Is this the Colorado Rockies' annual road trip of doom?

Welcome to the ninth Purple Row edition (and 114th overall) of Tuesdays With Mitch, where we are NOT proud of the #BestHackersInBaseball. Let's get into it...

Each year, a single road trip seems to doom the Rockies. The Rockies will be playing some pretty good baseball, maybe turning some heads and raising some eye brows before boarding a plane and playing a few series away from Coors Field. Things go poorly and the Rockies fade from relevance. I've named this yearly happening "The Annual Road Trip Of Doom".

I went back and looked at the past few Rockies' seasons in an attempt to illustrate this phenomenon. I started in 2012, but I probably shouldn't have. That team was so bad it's hard to find The Annual Road Trip Of Doom, but an early-May trip to California is the best candidate. It was just the second true road trip of the year for the Rox after opening the season on the road. Before the trip, the Rockies were 12-15, which means they were playing poorly but hadn't had the chance to show the world just how awful they were. Looking back, this trip doesn't really fit TARTOD mold. The team didn't visit the east coast. The trip consisted of inter-divisional opponents. In short, this trip would not have jumped out at you as an overly troublesome journey when you perused the schedule in Spring Training.

Date	Opponent	Result	Trip Record	Overall Record
May 7	San Diego	Loss	0-1	12-16
May 8	San Diego	Loss	0-2	12-17
May 9	San Diego	Win	1-2	13-17
May 11	Los Angeles Dodgers	Loss	1-3	13-18
May 12	Los Angeles Dodgers	Loss	1-4	13-19
May 13	Los Angeles Dodgers	Loss	1-5	13-20
May 14	San Francisco	Loss	1-6	13-21
May 15	San Francisco	Win	2-6	14-21

So the Rockies went 2-6 on the trip and the losses never really stopped that year. Again, this trip only half-counts because that team was bound to lose a whole bunch of games, both at home and away from Coors Field. But moving from three games under .500 to seven games under on a single road trip sure didn't help things in Jim Tracy's final year.

The 2013 season provides a much more salient example of TARTOD. That 2013 team, which finished 74-88, was 37-33 on June 16th (Hey that's today!) and just a half game out of first place. It was a pretty impressive and unexpected 70 games. But a long, east coast road trip loomed. Nine games. Three cities. Toronto. Washington. Boston. Many thought that if the Rockies could manage a decent trip they might be the real deal. They, uhh... did not manage a decent trip.

Date	Opponent	Result	Trip Record	Record
June 17	Toronto	Loss	0-1	37-34
June 18	Toronto	Loss	0-2	37-35
June 19	Toronto	Loss	0-3	37-36
June 20	Washington	Loss	0-4	37-37
June 21	Washington	Loss	0-5	37-38
June 22	Washington	Win	1-5	38-38
June 23	Washington	Win	2-5	39-38
June 25	Boston	Loss	2-6	39-39
June 26	Boston	Loss	2-7	39-40

The Rockies started the trip with five straight losses. They managed a series split against the Nationals before dropping both games in Boston. The 2-7 showing moved the Rockies from four games over .500 to one game under. They didn't sniff a winning record for the remainder of the year. That trip was the beginning of a 37-55 finish for the 2013 Rockies.

Last season has another perfect example of TARTOD, one that is still far too fresh in my memory. Much like in 2013, a reasonable fan could see the 2014 version of TARTOD coming from a mile away. Though it came earlier in the year than its predecessor, the similarities are striking. The Rox were 26-22, four games over .500 (again) But a peek at the schedule provided reason for concern. Nine games (again). Three east coast cities (again). Philadelphia. Atlanta. Cleveland. (We're considering Cleveland an east coast city here because it fits my narrative. Work with me.)

Date	Opponent	Result	Trip Record	Record
May 23	Atlanta	Loss	0-1	26-22
May 24	Atlanta	Win	1-1	26-23
May 25	Atlanta	Loss	1-2	27-23
May 26	Philadelphia	Loss	1-3	27-24
May 27	Philadelphia	Win	2-3	27-25
May 28	Philadelphia	Loss	2-4	27-26
May 30	Cleveland	Loss	2-5	27-27
May 31	Cleveland	Loss	2-6	27-28
June 1	Cleveland	Loss	2-7	27-29

Another 2-7 showing. Another season-ender. This trip started ominously when Nolan Arenado broke some bones in his hand during the second inning of the first game in Atlanta. The second inning of the first game! And that was pretty much it. There were some gut-wrenching losses on this trip. The Rockies lost twice on walk-off homers, twice in one-run games, and were blown out twice. And like in 2013, a single road trip sent the Rox below .500. And like in 2013, they never looked back. Even when they returned home, they lost seven of their next eight. Season. Over.

Coming in to the 2015 season, the schedule didn't present a clear-cut TARTOD. Not a single east coast swing is more than seven games or two cities. There's a daunting seven-gamer through Washington and New York, but that's not until August. A nasty 10-gamer through San Francisco, Oakland, and Arizona could present some problems, but that's a west coast swing with mostly NL West opponents.

