Believe in Bud:
The steady hand of manager Bud Black has the Rockies charging toward a first NL West crown.
It was near game time, with the players huddled and going over strategy. Bud Black walked by, peeked inside the door and couldn’t resist calling the squad together to deliver his daily dose of optimism and motivation.
“You guys are prepared for this because you’ve put in the hard work,” Black said, with fire in his eyes and a clenched left fist for emphasis. “Now let’s go out there and do it!”
Black, in his second year as Rockies manager, wasn’t pumping up his charges as they entered the stretch drive in battling the Dodgers and Diamondbacks for the National League West title or a wild-card spot.
Instead, Black was at the high school basketball game of a friend’s son during the offseason when he saw an impromptu opportunity to preach.
“Hey, we won didn’t we,” stressed Black, prideful of San Dieguito Academy (Encinitas, California) prevailing. “And we scored a season high in points.”
The numbers don’t lie with Black and Colorado, either.
If he leads the Rockies to the playoffs in consecutive years, it will be the first time that has happened in franchise history. If he stiff-arms the Dodgers and Diamondbacks, it’ll be Colorado’s first NL West crown.
“I sensed this year the division is going to come down to the end and I’ve been saying that for a while,” Black said. “I’ve just felt that.”
Hang with the Rockies and the feeling is Black, 61, is a big reason they shine.
Numerous players and coaches point to the former major league pitcher, who was dismissed by the Padres after managing them for eight-plus seasons, took a year off from onfield duties, then landed in Colorado only because the Nationals offered a job but little security in terms of contract years.
However he arrived, the Rockies (78-64 to begin the week) are thrilled to have one Harry Ralston “Bud” Black. His mixture of “Buddy Ball” is a hit in LoDo, the downtown Denver neighborhood where the latesummer “Rox Show” is a happening.
“Buddy is real effective because he is adapting to the new school of how the game is played but he brings that old school feel to the locker room, which we all love,” NL MVP candidate Nolan Arenado said. “It’s like, ‘Go about your business, go play and go have fun.’ ”
Charlie Blackmon roams center field with a smile, and he admires the way Black interacts with others.
“I think he has a lot of charisma and everybody seems to like him everywhere we go,” Blackmon said. “He has a very intense but relaxed attitude. The players feel like they can be loose and play the game but still be professional and try their best.”
The Rockies need their top effort starting Sept. 17, when they play either the Dodgers or Arizona five times over six days.
If the Rockies are tight, they’re disguising it well.
They’ve been following the laid-back Black’s lead. He crows about owning a stylish pair of cowboy boots and denim pants to fit in with Colorado’s culture. But Black’s Southern California vibe is seldom absent, which gives the clubhouse a welcome chill.
“It’s the time of the year where every game brings a high degree of focus and energy every night,” Black said. “I think there is a tendency sometimes that you can put too much emphasis on a particular game, or games, and it works against you.
“I think the best way to go about this game is to stay at a high level of intensity in every game, because sometimes the harder you try it can work against you in our sport.”
‘A total buy-in’ by players
The Rockies are in the mix atop the NL West, despite some bewildering numbers:
❚ Their run differential was negative 10 entering the week, which usually doesn’t translate into a positive season.
❚ The rotation, led by Kyle Freeland and German Marquez, had produced a respectable 4.30 ERA and is among the NL leaders in innings pitched. Freeland, Marquez and Jon Gray have set or tied career highs in wins. But the bullpen, despite Wade Davis’ 44 saves, has among the fewest innings thrown in the league and a bloated ERA hovering around 5.00.
❚ The offense has firepower with Arenado, the third baseman, entering the week with 32 homers and 95 RBI, and Trevor Story, the shortstop, at 31 and 96. But the consistency in other parts of the lineup hasn’t been what Black expected.
Still the Rockies aren’t retreating, especially after reaching the NL wild-card game against the Diamondbacks last year. They fell to Arizona, but that exposure to October baseball raised the team’s confidence.
“I think it does help us,” Story said. “We played a lot of important games in August and September last year and that experience is huge because we have been in this spot before.
“Every pitch is important this time of year. It’s not even every game, but every pitch. Being locked in for every pitch, after the game you are pretty mentally exhausted, as well as physically.”
Black spreads his mojo by getting inside his pitchers’ heads. Coors Field is no place to toast if you’re a hurler, but Black kicked that crutch from his staff. Black, who won 121 games and the 1985 World Series with the Royals, isn’t accepting chatter about the mitigating circumstances once the ball leaves his pitcher’s hand.
“He does a good job of that,” said Gray, after a recent run in which the Rockies won 10 of his 11 starts. “He’s like having another pitching coach for us. He is big on what we are doing, and any information he has is cool. He did what we are doing for a living, so he knows exactly what we are going through because he has felt the same thing.”
Black, the NL manager of the year in 2010 and the pitching coach for the Angels from 2000 to 2006, has heard repeatedly how pitchers can’t excel at Coors Field. That’s balderdash to Black and he’s made that clear to anyone within earshot, with his pitchers nodding in agreement.
“I think what you have seen is just a total buy-in,” said bench coach Mike Redmond, a former manager and catcher in the majors. “His touch with the pitchers and the pitching staff, and how much these guys have improved and keep getting better, well, it’s been fun to watch.
“He emphasizes the toughness of what it takes to pitch and be successful, not only here, but in the big leagues no matter where you are. There are no excuses. You just go out there and pitch and do your job.”
Black has leaned on his starters to compensate for a bullpen, which has been uneven. His rotation is minus many cumulative years of service, but pitchers grow up fast when half their games are where the air is thin and the outfield is thick with open space.
The Rockies entered the week in first place in the NL West by a half-game in front of the Dodgers and 11⁄2 games ahead of the Diamondbacks. Imagine the euphoria in Denver if the Rockies reach the playoffs just as the Broncos make the turn into their season’s second quarter.
If Black brings the Rockies their first World Series crown, might he become as popular in Denver as John Elway? OK, that’s doubtful. “We want people to be proud about the Rockies, but it’s hard because Colorado is a football state,” Arenado said. “But that’s a credit to the Broncos because they are always competing. We are trying to show we can be competitive, too.”
For now, Black’s message to his Rockies is the same as the words he had for the prep basketball players.
“Play hard,” he said, “and have fun.”