SB Nation User Blog: Jeff Aberle

Rocktober, Part Two

Jeff Aberle — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:04:45 -0000

The NLDS element of Rocktober is contained here--though, in actuality, most of the magic occurred in September. I would equate Rocktober with Oktoberfest--mostly in September, but encompassing both months.

By the time the Slide had occurred and we were going to the playoffs, we'd won 14 of 15 to end the season, an unthinkable feat. The effect of this magical run on Colorado was palpable.

Whereas before the run to the playoffs I saw little to no Rockies gear as I ran around campus, I couldn't seem to avoid it as Rocktober drew on. Bandwagon fans came out of the woodwork to support the Rockies, and I help them onto our bandwagon. After all, if the Rockies could garner the interest of lots of very casual baseball people, as it obviously was, then the increased revenue and exposure could only help the Rockies in the future. Of course, I'm afraid that this year they'd pissed away most of that goodwill with their slow start, but in my opinion, the fans will come back more quickly to a frisky Rockies club thanks to the memories created by Rocktober.

To show more quantitatively the increase in the Rockies fanbase at this time, the Colorado Rockies Fans Facebook group, which had grown throughout the year to about 1000--more a function of the explosion in new Facebook accounts than anything the Rockies did--tripled in size from mid-September to late Rocktober. The most impressive part of this is that today the group has not lost that momentum and indeed is over 400 members larger than at its peak last year. But I digress.

The real Rocktober miracle was the change it wrought upon Colorado. As Franchise26 has so beautifully articulated, those 21 days were a gift to all of us, bringing complete strangers together. Where just months earlier I'd been getting snide comments from people about my Rockies gear, now I was getting high fives and discussing our team's chances with people I didn't know in all of my classes. It seemed to me that Rocktober affected CSU in a way that couldn't be measured--the campus just seemed to be alive with positive energy throughout that whole month.

Oh, and the baseball was pretty good too! If I was a baseball nerd before Rocktober began, I became much worse (or better, as it were) during this time. I was living and breathing baseball in all mediums--from TV, newspaper articles, online, Purple Row (I first found Purple Row in late August of 2007), magazines, my IM softball team, and through talking with fellow fans. My baseball consumption was running at 6-8 hours per day during October--including the long waits between series. My schoolwork suffered a little, my job productivity was drastically reduced when baseball was on (I worked at Bennigan's Grill and Tavern), and I was sleeping less. I couldn't possibly have been happier.

After Rocktober began with a bang with the play-in game, I was truly struck with the fact that the Rockies were in the playoffs when I read an analysis of the Phillies-Rockies series on Baseball Prospectus and saw a series preview on SportsCenter. Of course, most analysts picked us to lose the division series matchup--though my favorite two teams were eerily similar in makeup (at least in the opinion of sportswriters who had seen the Rockies maybe twice all year), Philly had the homefield advantage, so that was what swung the matchup in their favor. Interestingly, many of those who picked the Rockies to win their opening round series picked us to go to or win the World Series. After all, there is momentum, and there is Rocktober momentum--the Beyonce of momentum, if you will.

I remember vividly being angry with national pundits and Philadelphia papers who dismissed the Rockies out of hand. Their ignorance was palpable as they misspelled our players' names, pronounced them incorrectly, or spouted banalities about the Coors Field effect or the humidor as their "analysis". It seemed as if fans around the nation had only heard of Todd Helton and none of the other Rockies--even Matt Holliday!

TBS playoff commercials touted young emerging stars like David Wright and Jose Reyes of the Mets, who didn't even make the tournament, at the expense of Holliday and Tulo. And don't get me started on the BS that was the NL awards. In my opinion, Braun deserved the ROY by a hair because his offensive stats were that good--and he's backed in up in his sophomore season. The other awards are another matter. Jimmy Rollins is a fine all-around player, don't get me wrong. But he is not a Gold-Glover--Tulo was obviously robbed there. He is not an MVP. If not Holliday (leader in BA and RBI), then maybe I could have seen Wright winning it. But Rollins? He wasn't even the most valuable player on his team! That would be Chase Utley.

