16-0

The New England Patriots just went 16-0.

Tonight's game was awesome. The Giants played the Patriots pretty closely almost the whole game, even taking a lead into the fourth quarter. I was surprised the Giants played as well as they did, though evidently not as surprised as Bryant Gumbel and Cris Collinsworth, who were saying things like "The Giants are making a game of this" in the first freakin' quarter. Yes, we're three minutes in and I can't believe they haven't lost already.

The Patriots set a bunch of non-record records, too. Tom Brady, the obvious MVP of the league this year, finished the season with an unbelievable 50 touchdown passes. (Maybe he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Peyton Manning after all?) Not to take anything away from Brady, but with the passing numbers guys have put up lately, I wonder how long that record will stand. Then again, Dan Marino's single-year passing yardage record (5,084 yards in 1984) hasn't been seriously threatened yet in twenty-three years, so perhaps passing records aren't in as much danger as I think.

Randy Moss caught both of Brady's scoring passes to set his own NFL record with 23 TD catches. And the way he broke the record, catching a bomb down the sideline right after a potentially costly drop, was sweet. You'll hear many people mention that the old touchdown reception record of 22 was set by Jerry Rice in 1987, when Rice played in just 12 games. And that's very relevant, but hey, it's not Moss' fault no one else could beat Rice's mark in the last twenty years. Besides, it's Jerry Rice, and if it takes you two hundred games to do what he could do in twelve you're still pretty awesome as mere mortals go.

The Patriots also became the highest-scoring team in NFL history, besting the quickly-forgotten 1998 Minnesota Vikings, who had a superstar rookie receiver in Randy Moss. Again, though, there have been so many high-scoring teams in the last ten years that it's hard to put this mark in proper perspective.

Most importantly, though, the game puts us very close to saying: good riddance, 1972 Dolphins. We could have started saying that last week, actually, when New England hit 15-0. The '72 Dolphins, remember, only had to win 14 regular season games, which is way easier than winning 16. And please, never forget they did it against a complete joke of a schedule. (Since this is HPS, I urge you to take note at that somewhat-dated link of how many Broncos teams made it to the Super Bowl despite tough schedules, especially the 1998 team.) Of course, the Patriots still need to win the Super Bowl to wipe away the memory of the Dolphins.

Anyway, what'd y'all think?

An obvious choice

After seeing tonight's Denver Broncos-Houston Texans game, I'd like to revisit a piece of everyone-saw-it-coming conventional wisdom: namely, how dumb were the Texans to take Mario Williams over Reggie Bush?

Remember, this question was settled for all time last year, when Bush led his New Orleans Saints to the playoffs, while Williams' foibles left the Texans on the couch for the postseason. At least that's the story I remember. But it was really settled the year before that, when both were in college, and when Bush, a.k.a. The Next Gale Sayers, became the highest-paid amateur athlete ever.

Just one problem. Williams has been way better than Bush this year.

I don't mean to bash Bush for his knee injury, which may or may not keep him out for the rest of the year, even though when analyzing someone's worthiness as a No. 1 overall pick I think it would be fair to do so. Let's look at just the stats, instead.

Williams had three-and-a-half sacks tonight to bring him to 13 on the year, good for second in the NFL. That's very good. Bush, meanwhile, has 157 carries for 581 yards and four touchdowns this year. That's a 3.7 per-carry average, which sounds bad for Bush, but actually represents an improvement over last year. He also has 73 catches for 417 yards (a 5.3 average, down from 8.4 a season ago) and two more touchdowns. And he's fumbled the ball a Tiki Barber-like seven times.

Even his game-by-game rushing totals don't provide much room for optimism. Against Seattle in week six, Bush ran for 97 yards. Against Jacksonville in week nine, he ran for 72. Those were his best outings all year, though he also had a few games in the 60s. Despite the hype, Bush has yet to prove himself as a featured running back in the NFL.

I really don't hate Reggie Bush or anything, but I just hope you remember this example the next time someone judges a career path so early.

To be fair to myself, I never said the Texans should take Reggie Bush. Instead I called on them to draft Vince Young, who, like Bush, has had a statistical nightmare of a season. Bush has zero hundred-yard rushing games; Young has no games with a passer rating of 100. (To be fair, his 99.9 against Houston was pretty close.) Young's completed 62 percent of his passes—more than ten points higher than last year—but still throws mostly short, and has 7 touchdowns against 16 picks. Maybe it's impressive just that he's still playing, given the Madden curse.

I believe in Young's potential, and I'd still take him over Williams in a heartbeat. But it's too early to be too sure.

The Mitchell Report

It came out today, and you may have already looked at it. If not, you can download it as a pdf all over the place, including from ESPN.com.

Anyway, the big name named in it was Roger Clemens. That's what we've been waiting all this time for? I don't even know what to say, because this is like the least-surprising report of all time.

I hate the gotcha crap that goes on when stuff like this happens. You know, the know-it-alls who say how obvious it was that Clemens had been cheating for years—hey, just look at his age! (Did these people say this so confidently before Clemens was named? No. And have they ever heard of Nolan Ryan?) But seriously. He's huge, he put really big numbers for a really long time, and he's considered this super-intense jerk—basically, he's Barry Bonds on the mound. Setting aside the moral issues of steroid use (and believe me, I'm against it), I was hoping for some entertainment out of today's revelations, and I was sorely disappointed. I mean, Mike Lansing? I watched that guy day in and day out for the Rockies, but at this point who friggin' cares?

Your thoughts?

Vick in the clink

Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison today, and counting time he's already served, he should be released in October 2009.

That gives us a chance to look at the question: will Michael Vick ever play in the NFL again?

Vick will be 29 when he's released, but there's basically no way he's playing in 2009. What team would take the chance? Basically, you'd have to be a team with championship aspirations that desperately needs a quarterback for several weeks. Considering Vick's reputation and the subsequent PR hit, it would have to be a team with absolutely no scruples. So unless Tom Brady gets hurt in week six of the 2009 season, Vick won't play until 2010, when he'll be 30.

Could Vick be a good thirty-year-old quarterback? Well, he obviously relies more on his physical talent than his ability to read coverages. But assuming he can stay in shape, his physical gifts should not vanish before 2010. He'll still be capable of playing in the NFL.

However, all of this is moot, because he'll have to get past the planet's Most Vindictive Bastard, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, if he wants to play again. So it won't happen. Keep in mind that Goodell is the same man who just fined Broncos coach Mike Shanahan $25,000 for some really tame comments supporting running back Travis Henry's suspension appeal. And remember that this was an appeal Henry actually won. Talk about a sore loser. Considering the punishments Goodell loves dishing out (and be grateful he wasn't your dad the time you stayed out three minutes past curfew), I don't see any way he lets Vick play again.

The Broncos and the Patriots

The Denver Broncos destroyed the Kansas City Chiefs yesterday, 41-7. Jay Cutler was absolutely on fire: 20-for-27, 244 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions. I'm almost surprised that seven of his passes hit the ground, because he was hitting on everything from short-drops to back-foot tosses down the seams.

I hate games like this late in the season, that tease with terrific performances. Too bad it'll be nine months before we see if there's any real carryover. Brandon Marshall, who's been good all year, went over a thousand yards receiving, and broke tackles like he always does. If he and Javon Walker are healthy next year, and Cutler plays well out of the gate, this is easily a playoff team, right? But then you remember that we lost by two touchdowns to Oakland last week, and the future looks much less clear.

The Patriots, on the other hand, passed their second major test of the season with flying colors, beating the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-13. Don't let the score deceive you: the Steelers are a very good team. But no one looks too good when the Patriots are primed.

Tom Brady, who should have already received this year's MVP trophy, threw for 399 yards and four touchdowns. ESPN.com has him on pace for 5,040 passing yards, 55 touchdowns, and six picks, which is insane.

The Patriots are now 13-0, which puts them just over two-thirds of the way to a perfect season, counting the playoffs. They're clearly the class of the league, so it's easy to say they should go 19-0, especially considering their remaining regular season games are against substandard competition.

But I think that marginalizes what a great accomplishment a perfect season would be. The last team to make a run like this was the 1998 Broncos, who hit 13-0 with a comeback win over Kansas City, when John Elway went over 400 yards and Shannon Sharpe ended his self-imposed week of silence with the game-winning touchdown catch.

(This was after the first game against the Chiefs, a game which was one of the finest moments of Shannon Sharpe's career. Late in a 30-7 Broncos victory, Sharpe goaded Derrick Thomas into three personal fouls on a late drive. The most memorable were Thomas grabbing Sharpe's face mask and swinging him around really blatantly. Never really found out what Sharpe was saying, but it must have been good. Anyway, for some reason he was quiet that whole week.)

Anyway, the Broncos looked unstoppable but lost their next two games, first to the Giants and then to the Dolphins, to finish at 14-2.

Coincidentally enough, the Patriots' schedule closes with games against the Jets, Dolphins, and Giants. (The nearly-perfect Broncos team beat the Jets in the AFC Championship that year.) More significantly, the Jets seemed to ignite New England's run by catching them cheating in Week One this year.

And then there's Miami. The Dolphins are the only franchise ever to go undefeated (in 1972), and they ended the 1985 Chicago Bears' quest for an undefeated season in a famous Monday night game. It would be fascinating if Miami, which is currently winless, beat New England to end the Patriots' run in two weeks. (Of course, unlike this year's team, the '85 and '98 Dolphins had Dan Marino.) I hate the '72 Dolphins, but that would be kind of a cool story. I can't tell you that the Patriots will trip up, but going undefeated is a huge and difficult accomplishment. Despite the competition, it's still going to be very impressive if New England wins out.

The Devin Question

I realize I'm a little late on this, but I wanted a little time to think about it. At this point, I have heard way too many people blame the Denver Broncos' loss to the Chicago Bears on Sunday on Denver's decision to kick to Devin Hester.

I have some problems with this. The first is how much I hate it when games are blamed completely on individual plays or players. Yes, it's possible for a guy to play so poorly that he negates the efforts of everyone else, but it's very rare. Can a player win a game single-handedly? I guess, theoretically, but I've never seen it.

More to the point, why shouldn't the Broncos kick to Devin Hester?

Don't get me wrong. Hester is an incredible punt returner, and perhaps the most effective weapon in Chicago's arsenal. He's a threat to change the course of a game every time he touches the ball.

