Roctober

April 8, 1993

The Colorado Rockies had just been swept by the NY Mets at Shea Stadium in their first two games in franchise history. People doubted if Major League Baseball could make it in Denver - a town that is crazed for Pro Football and their beloved Denver Broncos. The Rockies would play their first game ever the next day at Mile High Stadium - home of those Broncos. Mile High Stadium? It seats 80,000 and the biggest of baseball stadiums usually can't even hold half that crowd. If baseball would make it in Denver, the Rockies would eventually need their own stadium, but that was a big if...

So the Rockies came home from New York on April 8th with a day off before the big home opener. The city wanted to hold a Parade for the team to demonstrate that there were some people ready for big time baseball in Denver. But after being handled by the Mets Rockies players thought maybe a 1,000 fans would show up so you can imagine their surprise when the streets of downtown Denver were packed at mid-day with more than 200,000 crazy, screaming fans.

The next night the Rockies opened with the Montreal Expos and I was one of the Major League record 80,277 at Mile High Stadium that night. Eric Young was the lead-off hitter for the Rocks and you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you, but EY took the 6th pitch of the game over the fence for a Home Run and the place went ballistic. What made that so improbable is that Eric Young does not hit Home Runs - in fact it took him 160 more games before he hit another Homer! The fans energy fueled the Rocks at an 11-4 victory and Denver knew they had something special! Improbible would be a word used a lot to describe the Rockies, but unfortunately not usually for their play. The real story was the fans. The team didn't win a whole lot of games that year, but the fans kept coming at a record pace smashing the old MLB attendance record with 4,483,350.

The Rocks have played at mediocrity or above ever since that home opener, but their fans have stuck with them waiting for the eruption. Colorado Rockies fans - welcome to Rocktober - the time has finally come! Those of you outside the state of Colorado probably have not grasped the significance of what the Rockies have done in the last month. They are in the midst of one of the most improbable runs of all time. Check out what ESPN's Jayson Stark has to say about it:

This didn't just happen. Did it? That couldn't have been Coors Field, shaking so hard Monday night that it must have knocked all the snow off the nearest Rocky Mountain tops. That couldn't have been the Colorado Rockies, dancing beneath the fireworks, pulling on those National League Champions T-shirts, the only National League team still standing in the second week of October. This can't be the Rockies -- the Rockies -- heading to their first World Series in franchise history. Can it? If you watch enough baseball games and follow enough pennant races, you come to think after awhile that you have a grasp of what's possible and what isn't. And let's be candid here: This isn't possible.

But on another magical autumn evening a mile above sea level, the impossible turned possible. The Colorado Rockies are going to the World Series. Just don't ask how. Don't ask how a team on life support can suddenly start winning and winning and winning some more to find it has just won 21 of its last 22 games. Don't ask how a team that was a mere four games over .500 on Sept. 15 could make it here from where this team came from. From nine games under .500 (18-27) in May. From six games out in the wild-card race in September. From 4½ games back in that wild-card race with only nine games to play.

From two games behind with two games to play, and having to watch that Padres team they were trying to catch get within one strike of clinching. From two runs behind in the 13th inning of the 163rd game of the year, a game they never should have had a chance to play in the first place. Has any team ever overcome all of that to play in a World Series? Not a chance.

So what we have here is one of the most historic, most astonishing, most compelling stories in baseball history. We're not sure the other three time zones have comprehended that yet. But now's your chance, because this team is not done playing yet.

Clearly, they had to believe, or they couldn't have done this, right? Couldn't have become the fifth team in the last 70 years to go 21-1 in any stretch of any season. Couldn't have become the first team to do that in the middle of one of these mad charges to, and through, October. Couldn't have become the second team in history (along with the 1976 Big Red Machine) to sweep its first two postseason series in any given October. Couldn't have become the fifth team of all time to make it from last place one year to the World Series the next. Couldn't have become the sixth team in history to fall nine games under .500 and still climb out of that canyon to make it to the World Series. And, finally, couldn't have become the first team ever to find itself two games out of a playoff spot with two games to play and somehow survive to scramble into the World Series. That didn't really happen. Did it? That wasn't really possible. Was it?

Before Todd Helton's dramatic walk-off bomb off Takashi Saito. Before Josh Fogg turned into The Dragon Slayer. Before Matt Holliday's slide. Before Kaz Matsui's slam. Before Yorvit Torrealba turned into David Ortiz. And then, finally, before this night -- the night their journey carried them to the top of the only mountain peak around that no Coloradan had ever climbed before. For a while there, it almost looked as if this night might be different from all the other nights. On this night, the Rockies actually (gulp) trailed for an entire inning. But for a whole nutty month now, somebody has always stepped forward, to grab onto the moment and turn it into another one of those here-they-go-again evenings. And sure enough, on this night, it was Seth Smith's turn. Until now, he was probably better-known to some folks as Eli Manning's backup quarterback at Mississippi. He didn't even join this team until Sept. 16, when the Rockies brought him in from Colorado Springs. And he never started a single game -- not one. But would they be here without him? Heck, no. Wouldn't. Couldn't. In his 12 at-bats since he arrived, all Seth Smith has done is hit .583 -- .636 as a pinch hitter. So when game-breaking time arrived Monday -- with two on and two out in the fourth inning, Clint Hurdle pointed in his direction. And of course, Seth Smith got it done. With an ugly little inside-out, opposite-field bloop shot that plunked two feet inside the left-field line. But this was no beauty pageant. This was a game-turning two-run double in your box scores and your history books. If anyone ever asks him later about this mighty blast, Smith promised he would tell the truth and nothing but the truth -- that it "slammed off the wall." Or something like that. But this was just the latest, wildest chapter in the crazed, stranger-than-fiction story of the Rockies. Game 2 was saved by a pitcher with no big league saves (Ryan Speier). So why wouldn't Game 4 be altered irrevocably by a fellow whose first two career major league RBIs came in the game that sent his team to the World Series? "You know the funny thing?" said Smith, who joined the immortal Brian Doyle (1978) as the only players in history to drive in the first runs of their careers in a postseason game. "I didn't even realize it when I was on second base. Then I ended up scoring, and when I got back to the dugout, somebody said, 'Hey, we got that ball for you.' And I was like, 'Why?' They said, 'It was your first RBI.' And I said, 'Oh.' But in a game like this, you don't worry about that." Minutes later, there was even less to worry about. That was because Matt Holliday crunched a 452-foot three-run homer that flipped the scoreboard to 6-1, set off an eruption of fountains and fireworks, and launched a party that may not end for a week.

"I've never even seen a National League championship trophy," Todd Helton said. "So when I saw that -- 'National League champions' -- and realized we were going to the World Series, that just sounds so good coming off the tongue it's ridiculous." Oh, it was ridiculous, all right. A month ago -- just a month -- it was an idea that was literally ridiculous. But 22 games and 21 wins later, here they are, the Colorado Rockies, World Series bound. C'mon. That didn't really happen. Did it?