So in any case, the Rockies entered their best of five series at Citizen's Bank Park as slight underdogs in the media's eyes. Philadelphia was a team that had lived almost solely off of its hitting extra base hits in bunches. Its starting pitching was Hamels and scrubs, while its bullpen was dangerously thin and Gordon, Romero, and Myers had been overworked trying to get the Phillies in the playoffs. Meanwhile, Hurdle had fashioned a playoff roster that didn't include Jorge Julio (and there was much rejoicing) yet did have Seth Smith (the badass), he of the 8 career ABs. With all of this information in mind and having done extensive research and analysis, I predicted the Rockies to steal game 2 in Philly and win the series in 4 games.

Of course, we were the least attractive series in TBS' mind, so we were given the early afternoon game start slot, while I had class. I set my computer (which also serves as my TV) to record the game, and when I had a two hour break from class, I saw the majority of the game sans commercials, which was nice. I had explicitly told everyone in my dorm to not inform me of the score because I was recording the game, so of course I knew that it was 3-2 Rockies in the seventh inning when I began watching.

The best part of watching a recorded game, besides cutting out a lot of dead filler time, is the ability to better analyze the stuff of the pitchers and the hitter's swings. However, my sense of joy was tempered by the fact that I knew the score. I noticed right away (well, after he had struck out the "MVP", Victorino, and Utley in order anyways) that the Physicist had brought his A-Game. When Helton got a triple (!) in his first playoff at-bat, I was surprised--but not as much as when Torrealba got a clutch hit (I expected him to fail every at-bat in the playoffs, and was pleasantly surprised when he didn't). Atkins drove in Helton, Torrealba knocked in Garrett, and Tulo drew a bases-loaded walk to put a 3 spot on Cole Hamels. Holliday struck out with the bases loaded, but the damage had already been done--the Rockies had enough runs of support for Jeff Francis already.

It was a good thing they got to Hamels when they did, too, because his stuff was flat filthy after he finally found the strike zone that game. He didn't allow another hit to the Rox and was replaced by Flash Gordon in the seventh. I admit that I was dismayed by the Rockies' inability to hit Hamels, but secure in the knowledge that if the Rockies could beat Hamels in Philly then they were in pretty good shape to take the series.

After the back to back homers in the fifth by Rowand and Burrell, I was worried, but not in a fatalistic way. After all, the Rockies had had a win or die situation for almost a month now, and in the playoffs they could actually afford to drop a game--not that they would. I made it back to live action in the eighth right after Holliday homered to give us some breathing room, but I had a class to go to right as Manny Corpas came on to close out the game.

The professor was cool about the situation and wanted to know who won as much as anyone else. Someone had a cell phone with internet access and provided batter by batter updates, and there was a positive vibe the rest of class after it was revealed that we won our playoff opener. It was at that point that I thought sweep. After all, the Phillies had just Kyle Kendrick and Jamie Moyer to combat Morales and Jimenez.

In any case, I was excited for game 2, but I had the lunch shift at work so I set the game to record yet again. As I worked as a server, I stole glances at the TVs in the restaurant, which I had personally all set to TBS. I'll admit that I didn't serve my patrons as well as I should have, but they wanted to discuss the Rockies with me as much as I wanted to talk about them, so I did. As a result, I missed most of the early fireworks, including Kaz's grand salami. After that, the outcome of Game 2 wasn't in doubt in my eyes.

As I've stated before, it seemed like every controversial move Hurdle made during that month paid off, and the 4th inning of Game 2 was no different. Morales hadn't been setting the world on fire with his pitching, but he had only gone 3 innings, allowed 3 hits, and was only down by one. And yet, it was genius. Kendrick had IBBed Torrealba (who would have doubtless groundly weakly to the left side of the infield) with Atkins on 2nd and two out to get to the pitcher. So who does Hurdle bring in to this crucial situation? Seth Smith, that's who. The Badass gets a fluky infield hit to load the bases, then Kaz Matsui channels his inner Sadaharu Oh and cranked his grand slam into the right field stands.

