SWEEP!

Yesterday was a fine day for baseball fans in Colorado. The Colorado Rockies, after really struggling through the first six weeks of the season, swept the New York Yankees in a three-game series. (The photo here (credit: Denver Post) shows Rockies catcher Yorvit Torrealba celebrating the final win yesterday afternoon with closing pitcher Brian Fuentes.)

By the way the local media have told the story, you'd think the Rockies had made it to the World Series.

Whoa, now, hold your horses -- there's still a lot of baseball yet to play this year.

I've become a Rockies fan this year in large part to my husband Mike. He follows baseball -- especially the Rockies -- more than any other sport. We watch the Rockies almost every night. Mike also has a kind of inside track on the team because of a weekly baseball talk show he does for KOA Radio in Denver. It's part of his job, yes, but through four baseball seasons of doing the Saturday show and talking to a lot of people within the Rockies organization, he's come to respect what the team is trying to do -- build players from the ground up. Local newspaper columnists and radio and TV sports guys have had nothing but negativity to spew about the Rockies. Early in the season when the Rockies were struggling, criticism abounded about the owners, the management, the players. It was doom and gloom day after day.

Now suddenly things look a little brighter. The Rockies, at least today, are the best team in Major League Baseball considering their record since May 22. The columnists are too full of pride to admit they may be wrong, that building a team from the ground up may actually be working. On the other hand, some media people need to learn a thing or two about baseball -- a sport that is like a marathon (there are 162 games in a season after all), not the 100-yard dash. One local radio guy said this morning that the Rockies were in a "pennant race." If you know anything about baseball, you know that winning three games in a row in mid-June -- even against one of the winning-est teams like the Yankees -- does not make a pennant race. As Mike told me this morning, you don't start talking about pennant races until late August.

The players know this; the managers and owners know this. They're more likely to look at the sweep against the Yankees as just three great games, nothing more, nothing less. The games did make a statement, though. Here's an excerpt from today's Denver Post story:

At 9:30 a.m. Thursday, a battery of friends sat outside Coors Field with cheap beer, warm smiles and brooms. And they weren't the cleaning crew. They were waiting for Rockpile tickets. To cheer the home team. Imagine that.

The Rockies rewarded their faith with a comic book finish. The Legends of Fall were no match for the Legion of Broom.

The Rockies swept the New York Yankees with a 4-3 victory before a third consecutive sellout crowd, sweeping a series that nobody thought they were going to win, let alone dominate.

With a baby-faced shortstop, a gritty starting pitcher and less winning tradition than a leftover sock at Yankee Stadium, the Rockies spotted New York two runs, then knocked out Roger Clemens. Just a month ago, there was talk of Colorado sinking in quicksand. At 18-27, the Rockies were one of the National League's worst teams.

Thursday, they rode off in buses for a 10-day road trip just 3 1/2 games behind the division-leading San Diego Padres, all but cackling at ruining the Yankees' hyped visit to Denver.

"To sweep any team is a great," said Rodrigo Lopez, who remained undefeated, surrendering two runs in 5 2/3 innings. "But to sweep the Yankees with all that mystique, we made a statement."

Today the Rockies are in Toronto to play the Blue Jays, then they're off to two more series on the road. There's still half the season left to play. Last year before the All Star Break, the Rockies were in first place in their division, and they tanked the second half of the season. Could that happen again this year? Sure it could. After all, Rockies fans have been disappointed before.


I listened on the radio to the end of yesterday's game. The score was 4-3 Rockies, and a Yankees batter swung and missed, marking the end of the game. The crowd erupted. I threw my hand in the air and yelled "Woo-hoo!" sitting in my car. It sure was sweet to watch (and listen to) them win three games against the Yankees. The fans came out in droves, too. The attendance for the three games fell about 1,400 people short of an attendance record for one series at Coors Field.

The Rockies could disappoint us again this year -- although I really hope they don't -- but at least for three games this season, Rockies fans and baseball lovers everywhere saw an underdog team beat the world's best-known baseball team -- a team (most) everyone expected to dominate.