Remembering Rocktober: Play-In Game Between the San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies, Part 1

by Russ on Oct 1, 2008 7:20 AM MDT in Rocktober

Welcome to the most important day in Colorado Rockies' history since the first pitch was thrown to a Rockies batter! With a little help from the Tony Gwynn, Jr. and the Milwaukee Brewers against the San Diego Padres over the weekend and the Rockies' will to win the final two games against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Rockies and Padres had to settle things in Denver to determine the Wild Card winner.

Here's last year's Rockpile. I don't recall why I was doing the Rockpile that day, since I only started doing Mondays in the middle of this July. The first of my three comments in that entry makes some more sense if you've read the first entry in this series.

Anyway, the anticipation was enormous. Winner takes the wild card and a trip to the postseason. Lose, in the Rockies' case, and see those last weeks of September be for naught. Oh, and it would be the first time in 2007 that the Rockies were on a national broadcast. Nothing like losing to millions of eyes glued to a TV screen for your first national TV appearance all season.

I thought I was going to miss the first hour of the game because I had class from 6:30-8:10 (ET, of course), but when I arrived at the room my class was held in there was a cancelled note on the door. That surely had to be a sign of something good happening later that night.

We waited.

Use this entry to discuss everything leading up to the game. Later in the day I'll have an entry for the game itself and quote some comments from the game thread. After that we'll have the video of the most important play in Rockies' history up.

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My Rocktober

My Rocktober starts out in a town outside of Hackensack, New Jersey. I had been living there a little over a year after I relocated for a job (I’m originally from Western NY). The best thing about living there was that I got to see the Rockies for 1 series year against the Mets at Shea. They lost both games I went to, and won the day game I didn’t go to. Figures.

Things were looking bad in early September. I met up with a friend in NYC for a night out and we found ourselves at some small sports bar where they happily put on the Rockies game for me. The Marlins were winning 9-1 and ended up winning 10-2. I took the familiar “Rockies Suck” slander, only to respond with the only thing I could.. It could still happen.

Flash forward 3 days – the Rockies have won 2 in a row, but were on the cusp of being deflated with Takashi Saito coming in to close the game in the bottom of the 9th. As Helton rips the game winning 2-run home run into the right field stands, I was more excited than usual. I know this home run meant something more than any other. Then I see Helton throw off his helmet as he comes towards home. That gave me chills. I made sure my brother came in to watch the look on Todd Helton’s face as he leaped into the pile at home. He says, “So what, they still don’t have a chance to make the playoffs”. Ironically, he’s a Mets fan.

8 wins later, the Rockies lose to the Diamondbacks as they clinch a playoff spot on our field. Man, do I hate the Diamondbacks.

The next 2 days I was glued to MLB.tv, having the Rockies/Diamondbacks and Padres/Brewers games going simultaneously. Watching the final out and Todd Helton seemingly riding an invisible bike in the infield, I was the happiest I had ever been being a Rockies fan. But things were about to get happier. Much happier…

by lunchbox8484 on Oct 1, 2008 8:24 AM MDT 0 recs

Ah, so you were

also in attendance when that damn Damion Easley hit that game-tying homer off of Fuentes.

"Never Surrender Dreams" - Inscription on J. Michael Straczynski's bench

Purple Row - Covering all your Rockies needs!

by Russ on Oct 1, 2008 8:42 AM MDT up 0 recs

Indeed I was. Quite a demoralizing game, losing to a walk off bunt too.

by lunchbox8484 on Oct 1, 2008 8:53 AM MDT 0 recs

What a day that was

To paraphrase a Kenny Chesney song, I went to class just to pass the time. I couldn’t tell you a thing that was said in any of my classes, all I remember is checking my backpack every hour or so to see if my tiebreaker tickets were still in there.

Every day is a Holliday!

by free7694 on Oct 1, 2008 11:23 AM MDT 0 recs

What is with...

….Everyone on The Row having something that day and it being cancelled?

The Fail boat is sinking

by rockiesfan4ever on Oct 1, 2008 12:32 PM MDT 0 recs

Because the baseball gods deemed it so.

"Never Surrender Dreams" - Inscription on J. Michael Straczynski's bench

Purple Row - Covering all your Rockies needs!

by Russ on Oct 1, 2008 1:30 PM MDT up 0 recs

I guess so

YAY! for baseball gods.

The Fail boat is sinking

by rockiesfan4ever on Oct 1, 2008 3:25 PM MDT up 0 recs

I had a test...

and because of it I missed the first 1.5 innings. I might have screwed the test up a little in my hurry to finish, but I took the test. I have a scholarship to keep, after all, and it all worked out in the end.

