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The Blake Street Legends

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Contributed by: Bob McSpadden on 4/2/2008

Five hundred words are not enough to capture the fan fervor that engulfed everything even close to the Rockies in October 2007, much less start the story where Legends are born, but those are the rules.

We are not the Red Sox, the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Giants, the Reds, the Orioles or the Cubs. We are the Rockies, and since Rocktober last year, we belong.

Legendary teams must have a fan base that bleeds team color and will take whatever the weather gods send to stand in attendance. Lest any easterner claim loyal ground, you haven't visited Coors field in late September.

Legendary teams put cast statues of former greats in front of their stadiums, where men like Babe Ruth, Stan Musial and Ted Williams once roamed. Our legend starts with names like Walker and Bichette and Helton, whose own statue may someday resemble arms thrust skyward in exhultation.

Legendary teams play in legendary parks with quirks like green monsters and ivy covered walls, but I will take Rocky Mountain views and a humidifier over views blocked by poles and a house that will soon come down. Legends, of course, take time to become, and it is awesome to be at the beginning of this one.

We love these Rockies for everything they did in 2007 but for so much more that they have done before. We love the end of season run, the eleven game winning streak, the play-in win against the Padres and sweeping Arizona out the door.

But we also love the 3,000 fans that showed up with 20,000 season ticket committments in 1993 when we helped bring the Rocks to Colorado. We loved believing in a team that nobody saw creeping up the standings, with guys like Holliday and Tulowitzki putting the team first while deserving so much more in personal recognition.

We love the Rockies winning on the field, but we love the Community Ticket Program, The ROY Foundation dinner, the Rockies Care and Share Program, The Colorado Rockies Charity Fund and The Colorado Rockies Baseball Club Charity.

We love the over 80,000 fans that turned out for the 1993 inaugural opener. We didn't love the internet world series ticket sale, but you can't have everything. We love Clint Hurdle. We love Dinger.

For all that we love, when you have watched professional sports for decades you realize how special 2007 was for this town, this state and for baseball. It took Mark McGuire to run at a legendary homerun mark to bring back a dissillusioned MLB fan base in 1998.

While that same base watched a steroid scandal unfold and struggled to watch Barry Bonds topple another legendary record, the Rockies fielded a Cinderella story that found it's fan base and cleaned up the season.

The Rockies list 126 all-time team records, and none were set in 2007. Maybe they should add another that matters: World Series appearances (2007). It's the stuff where legends start, 500 words at a time.

We'll be back.

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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Bob McSpadden

Parker , CO

Bob McSpadden has posted 1 story and 0 comments since joining on 4/2/2008. Bob McSpadden 's average story rating is 0.

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