorado. The three-game sweep was Colorado's first post-season series win in team history. The Rockies played in the NLCS against the Arizona Diamondbacks, who swept their own series against the Chicago Cubs in the NLDS. They won the first two games of the NLCS against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix, then won their third game against the D-backs in Denver on Sunday, October 14th. That pushed their combined late-season (September 16 and after) and post-season run to 20 wins and just 1 loss, the single loss coming against Arizona on September 28, the 160th game of the season. This made them only the third team in the last half-century, and the first in the National League since the 1936 New York Giants, to have a 20-1 stretch at any point of a season.[4] NLCS Game 4 was won by the Colorado Rockies by a score of six runs to four. This series win earned Colorado's first National League Championship victory in franchise history. The Rockies became the first team ever to sweep both the division series and league championship series in the same postseason. The club moved to 21-1 over all games played after September 15.
The effects of elevation on baseball
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At 5,280 feet above sea level, Denver is the highest city with a Major League Baseball team; the second-highest major league city, Phoenix, is 1,090 feet above sea level.
Coors Field has long been regarded as a hitter-friendly ballpark. Because of the elevation, fly balls hit there often carry farther than they would at a sea-level ballpark, increasing the numbers of home runs. It has been debated whether or not the dry air in Denver makes it difficult for pitchers to grip the ball properly, reducing the "break." With this in mind, the designers and engineers who built Coors Field created a spacious outfield.
The advantageous effects of elevation on a baseball are debated. It is widely accepted that the advantage belongs to "Whomever is holding the bat."
Controversies
2006 Controversy over Christian rules
On June 1, 2006, USA Today reported that Rockies management, including manager Clint Hurdle, had instituted an explicitly Christian code of conduct for the team's players, banning men's magazines (such as Maxim and Playboy) and sexually explicit music from the team's clubhouse.[5] The newspaper reported:
Behind the scenes, [the Rockies] quietly have become an organization guided by Christianity — open to other religious beliefs but embracing a Christian-based code of conduct they believe will bring them focus and success.
From ownership on down, it's an approach the Rockies are proud of — and something they are wary about publicizing. "We're nervous, to be honest with you," Rockies general manager Dan O'Dowd says. "It's the first time we ever talked about these issues publicly. The last thing we want to do is offend anyone because of our beliefs."
The article sparked controversy, including criticism in a column in The Nation, which stated:
San Francisco Giants first baseman-outfielder Mark Sweeney, who spent 2003 and 2004 with the Rockies, said, "You wonder if some people are going along with it just to keep their jobs. Look, I pray every day. I have faith. It's always been part of my life. But I don't want something forced on me. Do they really have to check to see whether I have a Playboy in my locker?"[6]
Soon after the USA Today article appeared, The Denver Post published an article featuring many Rockies players contesting the claims made in the USA Today article.[7] Jason Jennings, a Rockies' pitcher, said:
"[The article in USA Today] was just bad. I am not happy at all. Some of the best teammates I have ever had are the furthest thing from Christian," pitcher Jason Jennings said. "You don't have to be a Christian to have good character. They can be separate. [The article] was misleading."
While the initial USA Today article caused some controversy, the main claims have been repudiated by the ballclub and its players in the subsequent Denver Post story.
Humidor controversy
In 2002, a humidor was installed to store baseballs at the manufacturer's specification. Since the discovery of the humidor, it has cast suspicion in baseball of the Rockies talent, or lack thereof. Tampering with equipment, or more accurately, perceived tampering of equipment is an old phenomenon in baseball. That is in part why there is much discussion about the Denver humidor, and why Major League Baseball has not stepped in on the situation.
Since the installation and discovery of the humidor in Coors Field, runs and high scoring games have since gone down in frequency. The Rockies do not deny this, however, they point to the reason for balls flying out of Coors Field is not so much the elevation (5,280 feet above sea level), but the extremely dry air in Denver. They liken it to playing baseball with golf balls, as harder objects travel faster than softer objects when hit, like a baseball when kept at a humidity level recommended by the manufacturer. Columnists in Denver's newspapers also speculate that most players are stopping the use of steroids because of the increased testing and penalties, so fewer home runs are hit at Coors Field.
To the contrary, skeptics will say that any tampering of the equipment would create an advantage for the home team, and if it did not, then the changes might never have been made. These accusations arrived again through the course of the 2006 season, as the Rockies had their best year since 2000. However, this doesn't account for the fact that three of the Rockies’ four seasons over .500, including a playoff berth in 1995, came before the installation of the humidor, and their 2nd worst season in franchise history was 2004. Furthermore, Colorado was below .500 at home during the 2004 and 2005 seasons. In fact, the Rockies' 2004 home record (38-43) was the worst in franchise history since the 1994 Major League Baseball strike year, which was a shortened season. The Rockies best home record came during the 1996 season (55-26), which was before the humidor was installed. The following are the home records for each season in Rockies' history:
Some baseball followers have suggested that every major league baseball team should use a humidor. The Coors Field humidor is designed to keep the baseballs at the exact same size and weight as they are originally constructed for Major League Baseball. It is theorized that if every team had baseballs that were stored before the game in exactly the same conditions, it might serve as an equalizer for the teams, as well as eliminate the controversy of "tampering" with the baseballs.