Hester's so fast, his speed rating in this year's Madden is the first time in the game's history where a player received a score of 100 in any category.*

But does Hester take kicks back so frequently that teams have to live in mortal fear of him? No. ESPN.com has him down for eighty punt returns in his career, six of which have gone for touchdowns (7.5%). He's scored four times on his fifty-one career kick returns (7.8%). Now, that's more often than most anyone else; but the odds whether he'll score a touchdown on any given kick are clearly in the covering team's favor. (Those are regular-season stats, and he did score on the opening kick in last year's Super Bowl, too.)

The biggest problem, really, is that Hester got ten chances to make a return Sunday (five on punts, five on kickoffs). But outside of his touchdowns, he wasn't really that dangerous. That sounds stupid, because it is, but it's not that he can't be stopped, just that the Broncos didn't stop him on those particular plays.

The Hester situation reminds me a lot of Barry Bonds, especially considering how inept the rest of his team's scoring options can be. But if there's one thing I've hated in recent years, it's how some teams have been too terrified even to pitch to Bonds. Instead of giving it their best shot, they send a pitcher out there, in front of literally thousands of people, and wave the white flag, saying, "I'm/We're not man enough to challenge you." (What's the shame in giving up a homer to someone everyone thinks cheated anyway?)

The worst offender, of course, was the Anaheim Angels of 2003, who faced a lights-out Bonds in the World Series and pitched to him only when the games were out of hand. Are you really the best if you have to exploit a rule that lets you give a guy a base when you know you can't hold him to just one? Of course not. The Angels winning it all, now there's something that deserves an asterisk.

Fortunately, and this is my other point, the NFL has no such rule. Hester's second touchdown came on a kickoff return. You know you can't just angle those out-of-bounds at the two, right? What were the Broncos supposed to do, Einstein? They can squib it, but the Bears would have ended up with the ball around the 35 or 40 anyway. Punts are a different story, but I doubt Sauerbrun's sideline precision would make anyone forget Mike Horan as it is. The Broncos took a chance, and it cost them the game, but gosh, that's better than not taking chances at all, isn't it?

Sports are supposed to be about entertainment and competition, and I'm glad the Broncos didn't take the easy road out. Line 'em up, go toe-to-toe, and see who comes out on top. Teams: by all means, be cautious. Don't make it easy on Hester, who doesn't need you to anyway. But giving up a touchdown is a lot better than quitting in front of everyone.

 

* = While we're on football videogame news, and you guys are welcome for my not making a whole post about this, but my favorite megacorporation news of the week is Microsoft adding the Xbox version of ESPN NFL 2K5 to its Xbox 360 backwards compatibility list. Yes!

(Buffaloes, Buffaloes.) Go CU!

Colorado dominated Nebraska with its running game Friday. Hmmm, when have I seen that before?

With a final score (65-51) that resembled an NBA Eastern Conference playoff game more than a Big XII rivalry showdown, the Buffs-Cornhuskers game was a thrilling conclusion to Colorado's regular season. Go ahead and credit the now on-again efficiency of quarterback Cody Hawkins, but never forget the Buffs' star tailback. Right now that's Hugh Charles (169 yards), who managed just three touchdowns Friday. (Yes, that was sarcasm.)

The game was troublesome in the first half, with Nebraska taking a 35-24 lead into the break. But almost as soon as Colorado's troubles started, they were a distant memory. Interception return for a touchdown. Then Charles scored to take the lead, and did it again to widen the gap. The game was 44-35, but the Buffs weren't finished. Hawkins chucked a touchdown pass to the corner, and then Charles completed his second-half hat trick. Nebraska scored a couple of late touchdowns, which saved face, just not coach Bill Callahan's job. (And that's bad news for Colorado fans, if you ask me.)

Colorado's 34-0 run in the second half was clearly the key to the game. OK, that's about the dumbest thing I've ever written, and it's time to come clean. I missed most of the game Friday, a lot of it because I was shopping. Just shut up. However, since pretty much everyone here went to CU, why don't you loyal fans let me know what I missed?

The King & The Man Who Would Be

I've said several times that Barry Bonds didn't cheat at baseball, since he, you know, didn't break any of the rules of baseball. A common comeback to me is, but Mike, he took steroids, and that's against the law. One imaginative fellow even asked me a few months back if I would have considered it okay for Bonds to have killed several opposing players, in order to give himself a competitive edge. Technically, that's not cheating. I am okay saying that this hypothetical is way worse. (I'm so grateful I was raised with morals that extend beyond the limits of the rules of professional sports.)

Anyway, if a player cheats at baseball, you can suspend him, you can ban him, you can even put asterisks next to his performances if you're into punctuative vengeance. But if he breaks the law? You go ahead and indict him.

Barry Bonds, baseball's home run king, was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice Thursday and could go to prison instead of the Hall of Fame for telling a federal grand jury he did not knowingly use performance-enhancing drugs.

Tarnation. He's not going to prison instead of the Hall of Fame. It's possible Bonds'll go to both. Today it seems unlikely that he'll make the Hall, but it's too early to know. I'm in no mood to make predictions. It's just a sad story, especially considering how easily Bonds would have made the Hall of Fame even before he was under any suspicion.

Despite his prowess in all areas of the game, Bonds will be best-remembered as a player for his season and career home-run records. The Yankees' highly-despised and highly-paid third baseman, Alex Rodriguez, is widely recognized as the man with the best chance of breaking Bonds' career home run mark.

This put Rodriguez in an interesting spot this offseason. Long reviled for his $250 million contract, Rodriguez had the chance to save his reputation once and for all.

If I were in A-Rod's shoes, that's what I would have focused on this summer. Just go around, make your visits as an ambassador of the game, and keep the money talk on the back burner. Just emphasize how badly you want to keep playing and break the record. Rodriguez started his career as a giant shortstop, which led to inevitable comparisons to Cal Ripken, Jr. But if he had kept his head down, left the Yankees (who everyone hates), and broken Bonds' record, he could have held the same title Cal once did: The Man Who Saved the Game.

And if'd he'd done that, don't you think he could have made up all that contract money and then some in love and endorsements?

Instead, Rodriguez and his agent, Scott Boras, asked for a ridiculous $350 million from New York, forgetting somehow that only the Yankees could afford to pay that. New York elected not to outbid itself. Boras, frankly, pulled a Drew Rosenhaus with this move. Remember when Rosenhaus was a great agent, sure to get T.O. huge money from Philly...and then it all blew up in his face? This is just like that.

Today, A-Rod seems poised to sign a still-obscene 10-year, $275 million deal to stay with New York. He and Boras got a ton of money, but the Yankees made them look like fools.

A-Rod may even get a bonus if he breaks Bonds' career mark someday. Whoop-de-doo. At this point, that just reaffirms what many fans already think: that's he's only in it for the money. And that's why the thought of A-Rod breaking Bonds' record, now matter how much that record brings shame to the sport, doesn't warm anyone's heart.

Nuggets at 2-0

I didn't write any kind of NBA preview before the season started. Now that the season is .06% out of the way, it feels like cheating to say anything now. Nevertheless, here are some thoughts I have on the Nuggets.

Last year the Nuggets were just 45-37, which was a disappointment any way you slice it. Yes, Carmelo Anthony missed 15 games to a suspension following the "fight" in Madison Square Garden. But the team went 7-8 without him, which really isn't bad, and acquired a future Hall of Famer in Allen Iverson. So they should have surged when Carmelo came back. For whatever reason, they didn't.

So what makes this year any different? Well, Iverson and Carmelo will benefit from their experience last year. But more importantly, I think they'll benefit from spending an off-season knowing they'd be on this team together. It's not so much that they didn't play well together last year-despite everyone predicting they were too selfish to mix, both players handled last year very well-it's just that they never really felt like a team. Adding Iverson during Melo's suspension made the Nuggets feel more like an All-Star team. They had a lot of talent, but they didn't have clear roles or play together the way real teams do. That's more the fault of circumstance than of the players.

This year will be different, or at least that's how I felt watching the first quarter of the Nuggets' first game, a 17-point home victory over Seattle. I'm not sure how to describe it. The Nuggets have talked about being an up-tempo team for probably all of their history. In the '90s and early '00s, pushing the pace was supposed to be the key to get us back to the playoffs. Even as the Nuggets have improved the last few years, they would outrun teams for long stretches, but it's never looked as natural as it did Wednesday. It was a perfect combination of speed and tempo control, but without a forced effort that couldn't be sustained. Credit Coach Karl for that. I don't want to read too much into it, but it seems clear that the Nuggets will have their best team of the Carmelo era this year.

However, questions still abound. Do the Nuggets have the frontcourt to hang with the big boys out West? If the big boys are the Spurs, then probably not. Marcus Camby can hold it down against most centers in the NBA, but Nene still plays young at times. Kenyon Martin is back, but will he have the attitude and patience to be a valuable contributor? History suggests he won't, but then he has to know he won't be the star of a team with friggin' Allen Iverson on it. I'll give K-Mart a chance. I'm not really excited about our guards who aren't the Answer, either. Chucky Atkins is a solid veteran, though he starts the season hurt. That's not good for a 33-year-old. Yakhouba Diawara is mostly memorable to me for missing a ton of threes during Iverson's Nuggets debut last year. I don't expect much from him.

The Nuggets should win their division this year and go to the second round of the playoffs behind the strength of Camby and their two superstars. Barring a Rockies-like miracle run, I think the team is still too thin for fans to expect much more.

I'm rooting for a tie

I'm watching the New England Patriots at Indianapolis Colts game right now, wondering if there will be any point to the rest of the season. Both teams are undefeated, and most feel that today's winner (whoever that is) will go on to win the Super Bowl.

I don't disagree. Since the Patriots are on the road, I think they become pretty clear Super Bowl favorites if they win today. (Perhaps they already should be, considering their college football-like margins of victory). If Indianapolis wins by, say, 10, I think you'd have to consider them the overwhelming championship favorites.

I believe some other teams have a shot this year, but I still don't know which teams those are. I'd be happy for Brett Favre if Green Bay can keep up its miracle season. It'd be good to see the Cowboys make the Super Bowl, if only to see their fans emerge from the woodwork, and then disappear just as quickly after the inevitable title game defeat. (At least, that's how every Cowboys fan I've ever met would handle it.) And I'd be thrilled if the Broncos could put up more than one score against the Lions.

