Colorado and Boston make this year's Series special
Dan Bennett, Guest Reporter
October 24, 2007
Today is always bittersweet for me. No, I am not referring to October 24, but rather the day every year on which the first game of the World Series is played.See, it is bitter for me because it is a heavy reminder that baseball season will be over in a little over a week, leaving spherical- and diamond-shaped holes in my soul until the first hints of spring training in February.
But it is sweet because, well, hey, it's the World Series!
This year's Series will be great for three reasons. First, it will be great because the Yankees are not participating. In my mind, anytime the Bombers make it to the Fall Classic (which, mind you, has been quite often in the history of the game), the Series loses a bit of its majesty. So the fact that New York is absent is an automatic good thing.
Second, it will be a great World Series because the American League will be represented by Boston, who posted the best regular season record in baseball. The Red Sox have one the most fearsome middles of the lineup in the game and the best postseason pitcher around in Josh Beckett.
Finally, the third reason why this World Series will be great is because of a little team from Denver.
Yes, you read that right: the Colorado Rockies are playing in the World Series.
Sure, the Rockies are playing in their first ever postseason after 14 seasons of relative mediocrity. And sure, for much of the season Colorado was regarded by most baseball pundits as the third best team in its division. And yes, the Rockies needed a 13 inning, one game playoff to even make it to the playoffs this year.
To that, the NL Champions can now say, "So what?"
Since September 16, the Rockies have lost all of one game, en route to a 21-1 record during that stretch. And the red-hot Rockies became the first team since the 1976 Reds to win their first seven playoff games in a row, dismantling the equally-sizzling Phillies and the Diamondbacks, the regular-season champion from Colorado's division, in the minimum number of games.
Before the Rockies began their incredible run, it might have been hard for a casual fan to name more than three players on Colorado's roster not named Todd Helton. But after Colorado's torrid streak to the Pennant, players like Matt Holliday, Troy Tulowitzki, Garrett Atkins, Ubaldo Jiminez and Yorvit Torrealba have become nearly as recognizable as the purple uniforms they often wear.
This year marks the sixth consecutive year that a wild-card team has made it to the World Series, proving that you don't necessarily have to be the best all season in order to have a chance to win baseball's ultimate prize; you just need to be the best at the right moment.
For the Rockies, they are the best team in baseball at this year's right moment.
And as the Phillies and Diamondbacks have already witnessed, and as the Red Sox will soon see, this moment belongs to the Rockies.