From there, the Rockies added 4 in the sixth and held on, with the Dragon Slayer taking the win and Manny his second save (and ushering in the short-lived "Gatorade" scandal). The NLDS sweep was now foremost in my mind as the series moved to Denver, giving Coors Field its first playoff game since 1995, its inaugural season.

I remember Saturday, October 6th as a cold day...though maybe I'm just confusing it with the NLCS games. I went to the CSU football game, where there was a lot more purple and black than green and gold, which was just fine with me. The Rams lost in heartbreaking fashion to woeful San Diego State, as was the rule for us in 2007, but nearly everyone in the stands left the stadium in good spirits as we all headed collectively to watch the Rockies try to broom the Phillies.

Game 3 of the NLDS, to me, was a tight game but pretty dull at the same time. Being the first playoff game that I'd watched live, I was pretty excited to see some firepower out of the Rockies like in Game 2. However, the offensive output would be the largest the Rockies would muster in the playoffs. Good thing they didn't need it.

Despite giving up a homer to Shane Victorino in the seventh, Ubaldo Jimenez was brilliant against the Phillies, giving up only 3 hits and the one run despite such distractions as Coors Field going dark for about 15 minutes in the second inning. I remember my surprise at the sight of a blacked-out Coors Field, something I'd never seen in a regular season game. For a while, it appeared as if the offense had left with the lights, as the Rockies were repeatedly befuddled by octogenarian Jamie Moyer and his 82 MPH heat.

Thank God for Kaz, I guess. Matsui played the hero's role again in the sixth inning, driving in Torrealba (who, when I look back on those old boxscores, had an excellent postseason after a horrible regular season) with a triple. He might have been vastly overpaid by the Astros in the offseason, but a small part of me really wishes he were in our lineup this year. He provided such a nice spark to our offense in the magical run and I thank him for that.

However, the real hero of the day was the forgotten man on the roster, Jeff Baker, a man who hadn't played much of a role with the team of late and whose inclusion on the postseason roster was almost as debatable as that of Seth Smith. Having not had a meaningful at-bat for what seemed to me must have been at least two weeks, Baker calmly stepped into the box with two outs, runners on the corners, in the eighth against JC Romero and knocked in Atkins with a single through the hole in the right side of the infield. The Rockies were up 2-1, and were only 3 outs from advancing to the NLCS for the first time in their short, yet painfully futile history.

In a save situation for the third straight game, Manny Corpas delivered a drama-free 1-2-3 inning, with NLDS hero Kaz Matsui providing the final out 4-3, that rang the death knell on the Phillies' remarkable 2007 even as it extended the story of Rocktober by another chapter.

The Snakes awaited us in the NLCS.

My Rocktober Story

Jeff Aberle — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:16:45 -0000

In light of the darker tidings of late from the Rockies, I thought that I'd share my Rocktober story. This is only part one...as I remember a lot from that magical month. More will hopefully follow.

First of all, this is me. I'm a junior at Colorado State, and have lived in Colorado most of my life. I went to the third ever Rockies home game at Mile High Stadium as an impressionable five year old in 1993 and have been absolutely hooked on the Rockies ever since. The Rockies are my favorite team irrespective of sport (heresy in Broncos Country, I know). Some of my favorite memories have either occurred at the ballpark or watching a game. Hell, I read up to an hour a day of baseball content during the season and manage multiple fantasy teams on top of that. I'm a true baseball nerd. However, the constant losing by the Rockies was beginning to wear on even me.

Even as someone living in Colorado, I had felt in the past couple of years like an outsider by rooting for the Rockies and wearing Rockies gear to school, etc. Hell, when I joined the Facebook group Colorado Rockies Fans (of which I am now an admin--join now if you haven't already) in June 2006, it had about 300 members, tops. This was about 27th out of 30 teams.

I was openly laughed at by some of my classmates for wearing Rockies gear several days of the week, every week--therefore, their success was all the more sweet.

Like most of you guys, I was excited about the Rockies' chances throughout the 2007 season, but I was realistic. After all, they were the Rockies, right? In any case, I knew they had a small chance of making the playoffs, but in reality there was no way they would do it, especially after dropping two games to the Fish at home.

