Saturday Rockpile: Wild finish on the horizon, Jimenez in playoff form, more

I would have guessed in general, Denver sports fans didn’t like the trade for what it stood for in their minds—anytime anyone competent nears FA, he’ll be traded.

At any rate, though they’re a bit late, it’s good these types of articles are coming out. Perhaps they’ll help change perceptions on how the organization is doing.

plus he said the Rays were wise to keep Niemann and trade Hammel, which isn’t as clearcut as he presents

wheeee

Still the worst road record of the NL playoff teams… HFA will really help the Rockies

Make it happen!

Us signing Colletti again will now take effect to this. I’m scared of Logan White leaving LA, he’s been just about the greatest scout director out there. He has strong connections with SD, and this to me just about seals his position there.

And not because the Rockies won.

Both teams played solid (except Manny’s K’s) and fought hard for 9 innings. You couldn’t have watched that game last night and not enjoyed the time spent (even if you didn’t like the results).

Lots of the games against our divisional rivals have been like that this year.

watch the language

While winning five straight, they’ve outscored their opponents 34-19 and batted .298. Tulowitzki has led the way by batting .611 with six RBIs, and Todd Helton has hit .409.

.611!! The insanity. God I love that guy.

…..sort of an optical illusion, due to his gangliness. It looks a bit violent, but he doesn’t seem to have had any arm issues of any kind.

Anyway, it was a great game to follow on the cell phone…hoping for more tonight. Obviously, I’d prefer the Rox to win out, but more important, I really want the Rox to win tonight, just so that tomorrow’s game will be as near to an “all in” as a game can be (given both are already in the playoffs).

He seems rather under control when he throws the heat.

And Tulo is (in the words of Jerry Manuel) “Driving the Gangster bus wherever he wants to go”

For most of the season I was living in a small town in the mountains of rural mexico. I had no TV or internet connection. I went to the bigger town (90 minutes on steep narrow dirt roads) once a week to use the internet. I would download all the box scores and read through the game wraps. I am so happy I have internet again to follow this now, but I absolutely feel your pain!

But then again, my fandom is so extreme that it’s completely consumed real life and the two are pretty much inextricably linked at this point. Notably, though, I committed to this blog and SBN in 2005 but wasn’t aware of the kind of real life drama I’d be seeing that winter. At least you don’t have that kind of obligation to your fandom to take care of as well as RL obligations. At any rate, the great thing about the Rockies right now is that, knock on wood, they’ll provide us more happiness in future seasons as well. Take care of your business, root for the Rockies when you can, but they’ll still be here for you when you get back.

I consider myself pretty fortunate that I’ve been able to follow via game threads, sometimes on TV, and recently, I’ve been able to get to a couple of games. But this has been a really surreal season for me, as my wife’s been in the hospital since June 22nd, all but the first two days in intensive care (I won’t rehash all of it here).

From June to early September, I couldn’t bring myself to take the time away from her to go to Coors, though I’ve actually managed to attend three games in the last three weeks. And now, we watch games together in the hospital (punctuated by having to leave early when visiting hours end at 9pm). It does get in the way in a lot of ways. For instance, my wife’s been unable to wear the gorgeous Purple Row Cares t-shirt that Charlie77 sent, because she’s unable to work hard enough to put on t-shirts.

It’s been a tough year to be an active fan, even though there’s never been a better year to be a fan. Things are slowly moving positive, though, and Jenn insists I go to the playoff games. But even then, such as with the final two home games last week, the experience is always a bit empty without her there at Coors Field with me.

Sure didn’t happen for me in college, though, when the Rocktober 07 run threatened to derail my senior seminar (I missed a few deadlines on the thesis, let’s just put it that way).

Real life sometimes gets in the way of a ‘sit around all day until first pitch’ routine. But it never gets in the way of being a fan. At the end of the day there’s still a boxscore to read and highlights to watch.

I turned to my Dad and said “Aren’t you glad this isn’t Brian Fuentes?”