Having said all that, there's nothing in the NFL more boring than a team that dominates all season long. I would hate to see either team go undefeated and roll through the playoffs. Where's the excitement in that?

The solution? A tie today. I want to see this game go down to the absolute wire-preferably, with a goal-line stand at the end. Maybe even with some controversy, like a bad call or one of those replays where it looks like the guy scored but isn't called in. You know, where one fanbase says "he was obviously in" and the other side says he wasn't even really that close. Something like that, something that can add spice to the eventual Colts-Patriots playoff showdown.

All I'm saying is: look, the Broncos are awful. Don't make me give up on the whole NFL season today.

I hate the Red Sox

I don't mean this to be one of those angry-but-secretly-jealous or hey-things-sure-have-changed posts. I really and suddenly do hate the Red Sox.

Wait, why did I like them in the first place? I started following baseball in 1997. That meant seeing Nomar Garciaparra, a hotshot Red Sox rookie, in the paper a lot that season.  For a shortstop, that kid could hit. Coincidentally, from watching games and statistics, I decided that my favorite and the best young pitcher in baseball was a Montreal Expo named Pedro Martinez, who joined the Red Sox the next year.

Martinez's 1999 season was the stuff of legend, and Garciaparra was shaping up as one of the best players ever at his position. (What an arm on both of those guys.) They made a fantastic pair to watch. And the team's biggest rival was the New York Yankees, a team I'd already grown to hate. The Yankees had insufferable fans and had spoiled the World Series appaerance of Tony Gwynn in '98.

Plus the Red Sox were in the playoff hunt almost every year. They weren't my favorite team, but I like to pull hard for a team in the playoffs to keep myself interested. Just like how I like the Spurs in basketball, because of the Admiral and Tim Duncan, except when they're playing the Nuggets. I don't have own any Red Sox stuff, though, or anything like that. Is any of this so wrong?

I stuck with the Red Sox through 2004, even though they sent Garciaparra to Chicago. I will admit that I wrote them off after they fell behind 3-0 to the Yankees. Their comeback was fantastic, and it was great to see them finally win it all against the Cardinals.

The Boston fans grew more and more obnoxious, and everyone else hated them, but not me. I spent most of this season telling a Yankees-loving friend of mine they were winning the World Series. I regret that a lot now.

This year, though, I had to choose between the Rockies and the Red Sox. And, frankly, I didn't have to think about it for a second. You ever hear about the fantasy sports dilemma, where someone has to root for a player who's going against their favorite team, and there's all this internal conflict? Like they want their team to win, but they also want the guy to do well? Yeah, I've never understood that. You go with your team. Always. And that's why I pulled for the Rockies to win the World Series.

The Red Sox just killed that dream.

In the last few years now, Boston has prevented my two favorite players (Larry Walker and Todd Helton) from earning World Series rings. I don't usually feel sorry for teams that lose, but I do for players, especially those who've remained loyal to a team or have played at a Hall of Fame level for so long. That's what made the Broncos' first Super Bowl so sweet. I was happy for John Elway. But I felt the same way for Steve Atwater, Tyrone Braxton, and Shannon Sharpe. It was like they deserved it, you know?

The World Series, at least in the time I've watched it, feels more defined by the players who don't win it. Gwynn. Barry Bonds. And, for me, Walker and Helton.

Now, none of the reasons I rooted for the Red Sox before are there anymore. Nomar's gone, Pedro's gone. There's not really a likeable guy on the team outside of David Ortiz, but he's hardly an underdog at this point. The team itself...I don't know, it's just not half as interesting anymore.

Frankly, this postseason has finally solidifed for me what many have long suggested: the Boston Red Sox are, indeed, the New Yankees. They were cute before, when they couldn't win. But now I have to admit they're practically New York's mirror image, except they win. They're just another cash-heavy behemoth, dominating an off-the-field game almost no one can afford to play.

I could almost root for the Yankees now, and I'm not kidding. That might just be the pain talking. But unless something incredible happens—like Boston trading for Helton some day—my days of cheering for the Red Sox are over.

* * *

Oh, yeah, one more thing. I get that Boston is basically the capital of the sports world now, what with the Red Sox and Patriots. That's fine, good for them. But just so everyone knows, the Celtics do not deserve to be mentioned alongside those teams. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen are going to win it all now? Why don't we call Seattle or Minnesota and see how it worked out for them? In the West, this team'd be a contender for the fourth seed.

Rockies fall in four

The story that will be told the most tonight is that of the Boston Red Sox, who just swept their second World Series in four years.

It's a good story, if you're a complete freaking moron who believes it's weird for a team not to win championships very often, as Red Sox fans once believed.

I'd rather talk about the Colorado Rockies, whose season ended on somewhat-low-but-honestly-quite-high note tonight. It's unfortunate that Colorado's miracle run through the postseason came to such a sudden stop in the World Series, and I suppose it's too bad they couldn't win at least one game in Coors Field. But I'm still amazed I was watching a World Series game at Coors in the first place.

I don't mean to make the team sound like lovable losers, or that I'm pleased with the Series outcome. I'm not. Missed chances might hurt the most in baseball, because getting to the championship round requires healthy doses of skill and luck. A basketball team can almost always make it back deep in the playoffs, or nearly back, the next year. Many football teams do, too. But baseball relishes tormenting the teams who came oh-so-close.

All of that said, the Rockies' playoff run was easily the most incredible thing that has happened since I started this blog. The only competition came when the Broncos beat the Patriots and, in a flash, hosted the AFC Championship game the next week. Like all Broncos fans, I love the AFC Championship. The Broncos were one game away from making the Super Bowl and setting off two weeks of Orange Crush mania. (Frankly, it would have put even the celebration of a Rockies World Series win to shame.) The Rockies, though, made it a round further than the Broncos, and with a team fewer expected to get there.

So while my heart aches, most of all for Todd Helton, I'm so glad he and the team at least got a shot. This Rockies team may still be young enough to have a bright future, but I'm just grateful that we've had such a wonderful present.

Game 3 liveblog

Hello, everyone. To push our last live blog even further down the page, and as part of a scientific experiment of the effects of punctuation on legibility, I made a running blog of Game 3. Be warned. It probably won't be any more fun to read about than it was to watch.

6:33-Is this 6 p.m. game ever going to start?

6:36-The Budweiser opening pitch goes for a ball.

6:37-Jacoby Ellsbury hits a leadoff single. That has to be the least-fastest hit in World Series history.

6:40-Dustin Pedroia barely beats out Tulo's throw for a second consecutive impressive hit. David Ortiz is up. Kill me.

6:41-Swing and a miss at the first pitch for Ortiz. Tim McCarver says the start to this inning (having two runners on with no outs) justifies David Ortiz starting this game. Is it just me or is anyone else shocked there was even a discussion about this? He's been the best hitter in baseball for years, especially in the playoffs. Of course he starts in the World Series. And now the count is 2-1.

6:42-Joe Buck continues to defend Terry Francona's gutsy call to start Ortiz. Now they're saying Youkilis could have played third. Personally, I would have start Y

6:43-Ortiz strikes out!

-oukilis at third, and put Lowell on the bench. But that's probably just because I remember Euclis from Moneyball.

6:46-A nice pitch evens up the count to 2-2 against Manny Ramirez, who thinks it was low. Looked a little low. But then the strike zone in Game 2 was wider than Bernie Williams' shoulders, so what's he whining about? Ramirez pops up. Two outs, with the runners still at first and second.

6:49-Another gift strike on a pitch to Mike Lowell. Everything is working according to plan.

6:50-Another fly out, and the Rockies escape the top of the first with no damage.

6:52-Ryan Spilborghs decides to sabotage his future in TV with his introduction of the Rockies lineup. Just riveting. Also, he called Todd Helton "ice pick" for some reason. Wonder what that's all about.

6:53-Kaz Matsui hits it into the gap...next thing I know Red Sox are falling all over themselves and Matsui's on second.

6:54-Tulo's up now, because he's finally batting second. Hallelujah. I feel good about this, even though he has no patience sometimes and hasn't exactly hit that great in the playoffs. But everybody loves Tulo, whose name the crowd keeps repeating with that clapping "Tu-lo!" chant.

6:57-And he strikes out. Crap and a half. What is Clint Hurdle thinking? You can't put Tulo at the top of the order!

6:58-Matt Holliday's up. Let's see if he even wants to be on first base, or if he's not ready emotionally yet.

6:59-Holliday hits a grounder to Dice-K, who initiates a rundown that gets Kaz Matsui thrown out. Holliday at least makes it to first.

7:02-Helton's out. That's the first inning.

7:06-Sergeant Major Jason Varitek is thrown out on a broken-bat grounder after another beautiful play from Tulo, who barehands the ball and chucks it as he's still moving at full speed. Two outs in the top of the second.

7:09-Julio Lugo hits a two-out double. McCarver mentioned that that clears the pitcher, since Dice-K is probably going to make the third out here. I'm pretty sure I knew a kid who batted No. 8 back in the day and who insisted it was an important spot in the lineup for this very reason. I'll bet. It's almost as important as spots 1-7. Dice-K goes down quickly.

7:12-Just saw that "Saving the best for numero uno" commercial for Verizon. At the end of it, the can you hear me now? guy just shakes his head at his customer's stupidity. This leads me to wonder. What do you think that Verizon guy's like in real life? Does he still have to have another job, or can he live off his ad money?

7:14-Gary Atkins takes a pitch in THE FACE! The replay makes it look like the shoulder, actually. I was wondering how he shook that off so quickly.

7:15-Brad Hop strikes out. Fine, it was Brad Hawpe. Just wanted to make you think David was writing again.

7:16-Our superb catcher, the love child of Joe Torre and Jessica Alba, flies out to deep left.

7:18-The Rockies just went another inning without scoring. FOX shows some interesting stats about Coors Field's runs per game since they started using the humidor. I didn't catch them but the effect has been more drastic than I've ever given it credit for.

7:21-Ellsbury doubles to lead off the top of the third. He's just a triple and a home run away from the cycle.

7:23-McCarver just said that the strike zone with the current umpire extends an entire inch off to either side of the plate. I'm glad Fogg is getting the edge tonight, but he's been waaaay more than an inch off on a lot of strikes. And why is Carvy even trying to provide a measurement for that anyway? Also, does baseball's rule book even have an official strike zone anymore?