What about that mid-June trip to Miami and Houston? That one doesn't really fit TARTOD mold either. It's only six games. Only two cities. The Marlins are (still) one of only a handful of teams in the National League with a record worse than the Rockies. Houston isn't even in the eastern time zone. But what if the road trip is just a disaster? What if the Rockies go, say... 1-5?

Date	Opponent	Result	Trip Record	Record
June 11	Miami	Loss	0-1	27-32
June 12	Miami	Loss	0-2	27-33
June 13	Miami	Loss	0-3	27-34
June 14	Miami	Win	1-3	28-34
June 15	Houston	Loss	1-4	28-35
June 16	Houston	???	1-5 or 2-4	28-36 or 29-35

(And yes, I realize that waiting for Tuesday's day game to end before publishing this post would have made sense, but that's one of the downfalls of only posting once a week. Work with me people!)

Are we witnessing TARTOD right now? I'm not sure, but there are some similarities to the 2013 and 2014 versions. While the Rox began this trip with a losing record, they were actually playing some pretty good baseball, going 16-12 after that ugly 11-game losing streak. If the Rockies do finish this trip 1-5, they'd be right back to eight games below .500, almost matching their low point for the season. (They were 14-23 on May 20th.)

[Update: The Rockies DID, in fact, lose to the Astros today. They finished the trip 1-5. They are eight games under .500.]

That would make for a pretty disastrous six-game road trip. [Update: It was a pretty disastrous six-game road trip.] It would be a mostly-unexpected spot for TARTOD, but it would be no less effective than those we've seen in previous years.

If the Rockies beat the Astros in a few hours [Update: They did not.] and finish the trip 2-4, we can remove this trip from all TARTOD discussions. Sliding from four games under to six games under should not doom any season in the middle of June.

The Rockies have been a resilient team so far in 2015, bouncing back from many seemingly back-breaking losses with strong performances. Maybe they can recover from a poor showing in Miami and Houston, win a bunch of series, and claw back to .500.

Or maybe The Annual Road Trip Of Doom is upon us.

[Update: I think it is.]

How's this for studly? An armless man threw out the first pitch at last night's Giants game with his feet. Very awesome.

And another angle in Vine form:

[FTW]

Ass of the week:

When I first saw this Vine of Tom Brady dancing around like a weirdo I was on the fence about whether or not to include it in today's post. But hey SOMEBODY has to be the Ass of the week! Tom Brady is a solid candidate whenever he does... anything, really.

Photo of the week:

Check out this raccoon hitching a ride across the swamp on the back of his alligator buddy! What an unlikely duo! A real tag-team of fun, these two! Seriously though, a pretty incredible picture. (Actual story here.)

Tweet of the week:

Looks like the Stanley Cup is subject to all the same airport rules as regular, non-famous-trophy luggage.

Xray of the #StanleyCup enroute through security. #BecauseItsTheCup @NHL @HockeyHallFame pic.twitter.com/ZvWYIMp0tk

— Philip Pritchard (@keeperofthecup) June 15, 2015

Some other stuff the internet had to offer:

The Stanley Cup Finals came to an end last night (See ya in October, hockey!) and this is the coolest video I've seen from all the celebratory stuff. Looks like a pretty decent time in there.

Guillermo at the NBA Finals is absolutely hysterical.

Probably the coolest play from the NBA Finals so far is this Curry step-back three from Sunday night:.

I don't know why, but this GIF of a baffled Steve Kerr cracks me up every time.

GIF: Steve Kerr & Warriors fan are stunned pic.twitter.com/SHfHKZMWAe

— The Cauldron (@TheCauldron) June 10, 2015

Look at this beautiful, slow-motion diving catch from Adam Jones. Just wonderful.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ – @SimplyAJ10 to @mookiebetts pic.twitter.com/Hq1xccb5Dg

— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) June 11, 2015

If you haven't seen the lead singer of Smash Mouth cussing at fans and trying to start fights at the Taste of Fort Collins on Sunday, here ya go! (There is definitely some NSFW language in here, so be careful.)

What a strange, strange moment.

A couple links worth sharing:

• This was actually published a couple weeks ago, but I just got around to reading/watching it. It's a 41-year-old's quest to dunk a basketball for the first time. It made for my favorite story of the year so far.
• Locally, Benjamin Hochman had a couple fantastic baseball-y columns this week. First, the story of a blind married couple that goes to hundreds of Rockies games. Great stuff.
• ... and from Wednesday: The story of Mitch Harris, who spent years in the Navy before becoming a major leaguer. Again, great stuff.

And finally, Here's a video of a singer I've never heard of from a band I've never heard of performing in a town I've never heard of. It's the greatest thing I've ever seen.

The greatest thing I've ever seen.

Happy Tuesday, everybody. Thanks for readin'. See ya next week.

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Comment on any of this stuff below, or email me at mdhahn1@yahoo.com with post ideas, videos, or other media I should know about. Follow me on Twitter @TuesWithMitch.