In any case, it seemed like a great time to go to a game, so me and my dad went to the nightcap of the doubleheader against the Dodgers on Monday the 18th after I finished classes. We sat about ten rows back from the field down the left field line, in a half empty stadium that included many Dodgers fans. It was the best game that I have ever had the pleasure of attending. I caught a foul ball for the first time ever (off Joe Koshansky's bat), and was electrified by Helton's walk-off homer. From my seat, I had the perfect view of Helton's giddy turn around third base and his helmet flip as he headed toward the mob scene at home plate.

Though I didn't attend another game that year, I tried my damndest not to miss a single moment of what I just knew was a special time. From my dorm room (at CSU) I watched the Rockies win. And win. And win some more...each win seemingly more predestined than the one preceding it. Brad Hawpe hitting a solo shot off Joe Thatcher, a lefty killer, in the 14th inning? Milton Bradley being taken out by a combination of an abrasive umpire and his own manager? Mike Cameron lost when his hand was stepped on by his teammate? The Dodgers self-destructing? Seth Smith--seriously, who saw that one coming? Josh Fogg becoming the Dragon Slayer? Everything Clint Hurdle doing turning into gold? Why not? All signs pointed towards it being the Rockies year.

Then, with a strikeout by Kaz Matsui, they lost to the D-Backs--in my mind, eliminating the Rockies from the playoff picture. I mean, the Padres had to lose both games against a Milwaukee club that had nothing to play for and we had to take two from Arizona...all while the Mets continued their bizarre tailspin into oblivion. Resigned to this fate, I tuned into Fox just in time for the bottom of the ninth inning of the game between the Brewers and Padres...and watched Trevor Hoffman one strike away from ending it all, against the most unlikely of batters, Tony Gwynn Jr. I erupted as little Gwynn delivered the game-tying triple. From that point, I knew the Brewers were winning the next two games. One didn't come that close to the playoffs and fail as the Padres had--I didn't think they could regroup for the next day...especially with Peavy being held in reserve for the potential tiebreaker game. And I was right--Padre pitching let them down on the season's final Sunday, leaving it all up to Ubaldo Jimenez and the Rockies to place themselves in the position to make the playoffs.

From my house, I watched Ubaldo weave an absolute gem--despite little run support--hanging on every pitch, every batted ball. I held my breath as Corpas got into trouble in the ninth, but recorded the final out on a play that could have easily been an error. Helton raised his arms in triumph (a pose captured nicely by his bobblehead, BTW--yes, I have the whole collection) and game 163 was hastily thrown together.

Just as hastily, I tried in vain to grab tickets for the game, but settled for a viewing party with some of my high school friends, who live in Boulder. This was about the only reason that I would ever go to Boulder. Of course, I had a test in my class that day and got out at 5:00. I hustled home and booked it to Boulder...missing the first inning and a half of the game, which started at 5:37 for some stupid TBS reason. I had an intramural softball game that night at 10:15, and figured that I would be back to Fort Collins in plenty of time for that considering the game's early start. Needless to say, our team forfeited that game.

In any case, I arrived just in time for Torrealba's homerun to make it 3-0 Rox. The mood was jubilant in my friend's apartment. Little did I know that the fireworks were just beginning.

After Gonzales' grand slam in the third had thoroughly deflated the room's mood and had given the Padres a 5-3 lead, Helton's first pitch jack in the bottom half lifted it again. It was 5-4 Padres, but the Rockies were getting to Peavy--that much was clear. It was at this point that I began to nervously consume the snacks my friend had provided for the party (and I was still gnawing nervously on pretzels in the bottom of the 13th).

After an equalizing Holliday RBI single in the fifth, Seth Smith becomes Seth Smith the badass in the sixth, launching a deep fly ball as a pinch hitter that was badly misplayed into a triple by Brady Clark, Mike Cameron's replacement (one of the freakily injured Padres outfielders). Of course, Cameron would have snagged the ball, and he might have also thrown out Smith trying to tag up on Matsui's sac fly. As it was, Clark's throw was badly off line and Smith's run had the Rockies in the lead again.