7:24-Crap and a freaking half. David Ortiz knocks in Ellsbury with a double to right. Red Sox, 1-0. Runners on second and third, no outs.

7:25-And we're intentionally walking Ramirez, which is a TERRIFIC call for the Rockies. I can't remember walks ever getting us into trouble, unless you count the World Series. Buck says "clearly" it was the right decision to play Ortiz. He could be right. I don't see Francona getting fired over this.

7:28-Come ON. A hit from Mike Lowell scores two runs. Now I'm sure. I definitely would have started Kevin Youkilis in his place. Red Sox up 3-0. First and second, still no outs.

7:29-Franklin Morales is warming up. I kid you not. Man, I was really hoping we'd get to see him again soon. (No, not really.) At least I won't have to hear about this "Dragon Slayer" anymore. Considering Curt Schilling's affinity for EverQuest shouldn't that be his nickname anyway? J.D. Drew pops out for the first out of the inning.

7:31-The highest-ranking NCO in the army knocks in a run...but apparently Manny Ramirez prefers to argue things before he even touches the plate, while Yorvy eventually stands up and tags him in the back. So Manny gets called out...except now it looks like Ramirez did touch the plate. But he's out, and I guess we just got lucky. Except now it looks like he may have been tagged before he touched the plate. I am so confused.

7:33-Lugo walks, bases loaded, Matsuzaka is up. And now apparently Ramirez really was out, accoring to Carvy. Even better news: now it's 5-0 on Matsuzaka's hit. Good night, everyone, it's been great.

7:36-For the second time this series, I hear a mic'd-up Royce Clayton. Wait a second, is this the 1998 ALDS? Where the freak is Juan Gonzalez? And now Fogghorn is going home for the night after a misjudged ball in center leads to 6-0 Boston lead.

7:40-Franklin Morales is standing on the mound. And you thought 6-0 was scary.

7:41-Frankie gets the last out to end the inning. I'll be.

7:42-I love technology as much as anyone I've ever met. But Sprint, even I didn't grow up dreaming about a magic screen in my pocket. Where does that ad even come from?

7:44-And Frankie's up to bat now. But he's hitting .308! Can that be right? Was this guy an outfielder during the season? Because that would explain a lot.

7:51-AT&T Poll Question: which Blake Street Bomber hit the most home runs with the Rockies? I'd guess Larry Walker over Andrés Galarraga, Dante Bichette, and Vinny Castilla. Do you think Ellis Burks is watching this game? If he saw that question, he can't be feeling very good about himself right now.

7:52-Baseball-reference.com gives it to Walker, though Todd Helton is the franchise leader all-time.

7:56-Morales—yes, the Franklin Morales—gets David Ortiz out for the first out of the fourth. This is so weird. I can't believe this is happening. Be honest, you didn't think he'd ever pitch again after seeing his face in Game 1.

7:57-Another replay of that play at the plate. Yes, Ramirez was out for sure. Oh, by the way, the Red Sox are winning by six. I really hope that play ends up mattering somehow.

7:59-The Red Sox won't get A-Rod, apparently, because they want to re-sign Mike Lowell. Is A-Rod going to have a team next year? I'd love to see him opt out and have it completely backfire. And the Red Sox just went one-two-three in the fourth. Nice.

8:13-Ice Pick just struck out looking after a bunch of foul balls. The pitch looked outside but what the freak do I know?

8:22-Jason Varitek, the most respected man in the army, is up to bat with J.D. Drew on second. No outs, top of the fifth, still 6-0. Man, this game sucks.

8:25-Morales just struck out Varitek.

8:33-FOX's graphic tells us the Rockies are hitting .162 in the World Series, and have been outscored 21-2 so far. All of that sucks. But there's a small silver lining for all those people who've been grandstanding about their years of Rockies fandom the last couple weeks. (Which doesn't even make sense considering how young the franchise still is.) But, anyway, all you guys who keep saying things like, "Boy, it'll be tough getting tickets next year"...well, believe me. It won't.

8:36-Torrealba singles up the middle to start off the Rockies' half of the sixth.

8:38-Sullivan pops out to deep left, and Torrealba has to hustle to make it back to first. FOX uses a weird camera angle, from about where the first-base coach stands, to show Torrealba getting back. It was actually all right. I think that's the first time in five years I've seen an unusal camera angle that didn't make me want to slam a Todd Helton into somebody's forehead.

8:40-Pinch-hitter Seth Smith hits a single, and we have runners on first and second with one out. Kaz Matsui is up.

8:42-Matsui hits a grounder that gets Torrealba thrown out. And now Tulo pops up and the inning is over. Still 6-0. I am very grateful that in this of all years, there's only one October.

8:45-Speaking of Dane Cook, I saw Dan in Real Life today, and it sucked, in case you're wondering.

8:49-Hey, the Rockies finally got that Pillsbury jerk out. Yes, I realize that the nickname would make more sense if he were fat.

8:51-Dustin Pedroia just broke his bat on a pop-out...is it that cold in Colorado tonight? Wait, who am I asking that?

8:53-Now Ortiz has struck out. At least we've stopped giving up runs, eh? Holliday will be first up in the bottom of the sixth.

8:57-Kevin Youkilis is in the game at first base. Now there's a man who looks capable of a triple homicide.

8:58-Holliday grounds out. We really don't have many more chances. I guess I could have said that a couple hours ago, though. Let's see how Helton does. And he gets a horribly-called strike looking on the first pitch.

9:03-Helton walks.

9:04-3-0 count to Dr. Garrett Atkins. I'm thankful for Rob Neyer's live chat on ESPN.com-it's helping me stay awake tonight. I used to really like Neyer, but had to stop reading him when ESPN put all his stuff under Insider. And also when I was too cheap to pay for it. Atkins walks.

9:05-40% of the people got Walker right in the poll from earlier. Go Rockies fans. I guess it was kind of a trick question, because Walker was hurt so much, but he played in Colorado way longer than the rest of those guys, didn't he?

9:07-9.5 years for Walker, 5 for the Big Cat, 7 for Bichette, and 8 for Castilla, including the year he came back (2004) and became the first octogenarian to lead the NL in RBI.

9:08-Rockies score!!!!! Todd Helton comes around on Brad Hawpe's hit to left-center. Man, that's nice. First and second, one out, Torrealba is up.

9:11-Yes! Torrealba hits a single to left to knock in another run. 6-2 now. Coors Field magic? I can only hope.

9:12-DH Ryan Spilborghs is now a pinch-hitter, and Mike Timlin is coming in to pitch to him. I'm not thrilled about that matchup.

9:15-Back from the commercial break to see fans with a sign reading, "It Could Happen." Really inspiring stuff. That's really all you hope for in the World Series—I mean, gosh, we could beat the Red Sox, and wouldn't that be swell? Two on, one out with Spilby at the bat.

9:16-Ah, man. He flies out deep, to the warning track in center. The runners were so far off for some reason that they have to rush back and don't advance. Nice. Well played, gentlemen.

9:17-Jeff Baker is up to pinch-hit. I think I remember when we drafted that dude. Nice to see someone inside the organization get a shot. Oh, wait.

9:20-Man alive. Julio Lugo jumps straight up to nab that liner for the last out of the inning. Still 6-2.

9:24-Top of the seventh, and Matt Herges is pitching to Manny Ramirez. I think it would really help things to get through this inning as quickly as possible. You know, before our offense goes cold again.

9:26-Strikes him out! Sweet. I wish that at-bat would have been a little longer—maybe we could have seen another replay of Manny's slide into home earlier.

9:27-Tim McCarver asks how many games end with David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez out of the game. Thousands every season. I guess he meant Red Sox games, though.

9:27-Mike Lowell strikes out on a pitch he was totally fooled on. J.D. Drew is up.

9:28-Kevin Youkilis is standing in the dugout with giant red mitts on pretending to swing. Oh my gosh. I hope I never see that man in real life.

9:29-I lock my door. (He is in Colorado, after all.)

9:30-Herges with another strikeout! Sweet. Ahhhhh. Please let it mean something.

9:32-Some dude from Earth, Wind & Fire is singing God Bless America. Apparently he's a Denver native, but he's just wearing a generic World Series jacket rather than Rockies gear. What's up with that?

9:36-Matsui bunts his way on base. That was even softer than Pillsbury's single in the first. But then I guess he didn't take the full swing like Pillsy did. Tulo's up next, then Matt Holliday, who's 0 for 3.

9:37-Kaz Matsui takes off for second...aaaaand he's safe. Fantastic. If I get one of those free tacos, and I won't, I'll pretend he earned it for me.

9:38-Tulo takes a hard swing-and-miss on a pretty high pitch. Still getting the chant, though.

9:39-Tulo lines one and it looks like he'll be out...but it slides through, and Matsui advances to third after making sure it was a hit. First and third, no outs, and Joe Buck just said Francona is making a double-switch. Let's see if 'Cony still knows how to do that.

9:42-Matt Holliday's up, and Okajima's up to pitch. First and third, no outs.

9:43-No way. No way. YEAH! Holliday cracks a three-run homer to cut it to 6-5. That looked a lot like the homer I saw at the NLCS. A beautiful shot to deep center.

9:44-That replay was pretty sweet, too. By the way, it's all smoky on the field while Helton is up for the first pitch. Now it's totally clear for the second...maybe my eyes were just playing tricks on me.

9:45-Now all of America is hearing about whether Youk-for-Ortiz is a substitution the Sox will regret. Good. I was hoping we'd hear some more about those guys.

9:47-Yes! Helton singles to left. I do really miss his power, but I'll take it. One on, no outs.

9:48-Gary Atkins has two walks and a hit-by-pitch. I'd settle for another, but hits are cool, too.

9:51-Swing and a miss for Atkins for the third strike. One out.

9:53-Brad Hawpe's up to face Okajima. At this point I hate all of the New Yankees, but Okajima gets a special place in my heart.

9:54-Hawpe pops it up backwards. Sgt. Slaughter gets up out of the crouch to chase it, but the ball lands safely in the stands behind home plate. Count: 1-2, and then Hawpe fouls off another pitch down low to stay alive.

9:57-Dang it. Hawpe strikes out. Two outs, Heckton on first, and the next batter is Yorvit. Yorviiiiiiit!

