While We Wait for the Rockies to Play in the World Series, Part Five

The nerves are beginning to resurface.

Virtually no one is giving the Rockies a shot, and quite a few analysts are currently debating how the Rockies will respond and whether or not they can bounce back from a Game 1 defeat. Jayson Stark, about the only mainstream media-type who's even given us a chance from the start, has a different perspective. Probably the biggest surprise to me is that Peter Gammons predicts the series to go seven games. As homers go, Gammons is one of the biggest.

There are so many idiotic analyses of this series that they don't even warrant mention. It's funny how easily people give so much credit to statistics when they support their opinion but yet discount them when they don't. The Rockies' pitching is "average at best" while the Red Sox have the best pitching in baseball. The Rockies' offense is "good" but not anywhere close to the lineup the Red Sox can field, even at Coors Field. The Rockies' defense is "decent", but the Red Sox' defense is better. It's as if MLB decided to just put all the NL teams in a hat and draw a name since the Red Sox need an opponent to be officially declared the World Series Champions. Come On! I know as a fan it's difficult to be neutral, but then don't even pretend to be.

The fact of the matter is that the Rockies beat the Red Sox two out of three at Fenway back in June. I'm not claiming that it means anything, but it is a fact. The Red Sox faithful discount it as nothing more than a small sample size from four months ago, and they're right. However, you can bet your $650 Rockpile ticket you got from StubHub that if the tables were turned they'd be proclaiming it the final piece of evidence that all the Red Sox have to do is show up and claim their Commissioner's Trophy. My head and stomach are starting to ache from reading so much nonsense, so I'm going to stop.

Can the Rockies continue "The Streak" against a real team? Can they topple the mighty 2007 Red Sox, the best thing in baseball since the 2004 Red Sox? Can they withstand the onslaught of Manny, Papi, Youk, Lowell and the rest of that unforgiving lineup? I don't know, but I'm ready to find out.

Until next time, Go Rockies!

While We Wait for the Rockies to Play in the World Series, Part Three

We also wait to buy tickets to the World Series. If today goes anything close to what yesterday did, they'd better be ready for a mob at Coors Field. Why do you call a news conference to announce that you have no news?

ESPN has a nice rundown of "The Streak". This is important to read, because, with this long lay off, we fans need to keep our edge too. I've been periodically perusing the video highlights on the Rockies' multimedia page to stay in game shape.

Josh Kalk outlines little things that could impact the outcome of the World Series. All in all I think he did a decent job, but it still amazes me as to how so many continue to get away with writing something while not doing their homework, as he says the Rockies have some experience at Fenway, but none this season. He also uses the outdated reference of Coors Field as "a park that inflates home runs". Enough already. He somewhat piggybacks on Tim Kurkjian's piece where his biggest question for the Series is how the Red Sox will get Ortiz in the games at Coors Field. The Rockies will need to take advantage of Manny in left at Coors and whatever else the Sox decide to do to maximize their offense at the expense of their defense.

This guy, who has exposed his bias more than once over the last couple of weeks, actually thinks this has the makings of a very good series. One thing I do disagree with him on though is Boston's rotation. He calls their rotation "outright imposing". My take on their rotation: Beckett is imposing, definitely, especially when the stakes are high; Schilling can be effective but in no way imposing (three years ago, yes, now, no); Wakefield is befuddling, but imposing probably isn't a word that's ever been used to describe Wakefield; Matsuzaka can be downright imposing at times but can be just as downright bad at other times.

Dave Krieger calls this the Dr. Seuss Series: the Rox vs. Sox on Fox.

Only one more day until we get this thing going.

Until next time, Go Rockies!