Other controversies
Not all Major League baseball teams have similar revenue streams, which contributes to a disparity of "haves" and "have-nots" amongst franchises. Major League Baseball franchises average spending 48.9% of every revenue dollar on player payroll while the Rockies spent 28.4% of team revenues on player payroll.[8][9] Only one team in all of MLB spends a lower proportion of team revenues on player payroll than the Rockies.
Season record
Season Won Lost Win % Games
Behind Finish Attendance Average Playoffs
National League West Division
1993 67 95 .414 37 6 4,483,350 55,350
1994 53 64 .453 6.5 3 3,281,511 57,570
1995 77 67 .535 1 2§ 3,390,037 47,083 Lost 1995 NLDS (1-3) Braves
1996 83 79 .512 8 3 3,891,014 48,037
1997 83 79 .512 8 3 3,888,453 48,006
1998 77 85 .475 21 4 3,789,347 46,782
1999 72 90 .444 28 5 3,481,065 42,976
2000 82 80 .506 15 4 3,286,773 40,577
2001 73 89 .451 19 5 3,163,821 39,059
2002 73 89 .451 25 4 2,740,585 33,834
2003 74 88 .457 26.5 4 2,334,175 28,816
2004 68 94 .420 25 4 2,338,071 28,865
2005 67 95 .414 15 5 1,914,389 23,634
2006 76 86 .469 12 T-4 2,104,558 25,982
2007 90 73 .552 0.5 2§ 2,376,250 28,978 Won 2007 NLDS (3-0) Phillies
Won 2007 NLCS (4-0) Diamondbacks
Totals 1115 1253 .471 46,463,339 41,159
Quick facts
Founded: 1991
Began play: 1993 (National League expansion)
Uniform colors: Black, Purple, Silver, and White
Logo design: Purple mountain with baseball
Team motto: R you in?
Team mascot: Dinger
Playoff appearances (2): 1995, 2007*
Owners: Linda G. Alvarado, Pete Coors, Lee Larson, Marne Obernauer Sr., Marne Obernauer Jr., Denver Newspaper Agency, Coors Brewing Co., Clear Channel Communications, and Beverage Distributors Corp.[13]
Chairman & CEO: Charles Monfort
Vice Chairman: Richard Monfort
General Manager: Dan O'Dowd
Victory Song: Get Free by The Vines
Local Television: FSN Rocky Mountain, KTVD-20
Spring Training Facility: Hi Corbett Field, Tucson, AZ
* In progress. The Rockies will play Boston Red Sox/Cleveland Indians in the 2007 World Series.Rockies played the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS. The Rockies won the NLCS 4-0.Colorado won the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-0.
Winning the Right Way
By Chuck Colson
October 24, 2007
The Red Sox are in the World Series, opening today, and I have got a very big problem. Having grown up in Boston buying 60-cent seats to the bleachers to watch my heroes, the Red Sox, I became a lifelong fan. But now they are playing the Colorado Rockies, which is going to test my loyalty as a member of the Red Sox nation.
You see, back on September 15, baseball's Colorado Rockies were only four games above .500, six-and-a-half games behind in the race for the final playoff spot. With only nine games left to play, they were still four-and-a-half games behind.
Then came what Jayson Stark of ESPN called a "rampage for the ages," and now the Rockies, 40-to-1 shots to make it to the playoffs, are in the World Series.
To get to the playoffs, the Rockies had to win 14 of their last 15 games, including a do-or-die one-game playoff against the San Diego Padres. As befitted this improbable story, they won that game by scoring three runs in the bottom of the 13th inning to overcome a two-run deficit.
Once October started, the Rockies kept rolling: They swept both Philadelphia and Arizona to enter the World Series having won 21 of their last 22 games. As Stark put it, "This didn't . . . happen [really], did it?"
Well, it did. And this lifelong Red Sox fan could not be happier, because this is more than a feel-good underdog story. It is sweet vindication for an organization that dared to run its business as if what it believed were true. You see, their recent rampage is not the only thing that sets the Rockies apart. The Rockies are the first major league sports franchise organized on specifically Christian principles.
That does not mean that the Rockies only sign Christian players. General Manager Dan O'Dowd told USA Today that while he knows "some of the guys who are Christians," he "can't tell you who is and who isn't."
The Rockies' way means "[doing] the best job [they] can to get [the right] people with the right sense of moral values . . ." To that end, prospective Rockies are interviewed to see if they are compatible with the Rockies' approach.
Once players join the Rockies, they are put in an environment that reinforces these values: "Quotes from Scripture are posted in the weight room. Chapel service is packed on Sundays. Prayer and fellowship groups each Tuesday are well-attended."
And off the field, the Rockies players recently proved that the "Rockies' Way" is the right way. Last summer, a minor league coach in the Rockies farm system, Mike Coolbaugh, was killed by a line drive while coaching at first base. The Rockies players have now voted a full share of the team's playoff money for the coach's family. And the Coolbaugh's two sons, five-year-old Joseph and three-year-old Jacob, threw out the first pitch of Game 3 of the National League Championship Series. General Manager O'Dowd "almost started crying" when he learned what the Rockies had done. He said, "It was very emotional for me. It really went to the core of the character we've worked so hard to bring to this organization."
With all the news these days about steroids, cheating, and felony arrests, modern-day pro sports needs a story about the good guys. And athletes need the reminder that it is possible to excel both as a player and as a human being—that character counts. And as for this Red Sox fan, well, I am going to be happy however the series turns out.
Chuck Colson is the Founder of BreakPoint and of Prison Fellowship Ministries. You can sign up for a free subscription of WorldView magazine here.
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