10-Yorvy grounds out to the pitcher. Red Sox are still up 6-5 after 7 innings.

10:02-The Gillette commercial with Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, and Thierry Henry is on. Maybe I don't follow soccer closely enough, but which one of these is not like the other?

10:05-Another broken bat, and Tulo's throw sends Sergeant Varitek back to the barracks.

10:09-Coco Crisp just singled up the middle to put runners on first and second, one out. Pillsbury up to bat.

10:11-Shoot. Hawpe just missed on a sliding catch and the Red Sox score to make it 7-5. Crispy moves to third, and Ellsby's got his fourth hit of the night.

10:12-Pedroia hits a double that scores both runners. Come on, man. I'm starting to see why Brian Fuentes is always referred to as our "former" closer.

10:15-"Table setters tonight also include the entree and dessert" is about what Tim McCarver just said about Ellsbury and Pedroia's performances. I love this guy. Best broadcaster in the world.

10:15:01-No, not really.

10:19-Hey, the top of the eighth is over. 9-5 Red Sox. Is that bad?

10:19-The same commercial with Verizon guy. Seriously, can that guy go out in public without people asking if he can hear them now? And what happens when he goes somewhere with bad coverage? Do people just start cussing at him? That's got to get old fast.

10:23-Spillborghs flies to right for the first out of the bottom of the 8th.

10:26-Willy T lines out to second for the second out. Kaz-Mat Suit is back up.

10:28-Matsui singles. Tulo is up with two outs.

10:31-Tulo walks. Holliday is up. I'm excited, but we're down four, you know?

10:35-Holliday flies out to deep left, then slams his helmet to the ground. Tulo slammed his bat into home plate earlier in the game, too. Not that I can blame them, but are the guys too tight now? I don't know. This kind of sucks. On the other hand, I am watching the Rockies in the World Series...would it be wrong of me to feel bad if we get obliterated?

10:38-Tom Brady has 27 touchdowns passing this year, according to a promotion for tomorrow's game. (Also, Mike Lowell just singled off LaTroy Hawkins.) I meant to write about Brady earlier this week. In seven games he's tied John Elway's career high for TD passes. Not that Elway was really known for his numbers, but Brady's been unbelieveable this year.

10:40-Alex Cora bunts Lowell over to second. Please end, game.

10:41-Lowell steals third. Varitek flies out to center; Lowell tags up and scores easily. 10-5, Boston. Do I have to finish this? Live-blogging sucks, especially if your team is losing in the World Series. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

10:44-Tulo just throws out whoever was batting on a routine grounder. Helton, Atkins, and Hawpe are due up in the bottom of the ninth.

10:48-Helton just popped up to right. It hurt just to see his expression, because he knew it wasn't a hit the second he made contact. There's no one I'd rather see win the Series at this point...and man, this just sucks. It's like watching Tony Gwynn was against the '98 Yankees. Just painful.

10:50-Atky breaks his bat on a groundout. Brad Hawpe is up, ninth inning, two outs.

10:53-Hawpe hits it into the rightfield corner for a triple. It ain't over yet! Just almost over.

10:55-Torrealba grounds out, and the game is over. Man, I wish it was pre-2004...we'd have the Red Sox right where we want them. Too bad the New Yankees don't have the same habit the Red Sox did of blowing leads. All right. Game 4's a must-win.

Walker in Hall of Fame? Sort of.

It wasn't all bad news for Rockies fans last night. Actually, it was.

But I just thought I'd point out that the greatest Rockie ever, Larry Walker, was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame last night. (Did they have to change the title from Sport to Sports?)

Walker not only possessed all five tools, he's the whole reason I even know what the five tools are. Sure, he could hit like crazy. Everyone knows that. But his instincts were off the charts. No one ran the bases as wisely as he did, but that's not to discount his speed. Don't forget his incredible defense. Outside of John Elway, Walker might have had the best arm of anyone who ever played for a Colorado team.

It's also worth noting that this dream season for the Rockies is the tenth anniversary of Walker's amazing MVP year. In 1997, Walker hit .366, finishing second to Tony Gwynn in the race for the batting title. He also hit 49 homers, stole 33 bases, lead the league in on-base (.452) and slugging (.720!), and had 409 total bases. Oh, and don't forget his 12 outfield assists. He was the only Rockie ever to win MVP.

Though he struggled with injuries, Walker was one of the baddest dudes I ever saw play. For some reason I always recall a late-season, meaningless game against the Pirates or Reds or somebody. It was close, and I think it was the eighth inning. He's up to bat with nobody on, and he gets drilled. Starts talking smack as he's walking to first, and you just know he's fired up. Next dude hits a ground ball, and Walker continues past second base to drive his shoulder into the infielder, breaking up the double play. Not only was it a great hit, but he also got back to second. Finally Walker makes it around to score on a photo finish play at the plate. Instead of heading straight for the plate, Walker veers to the right, sliding feet-first past the catcher, who wasn't planning on swinging around that far for the tag. As Walker slides past the plate, he reaches back with his left hand to tag himself in. I'm pretty sure it tied the game that we won in the ninth. But what's crystal clear is the memory of Walker willing the Rockies to that run.

Incredible. Can you imagine how great life would it be if he were a decade younger?

Rockies down 2-0 in World Series

Sometimes it's simple. To win a game in the World Series, the Rockies will have to start throwing more strikes. And hitting better. Easier said than done.

For a while last night I thought Ubaldo Jimenez was going to make himself a Colorado legend. He came in, challenged hitters, and kept the Red Sox guessing. Unfortunately, he wore out pretty quickly and began to lose command of his pitches. The Rockies pitchers battled all night, which was a refreshing change from giving up runs on walks.

The offense was about as inept last night as it was in Game 1, though it got off to a promising start in the first. How would the game have changed if we could have knocked in one more first-inning run? Like the number of licks needed to reach the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never know, but I think it would have meant a lot. Yes, the Red Sox offense felt much more dangerous than our attack did, but they had a hard time pushing runs across last night, too.

That's about all I'm in the mood to say. Oh, yes, Matt Holliday. Four hits of any kind in a World Series game are pretty impressive. However, getting picked off first in the eighth was inexcusable. You can't blame him for the loss. Considering there were two outs, and no one else could get a hit anyway, he probably wouldn't have scored. But that really put a cap on this whole awful road trip.

Well, that and getting called a fair-weather fan at a church watch party. Pleasant. It didn't bug me nearly as much as the time in high school when someone called me a fair-weather Broncos fan. Yeah, that made a lot of sense. The whole school was chock-full of people who'd loved the Cowboys or called Elway a loser in years past. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of them. Oh, well. What can you really say in that situation?

I really like our chances in Game 3, but do you think we can do enough in Denver? Can we still turn the Series around?

(Oh, and one more thing. Thanks for the tacos, bro!)

Drunken guest poster

Today we're trying a little bit of an experiment on Hole Punch Sports. My friend David, who joined me at the NLCS, begged me to let him "live"-blog last night's game. Please believe me when I say I made absolutely no edits to the following.

Welcome to game 1 of the World Series readers. I am guest blogging for HolePunchSports and will have a running account of tonight’s game. Since tonight is the first time the Rockies are in the World Series it makes for a great stage for my first column.

4:28 No pre-game show here in the San Francisco Bay Area, Just my dog and me and our good friend miller light. Ahh nothing better then cracking open a cold one while watching southern California burn to a crisp.

4:40 I am getting pre-game butterflies. I have never been as happy with sports as I am with these Rockies. I was happy when the broncos won the 1998 Super bowl. But that was expected. I had been waiting a decade for John Elway to finally lift the Lombardi trophy. This World Series is like opening the best Christmas present ever and you didn’t even know it was Christmas day.
Since Fox decided not to have a pre-game show I am watching ESPN news, which is basically, sports center light. Its like Gatorade vs. Propell. The problem with ESPN news is it is like watching regular anchors with ADD who refuse to tell the full story.

4:49 Just cracked open Miller Lite number 2. Before anyone criticizes me for drinking Miller Lite please remember that the company is now call MillerCoors because of a recent merger.

4:56 Dusty Baker, John Kruk and Steve ? all pick the Boston Red Soxs, Wow I can’t wait for everyone who picked the Sox or the Rox look like fools. I really wish some one had Cahones to pick the Rockies. Oh wait I do. I pick Rockies in 5. Why? Because no DH makes Boston just a little bit weaker and the Rox only use one as a bonus.

5:04 Eric Byrnes is a fox commentaor!!!! And he is giving props to the Rockies and the defense. Get outa here. Last week in Colorado I lost my voice yelling at him for calling the Rockies lucky. Eric Byrnes should run for President. Nice Flip Flop! I guess they are in Massachuets.

5:10 The pre-game show of Eric Byrnes, Eric Karros, Kevin Kennedy all just picked the Sox over the Rox also. Everyone on TV is weak. Since the pre-game show just started I am wonder when the first pitch will actually be.

5:18 Josh Beckett scares the crap out of me still. Those of you who read my comments on on mike’s entry yesterday will have a good impression of how scared I am. But I guess I am always neverous when underqualifed people are expected to do great things. Unlike me however the Rockies are getting it done. Maybe we will be ok. Maybe…

5:23 The American flag at Coors field is bigger then the one Boston hung off the green monster. That makes the Rockies 1 for 1 on random comparisons.

5:26 Woohoo Joe Buck is Back in my life! Tim McCarver too. Can life get any better.

5:27 One minute in and Tim McCarver just announced that if the Rockies win it will give them an advantage. I am sure glad he cleared that up for all of us at home.

5:33 Beer 3. It is clear that pre-game shows were designed to help the booze advertisers. I would rather put a pencil through my eye then go through this sober.

5:36 First pitch from Beckett- Strike

5:38 Taveras Strikes out. Wow that was fast

5:41 Matsui Strikes out. 2 outs in the first. Matt Holiday can turn this around.

5:43 Holiday struck out. 1-2-3 for the Rockies. This is why I have been crapping my pants all day. What an awful side. At this rate assuming the Red Soxs don’t run the score up too high this game will be done in an hour and thirty minutes.

5:47 Homerun Pedroia. On the second pitch from Francis. 11 minutes into the game and the Sox are perfect.

5:49 Youklis doubles off Francis. Are you kdding me this is awful. This is a bad of a start as I could imagine.

