5 years doesn’t seem like such a long time, does it? 5 years is a blink, a flash, a collection of moments that you’ve only just stopped living in. At least, this is the way it seems to be until you stop for a moment, and really think about who you were 5 years ago, and how much you’ve changed since then.
In my case, I was 19 years old and a sophomore in college. Everything happened much faster back then, as I hadn’t yet tasted the blandness of post-collegiate life. I now realize that the great thing about being that age is that life was simultaneously defined by the dizzying pace of the moment and the anticipation of what was to come next. Every experience was new and exhilarating, and I thought that there were only more moments like it to come.
I can say with confidence that some of my favorite moments from that year were the one’s in which I found myself rooting for a Rockies team that was playing meaningful late season baseball games for the first time in over a decade. I remember watching in disbelief as the Rockies rampaged through the National League, winning 14 of their last 15 games. I remember watching game 163 with my college roommates, poised on the edge of my couch, leaping into the air as I saw Matt Holliday and his marble chin go hurtling across home plate.
Then, before I even had a chance to process the joy and delirium of that improbable run, the Rockies were headed to the World Series. I was at Coors Field on the night that they won the NLCS. My family and I had seats tucked into the most remote corner of the stadium, but that mattered little. What mattered were the waves of joy that washed over us as Tulowitzki’s final rocket propelled throw of the series reached Todd Helton’s outstretched glove. I jumped and grabbed and screamed at the top of my lungs. I’m pretty sure I even hugged the head of whatever stranger was sitting in front of me. That night was one of those “It’s all happening” moments that are meant to define one’s youth. I was 19 years old, the Rockies couldn’t lose, and life was good.
Even when the Rockies ran into the buzz saw that was the Boston Red Sox in the World Series, my enthusiasm for the team never waned. I watched game three at a local bar just a few blocks away from the stadium. The place was absolutely packed, everyone inside was standing shoulder to shoulder, eyes fixed on the TV screens that ringed the bar. I got separated from my family early on, and a nice young couple invited me to sit at their table with them. They were very welcoming. We ate nachos and drank Irish Car Bombs together.
Eventually I left my new friends and found my family again, who had managed to grab a booth in the back room of the bar. I remember sitting in the corner of the booth, pressed up against a leather upholstered wall. Whenever the Rockies made a good play or threatened to score, I stood and slapped that wall as hard as I could while screaming like a maniac. Matt Holliday homers to left. Thwack. Thwack. Thwack. Hawpe singles to center, Helton scores. Thwack. Thwack. Thwack. Tulowitzki ranges for a ground ball in the hole. Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
The Rockies lost that night, and yet it was still the most fun I’ve ever had watching a baseball game. I knew that they were going to lose the next night too, but I didn’t really care. I still had plenty of reasons to be optimistic, because it felt like I was witnessing the birth of a new era of Rockies baseball. This was a team that was going to matter to me. It was a team that was going to make noise for years to come. The new Rockies were a furious collection of burgeoning talent, and I was intoxicated by both the thrill of the moment and the prospects of the future.
Each season following 2007 felt tethered to the magic of that World Series run. Things didn’t always go smoothly, and many players came and went during those years, but the momentum from 2007 was still present, and it felt like the team was evolving as it should.
Heading into last season, it seemed like the Rockies were finally ready to finish what they had started in 2007. Potential was set to give way to actuality. Ubaldo Jimenez was going to become one of the best pitchers in the league behind his volcanic fastball. Tulowitzki and Gonzales would emerge as one of the best 1-2 punches in the game. Ianetta, Fowler, Smith, and Stewart were all set to unleash the graceful power and breakneck athleticism of their games. Anticipation was high, and it wasn’t at all out of the ordinary to see experts picking the Rockies to win the NL West in 2011.
What was meant to be a dream season turned out to be a nightmare, and the Rockies struggled to reach 73 wins. Hope and promise was quickly replaced by panic and overreaction as the team crumbled further with each passing day. Players were sent down and recalled from the minor leagues on a seemingly daily basis, the starting lineup was torpedoed and reassembled countless times by the bumbling miser that had become Jim Tracy, and the greatest pitcher to ever wear a Rockies uniform was unceremoniously traded away.
