Earl Weaver, Joe McCarthy, and Jim Tracy?

Stand tall, Old Girl. You're witnessing greatness

Did you know that a certain Major League Baseball team is currently riding an 11 game winning streak? I’ll answer that question for you. No, you did not know that. The fact is, you’ve been too busy selfishly keeping track of the daily goings-on of more popular teams. More popular teams that, incidentally, have not won 11 games in a row.

So, can you guess which team I’m talking about that’s on an 11-game winning streak? Is it the Giants? No it’s not. But I’ll give you a hint. This mystery team is in the National League.

The Marlins?

No again.

The Mariners?

No silly, they’re not even in the NL. What are you, fucking retarded? Do you even like baseball? Keep guessing.

Is it the Astros?

No but you’re getting closer.

Wait, how am I getting closer?

Well the Astros have recently lost a World Series.

Oh, so you’re saying this team also recently lost a World Series?

Precisely.

Ok, is it the Tigers?

I really hate you. No, the answer is the Colorado Rockies.

The Colorado Rockies? They’re still in the league?

On May 27th, the Rockies were in the midst of a 3-game losing streak. They had just completed the final game of a 3-game series at home against the division-leading Dodgers. Their record afterwards sat at 18 – 28 and they were in last place in the NL West. Management had seen enough, so following the loss, manager Clint Hurdle was let go. Replacing Hurdle in the interim was bench coach Jim Tracy. In a quote afterwards that may or may not be real, Tracy said of his former boss, “Hurdle is a good man, but fuck him. It’s my turn.”

And so it was.

As soon as Tracy took over, the Rockies came out like gangbusters. I’m not sure what that means, but it sounds cool. They gangbustered their way to two wins in a row against the Padres. As a result, the locals, as they say, were pumped.

“I’m pumped,” said one local after those two straight wins over the Padres in a quote that proves my previous paragraph about how the locals were pumped, albeit it in a limited sample.

Their reasons for being pumped were three-fold; Clint Hurdle was long gone, the Rockies had regained their poise, and most importantly, a local Wendy’s was giving away free chili all day on May 30th. It was a glorious time to be in Denver. But things suddenly took a turn for the worse. Offsetting Tracy’s quick start as manager, his team promptly lost 4 in a row and expectations were no longer promising.

“I’m no longer pumped. Bring back Hurdle!” fans screamed.

It was an odd time to be in Denver. Poise was gone, so was Hurdle, and that local Wendy’s was charging money for their chili again. But management was willing to give Tracy a little bit of a leash. They assured him that Hurdle was not coming back and the job was his, at least for another couple days. Tracy knew that if he wanted to get back in the race, he’d have to dominate against the lesser talented NL Central.

And dominate he would.

They started by avoiding the sweep with a convincing 10-3 win on June 4th in Houston. The next day, they were in St. Louis for the start of a 4 game series. Game 1 proved that the Rockies had once again regained their poise with an 11-4 shellacking, while game 2 showed much of the same as the Rockies dominated from start to finish, winning 10-1.

“Woo hoo, we dominated from start to finish and won 10-1!” screamed local fans.

The rest, as they say, was history.

They finished off a 4-game sweep of the Cardinals, then traveled to Milwaukee to face the Brewers. The outcomes against the Brewers were never in doubt though as Colorado won all 3 games quite handily by scores of 3-2, 4-2, and 5-4. The roadtrip was over, so back home to Denver they came for a weekend series against Seattle. This would be the test. Would they show that they were merely toying with us by dominating inferior NL Central opponents? Or would they show that they were indeed a team to be reckoned with in the National League? Rockies players chomped at the bit for an opportunity to prove their standing against a big boy American League team. Would they respond?

Oh boy would they ever!

Fans came out in droves to witness the events. Ubaldo Jimenez took the mound for the Rockies in the opener on Friday. I had to double and triple check the spelling of his name on Baseball-Reference. As it stands, Microsoft Word is going all crazy with the red squiggly lines beneath his name. That’s how popular this guy is. But Jimenez would not be denied. He’d go the distance for the win while only giving up one more walk than strikeout. For his teammates, the performance was awe-inspiring.

“Holy shit,” said teammate wearing jersey number 12. ”That performance inspired my awe. Did you see those 3 strikeouts he had? Man they were the tits. No, not “tits” with an “s”; with a “z”. Make it with a “z”. They were the titz. Now I just hope we can win our 10th in a row tomorrow.”

They would. And they’d win their 11th in a row the day after that.

Quite the ballz.

So the question now becomes, what does the future hold for this particular group of men playing this particular boy’s game? Well only time will tell us for sure, but it could be that they’re re-writing history as the best collection of baseball players ever assembled  Colorado Rockies team ever  Colorado Rockies team since 2007.

I’m just glad we’ve all been lucky enough to almost witness it.