5:54 Youklis just got knocked in by Manny. I can’t blog while Boston is up to bat. I will get back to you at the top of the second.

6:05 Painful but finally over. Helton is up in top of the second. At the end of every inning if the Rockies are loseing I am going to take a shot of tequila. It begins now. So cheers to you and yours. Beer 4. Tequila 1.

6:11 Tulo RBI gets the Rocks on the board 1-3 We are back in this one.

6:13 Middle Second. Beckett has 5 Strikeouts. Yep I was right he is as scarry as it gets. Do we really need Dane Cook convincing us to watch more baseball?

6:28 End second. Only gave up one run. Francis is keeping it tight. Still on beer 4 Tequila 2

6:34 Girlfriend is home. This should be fun. I know she will judge me for drinking alone and yelling at the TV but I am not sure exactly how this is going to go down Rockies score no runs in the third. Things are getting better every second.

6:55 Middle 3 Beckett has 7 strikes out. Freakin sweet. At least Jeff is keeping us in this thing. Oh wait he isn’t I will check back in at the end of the third.

7:11 Still 4-1. This is a moral victory at least. I still have nothing but shame and disappointment in my life however. Or at least that is what she says. Beer 5, Tequila 3. I need to eat something
7:14 Top of the 4th. Its Rally time Holiday, Helton, and Atkins are going to eat into this Red Sox victory.

7:22 Middle 4th. Beckett has 2 more K’s and I drank 2 more Miller Lite’s. How come people in lite beer commercials are so happy. Never in all my years on this planet have I ever been that happy.

7:41 End 4 I can’t keep this up. Good thing I live in a ground floor apartment. Francis gave up to more runs and things are starting to look a bit bleak. Beer 7, Tequila 4.

7:55 Mid 5. At least Beckett didn’t strike anyone out. 6-1 Rockies.

8:?? Are you freaking kidding me! Let me recap Morales starts the inning taking over for Jeff Francis who gave up 6 runs but sis strike out JD Drew. Gives up a run and gets two outs. Good. Right? Wrong. He then gets hammered like the pretty girl after Prom. Giving up 4 Runs. Wow. This is as bad as it gets. Right? Wrong again. Morales is relieved by Ryan Speier who inherits 2 outs and the bases loaded. Tough situation? Yes but you can come up and get one out against Lugo. Can’t you? NO he walks him and then Ellsbury and then Pedroia. Are you freaking kidding me you have two jobs. First try and get the last out and bail out the overwhelmed Morales. Second don’t walk anybody.

That is it I am done watching this game. Final Count. Boston 13, Rockies 1. Me 11 Beers 6 Tequilas and I am off to play some serious Halo 3. Peace.

7:18 AM the next day. My prediction still stands Rockies in 5. To do that we had to knock the rust off. And we had it knocked off by a Mac truck from Boston. We will be on a roll now. I am confident. A bit queasy but very confident. Time to fire it up against Schilling. I am not scared of him. Am I?

Rockies drop Game One

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, a baseball team called the Boston Red Sox had the best pitcher in the world. He was a fellow by the name of Pedro Martinez. Pedro, you see, could be counted on to win almost any time he pitched, especially if it was a big game.

One memorable year, the Red Sox faced the Cleveland Indians in the first round. It was a hard-fought series that went the full five games. The teams were tied 8-8 in just the fourth inning of that final game. Were the Red Sox worried? No. They had Pedro. Sidelined by an injury in Game 1, Pedro returned to the mound to stop the bleeding. He went the rest of the game-six clutch innings-and didn't give up a single hit. Boston, of course, won.

Was he done? Far from it. In the next round, the Red Sox faced their hated rivals and eventual mirror image, the New York Yankees. Pedro was called on to pitch once again. And once again, he was masterful. He went seven innings, stuck out twelve, and gave up no runs in Boston's 13-1 victory. In other words, Pedro was completely dominant.

Tonight, following up a clutch performance against the Cleveland Indians, Josh Beckett dominated the Rockies in another 13-1 Boston victory. He went seven innings and struck out nine batters. If history tells us anything, it's that one dominant performance like that will always change a series. Boston will go on to win the World Series, right?

Oh, I almost forgot. Funny thing about that Pedro story. You see, he made the New York Yankees-a fantastic team-look like a bunch of Little Leaguers that night. Kind of like the way the Rockies looked tonight. So how did that 1999 ALCS end, anyway? Well, the Yankees won it in five games, then won the World Series.

I'm not saying the Rockies will win in five. But don't give up yet.

California, show your teeth

Anybody get World Series tickets?

Not any readers. Literally, did anybody get World Series?

In a way that people who didn't try to buy tickets will never fully understand, the Rockies' public ticket sales for their remaining World Series seats went horribly. Just about everything that could have gone wrong did.

It didn't have to be this way. The Rockies initially planned to sell tickets through their usual outlets, as well as through their website. Then a couple days ago, they announced they'd be selling tickets exclusively through their website. (That's www.coloradorockies.com. Don't bother going there, though. It never works.) I'll admit, though, that I was glad they were only selling online. I don't live in Denver and would have had no chance to make it to Coors Field or wherever.

The website said tickets were going to go on sale October 22 (that's yesterday) at 10 a.m. So I camped out with a pair of computers, preparing an all-out bandwidth assault. I know what I'm doing, right? Meanwhile David (the David who went to the NLCS with me) is holding it down on the West Coast. So we're ready. And we're off!

Aaaaaand...lost connection. Well, let's hit refresh five million times and see what happens, eh? Let's just say a lot of brave connections died out there yesterday. A couple of times, though, there was a glimmer of sunshine. Loading! What, pray tell, does it say?

"Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. on October 22nd."

That may not be a direct quote. It was hard to read through the tears. Anyway, kept trying, kept trying, kept trying. At 10:29, my girlfriend sends me a worrisome but fortunately not-true-at-all e-mail saying the tickets had sold out in eight minutes. About an hour into things, David found a post by a guy on Craigslist who said he'd contacted the server company and had been told that the servers were down because of the fires in California. At one point I completely guessed and said to David that the Rockies had probably been taken out by a denial-of-service attack. However, time passed with no website changes or announcements from the Rockies.

Finally, at around quarter to noon, with the "F5" rubbed off my keyboard, the Rockies announced that they were going to have a press conference at 12:20. A press conference? Hmmm, sounds official. But all it ended up being was Rockies spokesman Jay Alves standing on the sidewalk, announcing the suspension of ticket sales. Also, they'd announce more later. Now why they'd waited forty minutes to tell us that is a mystery.

Later in the day I returned to find out an announcement was scheduled for 5 p.m. That meant rushing home from work to plant in front of my TV, only to learn absolutely nothing. Well, I learned that the Rockies' idea of a scheduled announcement is different from everyone else's. Eventually, the team announced that they'd announce something before 10, so I finally got to leave the house. I was hoping the tickets would actually go back on sale at 10, if only to thwart potential Boston usurpers, but instead, it was today at noon.

Also at some point last night, the problems were blamed on a denial-of-service attack. Point, me.

Today went a lot like yesterday, with the notable addition of scare tactics. The website, you see, had some changes. The old page refreshed itself every sixty seconds, or at least attempted to make you believe it would. The new one had a 120-second timer and a message, saying you'd lose your spot in line if you hit refresh.

Yesterday the timer occasionally froze on one second before restarting, but would eventually result in a lost connection. Today, it was different. It was refreshing reliably, but would eventually stay on 1 while it seemed to load another page. This happened only a couple minutes in on the MacBook, leading me to believe I was about to get in to buy. Instead, it stayed that way for hours. My desktop, on the other hand, reliably displayed a "the network connection has timed-out" message. Thanks! And, oh, by the way, we've had website counters for at least a decade. So why couldn't the system tell you what spot in line you had?

Eventually the tickets got sold, but I didn't get any. Is it time to overpay for seats? Probably.

So, what have we learned?

1) People are greedy bastards. Everyone I heard discussing it, myself included, was going for the maximum of four tickets. The logic being that we wouldn't be satisfied with World Series tickets, we needed a surplus of them! Of course, everyone had cross deals with each other to share the tickets, making it even more absurd. We also all had plans to sell the extras.

2) The Rockies rock. Don't blame the Rockies for this mess. Instead, appreciate that we're in the mess for two reasons. First, the Rockies are on an historic tear. This is a good thing. The second, frankly, is that tickets were too cheap.

The tickets available ranged from $65 (Rockpile seats) to $250, I think. I was shocked when I found out they were that inexpensive. It lead to two problems. First, scalpers get to make up the difference of what the Rockies could have charged. Second, it means everyone in the state who wanted to go thought they could afford it. Start Rockpile tickets at $125 or $150 apiece, and watch the demand drop to more manageable levels. However, I'm not going to complain that someone wanted to sell me World Series tickets at a ridiculously good price.

3) Coloradans are experts at understanding business principles. Seriously. I read in one story yesterday where a guy complained that he couldn't get through. He'd been to one game already this year and sat in the Rockpile for $4.

Uh, no offense bro, but you're not the kind of customer the Rockies need to be coddling. You gave the team four dollars? The only fans with legitimate complaints are season-ticket holders who couldn't get through during Sunday's pre-sale. That's pretty much it. (News stories painted some of these season-ticket holders as rubes unable to understand a Web browser, which was fun to read, but it still sucks for them.) Now I'd love it if we all got tickets, but the Rockies don't really owe everyone in Denver seats. You want seats? Raise taxes and make a bigger stadium.

4) Side note: the ticket-buying policies suck to begin with. As part of the rush to get NLCS tickets, David ponied up for two seats to Game 5 of that series. Thankfully, the Rockies automatically refunded everyone's money. Well, not everyone's, but they refunded his, since he paid with a credit card. Well, technically they didn't refund his, but they let him call an 800-number and ask for a refund. Well, they didn't so much have an 800-number, but at least they let him mail his tickets back and get a refund in his account the day they arrive. Well, more accurately, he got to mail his tickets back, and was told to expect a refund check to be mailed to him in four to six weeks.

That's just absurd. Now we knew this going in and decided it was worth the risk anyway. But it's still pretty lame. What other company could get away with this? I mean, Apple, one of the hottest brands in America, dropped the price of their superphone months after people bought it, and people still whined and cried until they got some store credit. Yet no one complains about sports teams doing stuff that's way worse than a price cut (which actually isn't a bad thing at all). Just remember, sports are still king in this country.