In shprt, I love Huston Street!

I don’t like all these vacancies with O’Dowd still being a potential free agent GM himself.

But that cheap bastage Angelos decided to retain Trombley for one more year, so the job’s not open.

I"ve been reorganizing my apt, cleaning out closet.s.getting rid of things etc. I have piles of stuff everywhere. I need to go to the grocery store, etc.

And here I sit..

.OCD-Rox type…is a bad thing…

and yet I love every minute of it…lo

I tend to think they would not. But who knows!

First division title in franchise history….of course you have a celebration. I don’t see how you don’t. A division title is still meaningful, even with the wild card.

But in this case, they can just have the clubhouse staff retrieve the unused bottles from the Dodgers’ locker room.

First ever Division title… The celebration would be even bigger!!!

The Dodgers (Torre) were arrogant to not celebrate the playoff birth. They are guilty of the “bad form”

If by chance we are fortunate enough to win the division, you can’t say that the Dodgers won’t find their mojo again. We could play them in the NLCS, and I don’t want any extra motivation for them.

root for them if you think we’ll lose one of these last two against LA, or against them if you think we’ll win both.

Unless they’ve been sent to Tucson for rehab or something, they’ll usually be in the clubhouse when the team’s at home, but I don’t think they travel with the squad.

Hirsh in the dugout for the 2007 Playoffs? I sort of remember him catching the ceremonial 1st pitch during the World Series. Could just be my imagination though.

ahhhhh Baseball…..gotta love it

Was terrifying – his helmet went flying, I thought he was dead.

We had the right part of our lineup coming up and I had massive quantities of “Believe”

Can you imagine the catharsis Helton would’ve had if he had got to hit then?

I.E. belting up the stairs into the TV room, seeing the mosh pit at home plate, screaming, throwing myself into the arms of my startled friend, throwing myself into the arms of his equally startled friend, and jumping up and down. Followed by people coming up the stairs to see if there was a murder scene going on, followed by my friend going, “No, uh, the Rockies made the playoffs, that’s all. It’s cool.”

His finger could have slid under the cleat…in all the dirt flying up…no way McClelland can tell for sure. Plus catcher drops the ball…SAFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I need an intervention. Oy.

Earlier this season, I was lucky to get 20 comments on a Saturday Rockpile.

and this paper stands in my way of just dorking out on the Rockies all day long. Grrrrrr.

/wonders if WolfMauder is already working on a script??

That makes 2009 Major League 2

Hopefully she and the Rockies give each other some positive mojo.

We’ll cheer on yours and her behalf…:)

Is it 1 play 4, 2 play 3

Or 1 play 3, 2 play 4

Whatever

BEAT LA!! BEAT LA!! BEAT LA!! BEAT LA!! BEAT LA!! BEAT LA!! BEAT LA!! BEAT LA!! BEAT LA!! BEAT LA!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Limited national exposure to have national announcers mention these stats. BBWAA being lazy and not doing research…..

don’t even get me started….

Tulo was probably below .200 and is now basically at .300

pressure on the Tigres big time tonight

I like that first scenario just a bit better

let’s do it.

thanks for mentioning Fox announcers failing again!!

From Yahoo Sports..Here’s our scenarios

Rockies at Dodgers, 10:10 on MLBN/DTV 737 & 738
• Winner of NL West will face Cardinals in Division Series. Loser will face Phillies.
• Dodgers clinch NL West and top seed with win.
• Rockies clinch NL West and top seed with two wins and Phillies loss.
• Rockies will be No. 2 seed with two wins and two Phillies wins.

Hurricane Destiny could put a direct hit on Dodgerville.

yesterday before the game, I was going through all my stuff figuring out to keep and throw away. Welp, I found something I thought I’d lost…

A napkin that John Elway and Gary Kubiak signed for me when they wandered into a bar I was at during the Super Bowl here in SD.

I literally danced around my bedroom and squealed. I called my sister to tell her I was so excited.

I hope that was a good sign :)