Sunday, January 23, 2011

All About Denver's Colorado Franchise

By Steve Smith


The Colorado Rockies are a beloved baseball franchise from Denver, Colorado. They are named after the revered Colorado Mountains and were started in 1991. The relatively infantile club started off to a weak start but were successful in slowly turning themselves around and took the national league pennant in the 2007 season.

The territory of Colorado spent countless years and dollars trying to snag a Major League baseball team. In the late 80s, citizens of Denver voted and staggeringly approved a minimal tax increase in order to fund a brand new baseball stadium. The Major League okayed Denver's bid for a team in 1991 and two years later, the newly created franchise was able to play.

They played their first match in New York against the talented Mets and their inaugural home game against Canada. The Expos game was also the team's first win. Tickets to the first games at the new stadium were generally sold out way in advance, even when the Rockies were experiencing losing streaks. In fact, the Rockies' first season proved to be a massive success for the township of Denver.

They ended the 1994 strike shortened year in very last place. Despite the bad record, the organization still earned plenty of good attention thanks to its new status and committed players. In fact, their poor ranking did not stop the team from leading the league in overall stadium attendance.

In 2007, the team eliminated the Los Angeles Dodgers from playoff contention and went on to have an extraordinary season. They won eleven games in a row, a record for the league, and finished the year tied with the Padres for a wild card spot in the year's playoff games. After an extremely close game, the Rockies were able secure the win after an automatic ruling of safe during the last play. It was the fifth greatest comeback in the history of Major League Baseball.

The club swept the Phillies in the first round of playoff games and went on to face the Diamondbacks in Arizona. The Rockies won the first four games and received the coveted National League pennant, a first for them. Their fans, most of whom had been with the team since the very beginning, took to calling the winning streak "Rocktober".

They played the revered Red Sox in the well publicized 2007 World Series and though they ended up losing, their happy fans and admirers were mostly positive about the season. Baseball America labeled the team "Organization of the Season" thanks to their superb players and strong leaders.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...