Rocktober reunion
Celebrating 10-year anniversary of the Rockies’ World Series run
Todd Helton gave a bear hug to Nolan Arenado, but only after complaining about the music. The stadium speakers were blaring too loudly, Helton said. It is hyping the Rockies during batting practice, Arenado said. Then you better get three hits, Helton said.
Happy days were back at Coors Field again Friday with a collection of 21 players and coaches from the Rockies’ 2007 National League pennant-winning club reconvening for a pregame 10-year reunion.
“It does not feel like 10 years,” said Clint Barmes, a second baseman for the Colorado club that won 21-of-22 games to reach the World Series.
The list of names included Helton, who hit his 300th career homer on Sept. 16, 2007, and then, a two-run walk-off two days later that kick-started a season-ending streak that propelled them into Rocktober.
“I was in the hospital holding my son after he was just born and Helton hits the walk-off that kind of started everything,” Barmes said. “That’s a big moment I will never forget. Showing up every day, walking into the clubhouse, you just had this feeling that something good was going to happen. We expected to win.”
Friday’s reunion unfolded against a Padres team and their manager who became starring players in the drama of that lateseason run. Bud Black, now Colorado’s manager, was the skipper for a Padres team that lost a one-game tiebreaker, on Oct. 1, a 9-8 Rockies victory in 13 innings — the notorious Matt Holliday slide game.
“I saw that from a different perspective,” Black said. “But Todd came by my office today. We had a nice chat. I always admired him from the other side.”
Matt Holliday, Seth Smith, Ubaldo Jimenez and Chris Iannetta, among others, sent video messages to Coors Field from faraway places. So did Clint Hurdle, then the Rockies manager now in charge of the Pirates.
“We found a way to get something done that had never been done before,” Hurdle said.
This time around.
The Rockies’ run toward the World Series in 2007 started Sept. 16 with a 13-0 victory over the Florida Marlins. The Padres that season were also rolling. Black remembers something similar with San Diego 10 years ago that the Rockies experienced this year.
“We had a tough August, but we played well in September to hang in there,” Black said. “You ever see that movie ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’? When (Paul) Newman and (Robert) Redford looked over their shoulders and said, ‘Who are those guys?’ We kept thinking, ‘Did they win again?’ It was incredible.”
The Rockies, too, struggled through August this season, with a 12-15 record, their only losing month. But they had won eight of their past 11 before Friday.
Pitching changes.
The Rockies got the bulk of their starting pitching appearances this season from four rookies, but their rotation through a weekend series against the Padres was a throwback.
“It’s three guys who, ironically, we had penciled in as far back as spring training,” Black said. The Rockies threw Tyler Chatwood in another spot start Friday. Lefthander Tyler Anderson will start Saturday, his first start since June 25. And Jon Gray goes Sunday.
Anderson and Chatwood, who pitched recently in the bullpen, are on pitch counts. And the Rockies will continue juggling their rotation over the final two weeks.
“All hands on deck,” Black said. “We have plenty of reinforcements to pick up innings. We’ll continue to look at our rotation moving forward.”
Blackmon sits.
Charlie Blackmon did not start as the Rockies gave their star center fielder a breather. Blackmon’s 145 games played are a team-high.
“Charlie was due a day to exhale a little bit,” Black said. “He’d been grinding really hard, playing every day.”