Eschew Obfuscation!

by Jeff Aberle on Oct 1, 2008 3:30 PM MDT up 0 recs

I missed the day of school for this sports holiday

it was the first time i EVER missed shcool. actually in 96 my dad took me out of school for a thursday day game against the braves i think. it was worth it

by Hawkinshero on Oct 1, 2008 6:18 PM MDT up 0 recs

From Soccerland

This is my first post, but, if you don’t get bored, I wanted to tell my Tiebraker story.

As my username says, I’m from a land where baseball is the least important of the sports (well … maybe better than field hockey, which is the other sport I’ve played), so not a lot of people understood when I left a fun happy hour to watch a game and cheer for a team no one there even knew existed.

When I got home, the game was about to begin. With Peavy out, and Rockies on top, I believed we had a chance. After Holliday misplayed the ball in the eighth inning, the thought came : “Here we go again …” Well, needless to say that, despite the fact that it was past 2 A.M. in Rio de Janeiro, I wanted to throw something really hard at Jorge Julio and, when he was replaced, once again the thought came : "Ortiz … really ? Oh, well … It’s not like it will metter anyway … " All I could think was that since Clint Barmes homer on Opening Day 2005, I couldn’t remember a moment when we beat Trevor Hoffman really bad (and to score 3 runs, or even 2, we would have to beat him bad …).

And then … One of the best sports moments of my life. Kaz … Tulo … Matty (when the camera focused on him, and he stopped right after the hit, I thought for a moment it could be a walk-off). Not enough drama …
Triple (and my heartbeat was already at 180) ! The walk to Helton wasn’t really surprising and I just said : “Jamie Carroll, please don’t strikeout ! That’s all I ask !”
And, as if it wasn’t enough, there was the split second between “The Slide” and “The Call”
Well, it was about 3 AM and I had to say something to someone, since I was in one of the happiest moments of my sports life and no one even cared about it …

So I woke my wife up (at 3 in the morning !) and told her : “WE DID IT !” So, she looked at me, looked at our 1-year-old daughter and replied : “Yes … Our daughter is really beautiful and we did a wonderful job, but can we talk about it tomorrow ?”

by RockiesFanInBrazil on Oct 1, 2008 7:44 PM MDT 0 recs

Ahh Memories...

Last year I attended game 162 and that morning I remember walking up to Coor’s field thinking they had no chance to win and then seeing the booth selling playoff tickets. My dad and I looked at each other and both said, “No way, I’m not wasting my money!”

Two days later we were in the playoffs.

Rockin' October

by Charlie77 on Oct 2, 2008 1:57 PM MDT 0 recs

Was at the game

Was too drunk to remember much beyond this:

We were in the second deck above the scoreboard. Hairston hits a 3-run jack. I turn to my buddy and the following convo happened:

Me: “It’s over. I can’t believe its **** over. All of it. This **** sucks. ************”
Lethal Koala: “No way, man. We’re going to win it on a walk-off. It’ll just be more fun this way. We got Kaz leading off!”
Me: “It’s Hoffman. We’re ****”
LK: “He’s been up and down. He’s done.”

You know what happened.

When Holliday hit that triple, I actually thought it was a HR. From our angle, we couldn’t tell if the ball cleared the wall or not. I jumped into the air, got smacked by the fan in front of us. My glasses fell off. I dove down on the concourse, got them and saw The Troll (Carroll) hit the sac fly.

Greatest game I’ve ever been to.

by LawrenceDavis on Oct 2, 2008 4:12 PM MDT 0 recs

I remember that game....

I was in Albuquerque and I had a meeting to get to that night. To kill some time, I went to Hooters and got a sandwich and watched the game for a little while. Then I had to get to the meeting. Once I got home, I saw the game was still on! I was fortunate to see the rest of the extra innings. What a finish!

It’s a shame that the Rox couldn’t get the momentum in 2008 like the end of 2007.

fader nation is a conquered nation

"Jerry Jones is Al Davis with a smile!"

The creator of the following names: conquered fader nation, Phyllis and his merry men

by mdierk on Oct 2, 2008 4:33 PM MDT 0 recs

Had a babysitter so the wife and I could watch the game..

We didn’t have cable so we went to a sports bar and watched the game, after the 11th inning my wife was getting worried about leaving the babysitter with the kids so late. After Hairston hit the HR I turned to my wife and said, “Let’s go home, Jeff and Jack will tell us how it ends.” Which they did, “Oh man!! The Rockies did it!!” I’m not embaressed to say that Jeff Kingery has provided me with some of the most memorable moments in my life.

Rockin' October

by Charlie77 on Oct 3, 2008 10:00 PM MDT 0 recs