Since they hit the scene playing baseball at the football-famous Mile High Stadium back in 1993, the Rockies haven’t been your average expansion team. Sure, they haven’t won a World Series (or even 2 like their 1993 brothers, the Marlins) and this year is only their 2nd ever playoff appearance. In all reality, they’ve been pretty mediocre in their 15 year existence, but the way they have been mediocre has been great for the game of baseball….
It’s a known fact that the air is thinner in Colorado, and the thought is it will cause a baseball to travel much farther when hit. The Rockies had three 20-home run guys on their expansion roster, including the immortal Charlie Hayes, and it just expanded from there. Two of their earliest stars, Andres Galarraga and Dante Bichette, saw their power numbers absolutely explode in the following years. In 1994, Galarraga and Bichette combined to hit 58 home runs even though they combined to miss 105 games due to injury. With the thin air theory being proven, Coors Field was opened in 1995 with larger than average dimensions featuring a 390 ft power alley and 415 ft to straight away center field…..but the homers kept coming. The Rockies had 4 30-homer guys in 1995 and 3 40-homer guys in 1996. As the old commercial said, chicks dig the long ball, and Coors Field quickly gained the reputation as a place where you were guaranteed to see a ton of offense, but it wasn’t all from home runs….
The large dimensions in Coors Field to combat homers also pose another problem for pitchers (or benefit to the fans). There is a lot of room for line drives and fly balls that actually do not clear the fence to fall in for hits, or roll to the 415 sign for a triple or inside the park homer. Its a known fact that overall batting stats, including batting average, explode when a player goes to the Rockies. Rockies players have won 6 NL batting titles since they came into the league in 1993, and they had Tony Gwynn to compete with for most of the 90s. If you look up almost any mediocre player that played at least one full season for the Rockies over the past 15 years, their numbers stand out. Here are some quick examples:
Ellis Burks – 1996 – .344, 40 HR, 128 RBI
Jeff Cirillo – 2000 – .326, 11 HR, 115 RBI
Jeffrey Hammonds – 2000 – .335, 20 HR, 106 RBI
Jay Payton – 2003 – .302, 28 HR, 89 RBI
Another fun example in Vinny Castilla, who had 2 runs with the Rockies. As a full time player from 1995-1999, he averaged .302 with 38 HR and 112 RBI each season. He then bounced around the league the next few years averaging .250, 13 HR and 67 RBI. He then made a glorious 1 year return to Colorado in 2004 where he hit .271 with 35 HR and 131 RBI…like nothing ever changed. It will be interesting to see when guys like Brad Hawpe and Garrett Atkins play elsewhere.
Besides the great entertainment value of watching all of this offense coming from one team, the Rockies have enhanced a baseball fan’s experience in many other ways. A lot of great pitchers are afraid to go there, because they know their ERA will explode. Mike Hampton went there as a pretty decent pitcher, but all he was remembered for was almost breaking the single season home run record for a pitcher (as a hitter) while ruining his confidence on the mound. Another fun fact is the lore of the humidor. The Rockies have been putting balls in there before games in order to try to counteract the home runs, and it has actually worked to some extent. However, as I mentioned before, that doesn’t prevent those balls that fall short from becoming doubles and triples. Also, we can never forget the fact that a freak June blizzard can knock out all baseball there for a week.
This year’s Rockies have all of the fun features I mentioned above, but they are also by far the hottest team in baseball entering the playoffs and lead the NL East champ Phillies 2-0 in their divisional series. Just think, on September 15, they were 76-72 before they went on a 13-1 run to end the season and winning the most exciting 1 game playoff imaginable….in true Rockies fashion, 9-8. This great young offensive team brings a lot of excitement to the playoffs, and I’m hoping they have a long run.
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