5) Jay Alves is a crappy webmaster. You'd get this impression perusing reader comments on local news websites, anyway. It was bad enough that some people thought the Rockies were trying to run the sale themselves. But the folks who seemed to think Alves deserved blame really take the cake.

You know what a spokesman does, right? It's not like having a real job. It's just talking about the job other people are doing. And Alves is not bad at that. The only thing he really sucks at is being on time for the press announcements he schedules.

All right, I'm oversimplifying. But seriously, it's not his fault that Paciolan was trying to sell World Series tickets from a single 386 in their basement.

Fans' sense of entitlement didn't stop there. I actually read one guy who said he was going down to Coors Field with his co-workers to protest. (And this was yesterday. Little did he know.) This all happened while I still thought the fires in California were to blame. Yes, people are losing everything they have, but I want Series tickets! Though I never heard anyone officially blame or even mention the fires, the idea sure helped me keep my cool.

Still though, it was annoying. And I think just a little feedback on the website would have gone a long way. "You're 118,000th in line." "We're not selling any more tickets today." "Get a life." That sort of thing.

Think I'm done venting now!

Mwuh ha ha ha ha

The Yankees basically fired Joe Torre today. He turned down a one-year, $5 million offer to return to manage the team next season, which I guess means he won't return at all.

It's a startling pay cut. This season, Torre made $7.5 million. The Yankees' offer actually called for him to receive up to $8 million depending on the team's postseason finish. This being the century that it is, that means Torre was going to get $5 million.

This firing/whatever officially makes this the greatest week in baseball history. Seriously, I've waited years for this. Is Joe Torre the best manager in baseball? Is the Pope Catholic?

Torre's best known for two things: making the perfect call and the perfect time, and having the perfect players to do it with. Sure, any monkey could be trained to bring in Mariano Rivera in when it's close and late. But can that monkey deal with all the other stuff, like a bizarre political environment that dictates that your best shortstop play third base? Can the monkey manage all those high-salaried egos? Can that monkey win three straight World Series? I mean, the Rockies just made it to one World Series, and I'm absolutely losing my mind. Torre lead his team to four Series wins in five years. You can say it's the players or the budget or whatever-but please turn your eyes towards the Red Sox or Braves or whoever, and realize that there's more to it than that.

Can Torre win without good players? Of course not. But that's nearly irrelevant. No coach in any sport can. (Unless all their opponents suck, too, like if the team was in the Mountain West or something.)

Can I get a round of applause for the Yankees' deft handling of this situation? We're not going to fire you, Joe, we'll just humiliate you into quitting. Cute. The Yankees fly under the radar so well that no one's going to put those pieces together.

I asked a Yankees fan a few moments ago how a team that wastes so much money on its players could be so cheap with its manager. And therein lies the rub. Obviously, the Yankees could pay Torre without slapping him in the face; they just elected not to. And make no mistake: they made no effort to keep him if $5 million is really what they put on the table. Would you keep your job if a) every year your company talked about firing you and b) they decided to give you a 33% pay cut? (Oh, and c) if the Boston Red Sox were about to give you $10 million?) I wouldn't. And unlike Torre, I'm not (at least one of) the best in the world at what I do.

I don't know what it's like to play or run a business in New York. I can understand, though, that the Yankees felt changes needed to be made. High-pressure environment, disappointing results, and all that. But why this change? The team's absolutely clueless personnel handling in recent years, especially considering their available resources, is mind-boggling. This is so weird. It'd be like the Broncos firing their running backs coach. Um, yeah, that guy's not the problem!

What's potentially even more entertaining for Yankees detractors (such as myself), is the team's upcoming search for a new skipper. Who can they get that's better? Nobody. Who will they get? I don't know about you, but I hope it's Don Mattingly, as the article suggests. I mean here's a guy whose own company sponsors his Baseball-reference.com page:

Check out Don's new V-Grip Baseball and Softball bats sure to improve your grip and improve your hitting mechanics. Try the same handle that Don invented to help his own kids help improve their swing.

Come on, man. This cheeseball's going to lead the New York Freakin' Yankees? I can't wait!

The game, part 2

So, yeah. Last night's NLCS game was great for two reasons. First, the Rockies made the World Series, which probably won't even feel real when I'm watching it. And second, it was great because I was there.

For proof, please consult the first picture ever on Hole Punch Sports:

Okay, that doesn't prove anything, other than that the Motorla Razr is the world's best camera at any price. But I was there, and it was great. Just a series of ever-escalating moments.

The first was seeing Coors Field for the first time last night. I've been there before, but man, did it look great with the lights on and with the playoff rush. Just the perfect glow. The buzz getting into the building was electric. I've only been to one other playoff game in any sport, when the Broncos beat the Jaguars on the way to their first Super Bowl victory, and before the game, this was at least that exciting. Mile High was louder, of course, but the atmosphere was identical. There was a slight damper when I overhead a guy say, "Where were all these people for the Phillies?"

Right inside they were handing white towels out to everyone. (My friend David, an often anonymous commenter here, pointed out that someone was selling these towels for $3 outside the stadium before Game 3, even though they were free inside then, too.) My first response was, "White towels-how creative!" But hey, I was waving it like an idiot most of the night.

The next stop was the Coors Field Dugout Store. I go every time I'm at the game, but I'm usually too cheap to buy anything. I wanted a hat and a black T-shirt. The hat was no problem. The shirt, on the other hand, was. There were racks and racks of NLCS merchandise-talk about a short shelf life-but only one half-decent T-shirt, which I didn't buy. Its $30 price tag didn't deter me nearly as much as the fact that it said "Rocktober" on it. I don't know about that. David picked up a $22 baseball, which showed remarkable foresight.

Walking around to our seats behind left field, we passed near the Rockpile. Directly under the Rockpile was TBS' pre-game show, featuring Ernie Johnson, Frank Thomas, and absolute baseball icon Cal Ripken, Jr. We're screaming like crazy. At one point the camera pans up and at least some part of me may have been on basic cable across the country. (Now that's a feeling.)

And then the game started. It felt like a slow start, too, but only the first two innings were scoreless. Left field was the perfect spot, because we got to scream "M-V-P" right at Matt Holliday. (My friend's also a Yankees fan, and I had to thank him for not changing the chant to "New-Yan-kee! New-Yan-kee!") Even better, we were right next to D-backs outfielder Eric Byrnes, who wasn't allowed to forget how sharply he inhales. If you didn't hear, Byrnes had said the Rockies were lucky to be up 2-0 earlier, and that the Diamondbacks had plenty of confidence. It wasn't really that offensive of a quote, and frankly I liked his crack about division rivals facing each other 9,000 times a season, but it made him the perfect target. I couldn't help but wonder if he wasn't loving it on some level.

Anyway, Arizona scored a run in the third to take the lead. I was probably more worried at that point than I've been the entire playoffs, which I guess tells you how easy this run has been. The thing is, closeout games are huge, and you never want to let one get away.

In the fourth, though, manager Clint Hurdle made the memorable call to pinch-hit, and rookie Seth Smith knocked in the tying and go-ahead runs with his two-out single. Willy Tavares reached on an error, and then Kaz Matsui, who sounds a lot like Hazmat suit, sent Smith home. Two men on. Up next was Holliday, who only led the league this year in average and RBI. He just crushed the ball to deep center. It just floated and floated...man he hit it hard...I've got someone's hands on my shoulders, the whole crowd's bouncing up and down and AHHHHHHHHHH!! Home run! Whoooooooooo! Three runs in. Fifty thousand people high-fiving. And 452 feet of pure joy. The Rockies took a 6-1 lead and looked primed for the World Series.

(That fifty thousand's no joke-I didn't see a single Arizona fan yesterday.)

In the next few innings we finally got up-me to trade our greatest president for a Sprite, and David to try and get Cal Ripken's autograph on his baseball, which wasn't going to be easy.

But we both succeeded. Later I had to point out that if Ripken had taken a pair of sick days in 1990, my friend wouldn't even have wanted the autograph. He just shrugged. I'm not really a huge Ripken fan, but I have to admit that's a pretty sweet souvenir.

After the sixth, everyone starts to look around, saying to each other but to no one in particular: nine more outs. It immediately strikes me that the tension is just awful and that nine outs can be a really long time. And it is. In the eighth, set-up man Brian Fuentes gives up a three-run homer to cut the lead to 6-4. Manny Corpas comes in and just shuts them down for the last out of the eighth and for the ninth. David tells me that Corpas is going to give up a hit to whoever was at bat and that Byrnes could make the last out. That's exactly what happened. And then the place exploded.

The advantage of being right in front of the scoreboard is hearing, with crystal clarity, the fireworks going off. And there were tons. Honestly, they didn't look that great compared to a Fourth show or anything, but the sound was deafening. The crowd had something to do with that, too. It was Mile High-loud at that point.

We stuck around for baseball's version of the Lamar Hunt Trophy presentation. The interviews were nice, though Holliday couldn't have been less charismatic. (Hopefully he'll hate New York when he visits?) Hurdle was getting a little choked up, but it was loud enough out there to spare him any embarrassment-not that he should have any shame.

On the way to the exit, we see a crowd of maybe eight guys running by, two of them in Rockies hats. I didn't see, but David said they were Jeff Francis, Troy Tulowitzki, and scrambling security personnel. And I guess they got some beer on their victory lap. Man, what a great game. We pour out to the streets chanting something, just overwhelmed by the moment. The Rockies just made the World Series! It was a little surprising not to see any World Series stuff for sale, but we couldn't complain. It was just too beautiful.

Rockies sweep into the Series

The Colorado Rockies just made the World Series. I don't know if I'll have the opportunity or energy to expand on this tomorrow, so feel free to add your points in the comments. Here are some of my observations:

1. I don't care if Frankie Morales only went four innings-when your pickoff move is to go tag the runner out yourself, you've moved to a plane where you're beyond criticism.

2. All right, I lied. I actually care quite a bit that Morales only went four innings, because taking him out may have been the best call of Clint Hurdle's career. The Rockies, trailing by one in the fourth, had runners on second and third with two outs, so they pulled their rookie starting pitcher for a rookie pinch-hitter, Seth Smith, who delivered a Texas Leaguer to knock in a pair of runs.