I watched the 2011 season unfold from the somber quiet of my new apartment and the perspective of adulthood. Deeply depressed by the team I was watching, I tried to cling onto the magic of 2007. I tried to remember a time when watching the Rockies didn’t mean watching a team play terrible baseball at the end of yet another mind numbing workday. I searched desperately for the blinding exhilaration that this team used to pull out of me.
It was all gone, though. Everything that had begun in 2007 had suddenly been blinked out of existence. What had started as an unexpected explosion of new life had ended in stale ignominy. Now, 5 years later, Rockies fans stand on the precipice of the 2012 season, and are forced to face the notion that Jamie Moyer may very well end up pitching a meaningful amount innings this year. Youth and promise has given way to experience and “character.” Guys like Michael Cuddyer, Marco Scutaro, and Ramon Hernandez are supposed to right the ship with their grit and moxy, erasing the calamity of last season.
They may very well succeed, too. If the pitching breaks right, it is likely that the team will perform much better than it did last year. Whatever the case, I know I will still be watching as many games as I can, but I doubt that I will be doing so from the edge of my seat. There won’t be any illicit Car Bombs or unbridled hope to remember this season by. Instead, there will probably be light beer and struggles to stay awake during games that run especially long. 2007 is only a memory now. The Rockies coming of age story has reached its pedestrian conclusion.
You can follow Tom on Twitter @ToLey88
Loading ...
Loading tweets...
8 comments
Eric B.
February 20, 2012 at 3:30 PM (UTC -6)
Good article, though with (IMO) an unnecessarily melancholy conclusion. As a Denvers sports fan, 2007 is the definition of what I watch for. Not because I know my team is going to do well every season, but when they do, it’s capable of providing one of the most amazing feelings of excitement possible. Similar to the reason that, as a baseball fan, the final day of the 2011 season was so incredible: four games that I could not take my eyes of of all night long. Each game impacting the other and absolutely no idea of how it was going to turn out until the ethereal ending.
Quite simply, the Rockies run in 2007 and the final days of last season are why I’m a baseball fan, for the possibility that something like that will happen, I watch. Unfortunately, all too often the impossible doesn’t happen, but that won’t keep me from tuning in . . . and don’t let that dim those rare occasions when it does. Much can be learned about life through the experiences of sports fandom.
Eric B.
February 20, 2012 at 3:40 PM (UTC -6)
I’m new to this site and I have a rant that doesn’t belong here, but am not sure where would be better to post it. I understand the temptation to throw ownership and management under the bus after a very disappointing 2011 season, but I think there is quite a bit of over-reaction taking place on this blog. I like to look at things in a collective manner:
1) This off-season – if you look at the moves individually, no move stands out as being an absolute no-brainer win. If you look at them collectively, I think it’s been a very productive season for the organization. The three black holes in the line-up (2B, 3B, RF) have been plugged, or at least largely filled. The line-up got older, yes, but it’s just to keep things interesting/competitive until the younger talent matures (Arenado, Rutledge, Rosario, etc.). Finally, the Rockies have the best young, talented, crop of near-MLB ready SPs the organization has ever had. Yes, they are young, but that’s why Guthrie was picked up, to eat innings and help bridge the gap to DeLaRosa’s return mid season and 2013/2014. You can disagree with whether you think what DOD is trying to accomplish is the right path to take, but he’s been successful at doing what he set out to do.
