Rockies 2009 Season Recap
Evolution of a baseball town - Rocktober Redux shows our progress.
Editor’s Note: This season review of the 2009 Rockies is written by Jason Dennee. Jason will be joining our team to help cover the Rockies. Expect more from him as we begin our Rockies Roundtable Conversations next week, where we’ll evaluate the past, present, and future of the Rockies position by position. Until then – enjoy this recap. We’re excited to have Jason join our team.
The evolution of Denver, Colorado as a baseball town completed another stage on Thursday, October 1st, 2009.
On a beautiful fall day at Coors Field, Franklin Morales struck out Alcides Escobar for the final out of the Rockies’ 9-2 win against the Milwaukee Brewers, and the Rockies clinched the 2009 National League Wildcard Championship.
It was their third postseason birth in franchise history, and their second in three years. The game ended a spectacular journey that saw the Rockies climb back from 12 games under .500 to finish the season 22 games over the break-even mark. The Rocks even challenged the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team they once trailed by 15.5 games, for the National League West Divisional crown.
For the casual fan, the Rockies’ postseason berth meant the thrill of Rocktober once again coming to Denver, conjuring up memories of the team’s magical 2007 World Series run. Over a span of less than three weeks, the Rockies conquered all comers in the NL before eventually being swept by the Boston Red Sox.
Remembering that thrill, the bandwagoners dusted off their “CR” hats and pink “Tulowitkzi” shirts, filled a chilly and wintry LoDo area (and their shot glasses), and watched the 2009 postseason unfold. Many of them were blissfully unaware of what transpired to get the Rockies back into the postseason, despite all of the changes since that 2007 run.
Among the differences…
All-Stars such as Matt Holliday and Brian “Tito” Fuentes played for a combined three different teams this season, and 2007 staff ace Jeff Francis sat on the disabled list for the entire season. Ex-manager Clint Hurdle watched his former team from a broadcast booth on the newly created MLB Network.
Yet, as the national media finally started to turn their heads to Colorado for the playoffs, tales of 2007 were repeated, ad-nauseum. Long-time Rockies fans know the truth: 2007 was lightning in a bottle.
Back then, it took less than a calendar month for the Rockies to go from a moderately talented afterthought to a team surging through the playoffs to the World Series. Absent in their historic sprint to their first NL pennant (in both the play of the team and the fans that follow it) were the qualities that define baseball: endurance and patience. It is these two qualities which can be found in every aspect of the Rockies ’09 run– qualities the fan base is learning as Denver becomes a better baseball town.
Two years ago, the sports world witnessed a phenomenon, complete with its own trademark-able name: Rocktober. Winning 21 out of 22 games en route to their first World Series, the Rockies’ run was the stuff of storybooks and legend. There are those who insist the play-in game with the San Diego Padres goes down as the best regular season baseball game in 25 years. A football town used to the instant gratification of big hits, the long pass, and last-second victories was gifted with the baseball equivalent in 2007.
In 2009, a different tale has been told. After starting the first two months of the season 20-29, the Rockies posted a 21-7 record in the month of June and found they had won…absolutely nothing. They had merely returned themselves to respectability. During the final 85 games of the season, the Rockies battled and went 51-34, winning a franchise-record 92 games.
Though brief, the Phillies series was memorable, and not just for the poor calls by the umpires. The gritty Game 2 start by right-hander Aaron Cook tamed the Phils potent left-handed lineup, and catcher Yorvit Torrealba improved upon his 2007 postseason success by launching a 3-run home-run, only his third of the entire ’09 season. An early October chill in Denver provided the backdrop for Games 3 and 4 in Colorado, both nail-biting heart breakers. And yet, at the end, fans were left not with the hollow emptiness that followed the 2007 Red Sox sweep, but a glimmer of a team that is transforming from lightning in a bottle to a perennial National League contender. If the last three years of Rockies baseball has shown fans anything, it is how thin the line between success and failure truly is.
