Jesse Medina
South Coloradan
Colorado is celebrating with the Colorado Rockies as they reach the postseason for the second time in three years.
Success in Colorado sports has become not so much a goal as a yearly expectation. The Avalanche began the trend as they won the Stanley Cup in the 1995-1996 season. The much beloved Broncos soon followed suit by winning back to back Super Bowls. The Nuggets, after years of forgettable basketball, finally become playoff contenders.
The Rockies earned their spot in the playoffs with a win against the Milwaukee Brewers at Coors Field Thursday. Now we have the Rockies on their way to the playoffs and another shot at a World Series.ay. The crowd was ecstatic to welcome back the post season after a dismal 2008 season. The wildcard race was a tight race that began in June. For the greater part of the wildcard race the Rockies were neck and neck with the San Francisco Giants. September found the Rockies closely pursued by not only the Giants but also the Atlanta Braves and Florida Marlins. The final stretch of the race saw the Giants and Marlins drop behind leaving the surging Braves to compete with the Rockies. The Braves dropped a couple of vital games allowing the Rockies to clench the National League wildcard.
The 2008 Rockies season was a terrible nightmare following their World Series appearance in the miraculous 2007 season. The 2009 season began with high expectations, despite the trade that sent star slugger and left fielder Matt Holiday to the Oakland Athletics. The enthusiasm soon faded along with the Rockies record into what appeared to be another lousy season. They were at the bottom of the National League standings 12 games away from the first place Los Angeles Dodgers. The shot in the arm that the Rockies desperately needed arrived in the form of the firing of Manager Clint Hurdle. He was replaced with Bench Coach Jim Tracy who became interim manager. The Rockies than began playing baseball the way we have all come to expect them too.
Timely hitting, excellent pitching from the starting pitchers, bullpen and the closing specialist Huston Street, who was acquired in the Matt Holiday trade, allowed the Rockies to climb up the ladder to even out their record at .500. The Rockies then continued to improve their record until they began to show the other Major League teams that they were for real. The resurgence of Troy Tulowitzki and Todd Helton, along with young players brought up from the minor league system in Colorado Springs such as Carlos Gonzalez and Dexter Fowler, also gave the Rockies great offensive capabilities to compliment their pitching. The arrival of all-star power slugger Jason Giambi gave the Rockies the extra power to compete with power hitters such as Ryan Howard and Albert Pujols.
The Rockies begin their playoff journey against the reigning World Series Champions the Philadelphia Phillies. This will be a fitting beginning to a series testing the Rockie’s metal against a championship team. We all hope to celebrate Roctober for the entire month, culminating into what we all hope is another championship title for the Mile High City.
What’s Been Said…