2) The past five years – I’m no fan of Tracy, I think he’s a micro manager that has no idea how to manage a pitching staff or effectively rest guys without throwing away games (see: Sundays in 2011). I feel he should be let go and most anyone that replaces him would be a better tactician. However, I’m not so quick to say everything DOD does is abject fail. I do think the drafts from 2005-2007 were horrid (save Tulo) and they were drafting not on talent/ceiling, but character/need. But the Latin infrastructure pipeline has saved them to a great extent (Ubaldo, Morales, Chacin, etc.) and I fell will continue to do so (Nicasio, Rosario, Edwar Cabrera, Rosell Herrera, Ortega, etc.), and I think the drafting has greatly improved since 2008. Finally, like it or not, the Rockies are a mid-small market team that has made the playoffs two of the past five years, and has a highly rated farm system (approximately 10th looking at the various publications). That is far from abject failure and some credit should go to DOD and the player development structure the organization has in place.
Sorry for the rant. /rant over
Travis Lay
February 20, 2012 at 3:53 PM (UTC -6)
Thanks for the comment, Rakim…er…Eric B. We love the different perspective.
Possibly O’Dowd has made some good moves. I think there is a strong sentiment that who O’Dowd traded for he could have gotten more. Instead of giving an older Cuddyer 30 mill he would have been wiser to sign Beltran or find a solid platoon option to play with Smith and spend that 30 million – or at least a majority of that – on a decent starting pitcher (went after Sanchez or Kuroda or Cahill). O’Dowd made quite a few moves this year that shows he just doesn’t use the data that is readily available to him.
There is nothing since his tenure began that suggests he has any idea what he is doing. He caught lightning in a bottle with Tulo (in reality almost every team in that draft who picked in the top 12 or 15 got a stud) and ’07 was a fluke. He is a sub .500 GM and there is no reason, in my mind, to think he all of a sudden figured it out this year.
Tom Ley
February 20, 2012 at 4:01 PM (UTC -6)
Hi Eric,
First, thanks for your well written and thoughtful comments. They are much appreciated around here.
Apologies if this post came off as overly melancholy, it wasn’t my intent to take it there. I think I was aiming for something more along the lines of wistful or nostalgic. I don’t believe that the Rockies are doomed or broken because last season didn’t go as planned. I just wanted to take a moment to look back at the last 5 years and muse a little bit about what the team’s journey has meant to me as a fan.
Logan Burdine
February 20, 2012 at 4:16 PM (UTC -6)
Eric, you’re going to love my post tomorrow afternoon. We’ve been waiting around on young talent for a decade. You’re right about one thing though. Their efforts in VZ and the DR have saved their ass.
Mike
February 20, 2012 at 9:31 PM (UTC -6)
I might have been inclined to agree with Eric about DOD until…… An Indefinite Contract Extension?????!!!!! To Jim Tracy?????!!!!! Has DOD even been watching any games the last two years?
Kevin Kroh
February 21, 2012 at 6:05 AM (UTC -6)
Oh no! You’ve gotta be kidding me!!?!?! Memories of another Denver sports team owner granting a lifetime contract to a coach — who then got fired — will echo through the corridors of Coors Field, haunting our team for years to come.
Man, you’ve got more job security being the head coach of a pro sports team in Denver than sitting on the eff’ing Supreme Court!
Eric B.
February 24, 2012 at 3:38 PM (UTC -6)
Yeah, not sure what to make out of “indefinite” . . . though as I’m sure others have posted, the good news is it’s not locked in for any amount of time. I have an inkling that DOD and Tracy are inextricably linked at this point. If things go down hill (say sub-.500 record in 2012 and 2013), both will be gone. I think DOD likes Tracy for some unknown reasons.
Finally, in response to the comments above: I by no means love DOD, but I do feel he has done some good for this team. Any small/mid market team that make the playoffs two out of three years doing some things right.
I do think that a lot of the turmoil since 2007 has been somewhat unpredictable: Atkins suddenly falls off a cliff (dude was a stud for three striaght years, then . . .), Stewart, who mashed all through minors nevers figures it out, Francis’ arm falls off (immediately after a 17-win season), Corpas sprirals into oblivian, and lest I forget FrankieMo, their top prospect by everyones account leading up to 2007, turns into a ball of nerves anytime anyone gets on base . . . and on and on. Not trying to make excuses . . . just looking back at the past 5 years and some of the wierd stuff that has happened.