It was at exactly the point where my friend starting looking at buying playoff tickets online when Atkins' "double" happened in the bottom of the seventh. While it was obvious to pretty much everyone that the Rockies had gotten jobbed of a valuable insurance run, instant replay was 10 months away from implementation. At this point, my friend started yelling at the old lady sitting by where the ball had landed, telling her that she should have caught the ball...or at least done something of use. I'm not bitter though...if that homerun stands, then we don't have the Slide. In any case, once Hawpe is IBBed, Peavy is out, and Spilly and Torrealba fail to put the ball in play.

In any case, Holliday pulls a Brady Clark and misplays a Brian Giles fly ball into a double in the eighth and we're tied at 6. At this point, I get a sinking feeling that, despite the remarkable confluence of events that had led to this very moment, the Rockies were going to lose this game. This sinking feeling only strengthened as the Rockies produced exactly nothing on offense for the next five innings, making the Padres' relievers look like Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson at the same time. Meanwhile, the Rockies relievers looked as if they were barely surviving. Several people left the party because they couldn't even bear to watch the futility being displayed by the Rockies. They could feel it too.

Then Hurdle brought in Jorge Julio, much to the dismay of everyone at the party, and from the noise, at Coors Field too. As my friend likes constantly to point out, Torrealba is terrible at calling games when a pitcher doesn't have pinpoint control. While Julio can be a great weapon when he was on, he hadn't been on for quite some time--and couldn't locate any of his pitches properly. As a result, Torrealba called ineffective fastball after ineffective fastball. After a walk to Giles, the dagger went right through my heart with the homer by Scott Hairston. Poor Jorge was showered with abuse as it seemed the Rockies' season had just gone down the tubes. He gave up the single to Headley, and with that, the rout seemed to be on. But in came Ramon Ortiz (Ramon Ortiz!), the very definition of a scrap heap pitcher. And wonder of all wonders, there was no further damage by the Padres. This was of no consolation to me, of course. The Rockies had blown their only chance--after all, they had looked pathetic batting in the last few innings, and they had to score at least two times just to keep their season alive, against Trevor Hoffman.

Of course, the Rockies had had their moments against Hoffman, particularly in the 2005 opener with Barmes' walkoff, but I thought they were dead in this situation. I was only watching due to morbid fascination with the end of such a roller coaster of a season.

I'd like to think that with my reverse-psychology negative thoughts that I brought the Rockies into the postseason. I just knew that Matsui would strike out...and then he legged out a double. And then Tulo hit a drive down the right field line...just foul. I once again felt the air go out of the very tense room. Then Tulo straightened out his drive and brought in Matsui, with should-be MVP Holliday coming up. Matt sure sucked most of the drama out of the situation with a first pitch triple, tying the game.

The apartment was going crazy--I embraced several complete strangers, and was embraced back. Helton was IBBed, and then defensive replacement Jamey Carroll lined a shot to right. At first, I thought it was a hit...but Giles had been playing in. I held my breath--it was really pretty shallow, would Gallego send Holliday? That was all the time I had to think, before I saw Giles uncork his throw, Holliday barreling toward home (no base coach was going to stop Matt in this moment), and Barrett blocking the plate. The Slide...and the safe signal by Tim McClelland. Bedlam. Pandemonium. I was hoarse for three days afterwards. I could hardly sleep that night.

Did Holliday touch home plate? Does it matter? That was the best game I've ever watched in my life (any sport, including Boise State-Oklahoma), and the fact that my team won was an incredible added bonus. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I will never forget Rocktober (and especially that night) for as long as I live.

More to come, hopefully.

King Ubaldo?

Jeff Aberle — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:34:56 -0000

King Ubaldo?

This fascinating article by Baseball Analyst's Rich Lederer analyzes Ubaldo Jimenez and compares him to yes, Felix Hernandez.

In my opinion, if Ubaldo cuts down on his walks, he becomes the best pitcher on the squad, easily. We can only hope!