But the Rockies were up 3-0 in the series and the games are spread out enough that you're unlikely to wear out your pitching staff. In retrospect, is the call still as gutsy as it seemed at the time? I say yes. That move had a huge risk of backfiring, and while the Rockies have nearly limitless momentum lately, nothing will reverse that more quickly than blowing an elimination game. (Just ask the 2004 New York Yankees.)

3. Matt Holliday couldn't sneeze tonight without triggering a round of "M-V-P" chants. The fans may have been cheering even louder for Todd Helton. But the real crowd favorite is Troy Tulowitzki. I think having the range to reach anything between first and third must have something to do with it.

4. I love baseball's playoffs. Two weeks ago, no one in Colorado cared about the Diamondbacks. Two days ago, no one in the state knew a things about Eric Byrnes. But man, do Rockies fans hate them now. When Ernie Johnson was doing interviews during the trophy presentation, Rockies president Keli McGregor mentioned that the Diamondbacks had a pretty good season and was booed. (Don't give me the "act like you've been there before" crap. The Rockies haven't even seen the map to this place before.)

5. I'm so happy for Todd Helton.  I've felt the last few years that his declining home run production will cost him the Hall of Fame. But I've never doubted that he'd trade that honor for a shot at the title anyway. And now he gets that chance.

To those who would point out Helton's postseason struggles, I'm reminded of one man: Tony Gwynn. In 1998, the aging Gwynn returned to the World Series with his San Diego Padres. The problem was that Gwynn was hitting poorly, going a combined 9-for-41 in the first two rounds. Before their Series with the Yankees, I read Gwynn in the paper saying that he wasn't finished, but that he just had to make a few small adjustments.

The Padres were swept, but Gwynn hit .500 in the World Series with a home run. Helton, like Gwynn, is a high-average hitter, but he's also had some incredible power over the years. All I really care about is his getting a ring, but I'd love to see him get on a roll, too.

Rockies in the NLCS

New game, same result: Rockies win, and now they've swept the Phillies and will face the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League Championship Series.

It's the perfect cap to the best week in franchise history for the Rockies, a week that started when the Rockies beat the Diamondbacks Sunday to force a regular season playoff. Monday they beat the Padres in a 13th-inning comeback to make the real playoffs. Wednesday and Thursday they beat the Phillies twice, almost matter-of-factly, then finished them tonight with another spectacular win.

The Diamondbacks, meanwhile, just finished their own series sweep over the Chicago Cubs. The Rockies' scorching finish to the season makes them the hotter team, but both squads look pretty good right now. So I can't assume the Rockies will beat the D-backs on pure momentum.

The Diamondbacks won the NL West this year, but most of the statistical signs favor the Rockies. My favorite? The Rockies outscored their opponents this season by 102 runs. The Diamondbacks outscored their opponents (or, should I say, didn't outscore their opponents) by -20 runs. That -20 margin is not only worst in the playoffs, it's also worse than five non-playoff NL teams (the Mets, Braves, Brewers, Padres, and Dodgers). Personally, I'd rather have the run differential than the division title. The Rockies won the season series 10-8.

The Rockies have the edge in star power, too, with MVP candidate Matt Holliday and possible Rookie of the Year Troy Tulowitzki. And don't forget Todd Helton. The D-backs do have future Hall-of-Fame Randy Johnson, but he's been out for months following back surgery.

Too bad luck is a bigger factor in baseball's playoffs than almost anywhere in sport. It'd be no shock if the Diamondbacks overcame their mediocre regular season and made it to the World Series. They just have to win a few more games. But I think the edge goes to the Rockies. I won't guess how many games it will take them to win, though four would be nice.

Game 1 is Thursday night.

Rox take afterseason opener

Did anyone see yesterday's game? The Rockies beat the Phillies 4-2 to take a 1-0 lead in their playoff series.

I can't say much about the game, though I did see most of it. The Rockies took an early lead and never fell behind. Also, Cole Hamels, the Phillies' starting pitcher, walked in a run. In other words, the Rockies cruised over what appeared to be an overmatched opponent.

Though the high-scoring offense is key to the success of any Rockies team, I'm most excited by the state of our pitching, which is as deep as a high-altitude team needs it to be. Boy, back in my day, the Rockies never had this many competent relievers. In those days, the Rockies would just cross their fingers and hope to get a decent inning from a pitcher who was a complete trainwreck. That happened, or at least it felt like it happened, every single game. No more. A few years ago, LaTroy Hawkins would've been one of the best relievers in franchise history. Now, he comes in in the seventh inning.

However, it's just one game, and in baseball especially it's too early to jump to conclusions. The Phillies have to be better than they showed yesterday. But can they be better enough?

WHOOOOOO!

One of my friends doesn't have cable, but I'm glad. Having to call him all night to tell him about the game meant someone heard me around the fifth inning when I said the Rockies would win by one run in the 13th.

Which they did, finishing off the Padres 9-8 just moments ago.

What a great game. The Rockies jumped out to a 3-0 lead, which would have been a lot more comforting if they hadn't been playing at home.

Then Adrian Gonzalez of the Padres crushed a grand slam to put the Padres back in the lead. The Pads added another run in the inning to make it 5-3, but I wasn't worried. Why? Coors Field.

When you think about it, there's no better park in the world for a one-game playoff. I don't care if baseball purists hate it, Coors is...hold up, I'm glad that baseball purists hate it. But Coors is the perfect backdrop for one winner-takes-all game, because no team is ever out of it. I love that this wasn't one of those 5-2 playoff games where the 2-run team never really had a chance.

Anyway, the Rockies pulled out a win in spectacular fashion, scoring three runs in the bottom of the 13th after the Padres pulled ahead. (They really scored two runs, and received the third as a gift call from the home plate umpire, but I don't care at this point. The Rockies just made the friggin' playoffs.)

Will they stick around in the postseason? All things being equal, I think the Rockies are better than this year's Philadelphia Phillies. But all things aren't equal, and the Rockies went through ten pitchers tonight just to earn the right to play Wednesday (at 1 p.m. Mountain, according to ESPN). But I don't care about that right now. I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the ride.

What I've missed

1. Whenever I've walked through the mall the last few months, I've always stopped and pondered the "Tulowitzki" No. 2 Rockies jersey at one of the kiosks. Was that an actual player, or just an example of a personalized jersey?

Turns out that's Troy Tulowitzki, the 22-year-old shortstop who's hit 24 homers and knocked in 98 runs this season. And I had no idea who he was. In other words, no, I haven't followed the Rockies this year.

It wasn't always this way. I don't know how many Rockies games I watched in the late '90s, but it was a ton. I followed some pretty horrible teams like crazy.

But a few years ago it became pretty clear to me that the Rockies weren't really trying to win anymore. Management had milked the initial excitement dry, and wasn't interested in risking the money to make the team relevant again. When the team traded Larry Walker in 2004--in other words, when my favorite team got rid of my favorite player--I was actually glad, because he'd have a chance to win before he retired. (Did Bruins fans feel the same way about Ray Borque?)

And whenever anyone tried to get me excited about the Rockies' late-season run the last couple weeks, I just felt like I knew they wouldn't make it. They made it, all right, by forcing a one-game playoff for the playoffs tomorrow night against San Diego. I'm watching that for sure, and probably their whole playoff run. (For discussion below: Are my actions at all excusible, or am I the worst kind of fair-weather fan?)

The Rockies have an 89-73 record, tied for second-best in the National League. They've outscored their opponents this year by a League-best 101 runs. (A few teams in the AL have done better, though.) It sucks that baseball's playoffs so often come down to who's able to line up their pitching, but all things being equal, if the Rockies win tomorrow they're legit World Series contenders.

2. I was travelling Saturday and missed the entire Colorado-Oklahoma game. Obviously, I really wish I would've seen it.

What I wish I'd missed

1. The Broncos' game today against the Colts. Actually, I did skip most of this one. I hate the friggin' Colts, who picked up 226 yards on the ground. (I'm sensing a theme this season.) Actually, many of the stats were pretty even for both teams, except for Cutler v. Manning, which went about as you'd expect. I'm not sure what to do about that.

Holy Super Bowl contenders, Batman!

For your consideration and pleasure, I hereby present the following facts after two weeks of NFL play:

Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler has thrown just two touchdowns this year to three interceptions.

The Broncos have needed last-minute heroics from Jason Elam to save face against teams like Buffalo and Oakland. (Against Oakland, they even needed a timeout that even I'd call cheap, had the opponent been anyone else.)

The team is scoring just 19 points per game.

Oh, and the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns put up ridiculous numbers Sunday, combining for 96 points and over 1,000 yards of offense.

And now the question: who has the top offense in the NFL?

The answer, of course, is the Denver Broncos.

Who has the top defense in the NFL? The New England Patriots. In this ranking, the Broncos tumble all the way down to No. 2.

These official rankings are made solely by yardage, rather than points. (I hope this illuminates for you the foolishness of judging these things solely by yardage.) Having said that, if the Broncos are No. 1 in offense and No. 2 in defense this year, they're going to win the Super Bowl.

The offense has had its ups and downs, but some things have worked out really well.

1. Cutler's arm. Cutler still makes some weird decisions, including one crazy pass/fumble in Buffalo that almost cost the team the game. But he can make some impressive throws. I just wish people would stop comparing him to John Elway.

2. Travis Henry. A terrific back in a proven system...who could have predicted this would turn out well? 267 yards in two games puts him on an obscene pace.

3. The receiving corps. Javon Walker's great. Again, no shock. Brandon Marshall has been terrific, too. He was fine last year, but it was in limited action, and it's always nice when a guy can step it up full-time.

We've also got a third receiver now. By the way, you might have thought Dale Carter was a hard Bronco to root for, but try cheering for former Colt Brandon Stokley in a Brian Griese jersey.

4. The line. I can barely name half of them any more, but they're as solid as ever, and will only improve if Ben Hamilton ever comes back.

And the offense can get even better if Cutler continues to improve.

The defense has been fantastic in the passing game, holding both opposing quarterbacks under 100 yards. (They were J.P. Losman and Josh McCown, but still.)

Against the run? Not so much. The Broncos have given up 312 yards on the ground at 5.1 yards per carry. We're playing Jacksonville this week, but then it's at Indianapolis and a home game against San Diego. There are encouraging signs now, but after those games we'll know if the Broncos really have championship potential.