Rocktober Skies: How a "band of brothers" became Colorado's greatest baseball team

DENVER – Ten years and five days ago, the Colorado Rockies won their first in what would be a famous stretch of 21 wins in 22 games to storm from “done” to their first and still-only National League pennant-winning club in franchise history.

While a pennant is nothing to gloss over, it’s how the Rockies got there that is best remembered more than the actual accomplishment. The incredible streak peaked during a play-in game against the San Diego Padres.

Here we are 10 years later, and the Padres were back at Coors Field, their 2007 manager, Bud Black, now the boss of the Rockies and not a single member of the ring-bearers remains in purple pinstripes. Yet the legacy remains and was celebrated by many of the former players and coaches on Friday night.

Most of their reminiscing, most of the wide smiles, came in talking about game 163.

“I still remember that flyball to right…” says Black, never finishing his thought, implicit in his stare into the distance that we all know he means the most famous sac fly in Rockies history off the bat of Jamey Carroll. “It should be fun,” he eventually said. “Reunions are great.”

Black says his Padres spent much of that September like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, looking over their shoulders and saying ‘who are those guys?’

“Those guys” ended up forcing the best baseball game ever played at altitude.

“The older I get, the more I appreciate that as being a great game,” says Black. “It just goes to show you how close it is between winning and losing. It’s razor thin and that was a tough one for us. I know the feeling on either side. I don’t think it gets the credit that it deserves and that partially because the two teams being not big-market teams. But what a great game. The fans were great that night, I remember that.”

Current broadcaster and member of the 2007 Rockies, Cory Sullivan, agrees on the quality of the contest. When BSN Denver asked if it was the best game he had ever played, there was no hesitation in his answer:

“Unquestionably. Trying to be as objective as possible if it was played in any of the four major markets I think it would be regarded as one of the top three baseball games to ever be played. If this was New York or Boston or LA, it wouldn’t be a question.”

Of course, there is one moment that stands out above all the rest.

“The slide…” continued Sully. “Everything ensuing. I went back and watched videos online of fans filming on Youtube. It’s insane. It’s craziness. What blew my mind, and everybody kinda said the same thing, is how fast it all happened. In my mind, there were five hitters that inning and there were five pitches. I went back and looked. It was 19 pitches. I cannot remember that.”

Before Matt Holliday‘s legendary slide, before Scott Hairston and all the extra-inning dramatics, the Rockies handed the ball to pitcher Josh Fogg who had earned the moniker ‘The Dragon Slayer” by coming out victorious against a number of aces in MLB in 2007. He, too, has no question about that game ranking at the very top of his personal list.

“Without a doubt,” he says of its greatness. “What was on the line was more than anyone has ever played for. I mean, once you advance in the playoffs, every game means more but a play-in game where it’s one game, win or lose — and it was one of the first great play-in games before the Wild Card — I think most everybody who was there on both sides will say it was one of the best games they ever played in.”

And a huge part of making that game so special, says everyone we spoke to, was the Denver crowd that the players will never forget.

“Absolutely [the craziest it’s been in this building] and it’s funny because you say maybe the World Series,” said Sullivan. “To me, it all blurs together. I can remember that night though and the fans. We actually came back out and everyone was still here. It was insane. The fans were incredible. Outside was incredible. We left to go to Philadelphia afterward but guys went outside to see what was going on. And the people who were on the streets, it was amazing.”

We ask if it felt like the whole city changed that fateful September day. “It did,” he says. “I think it definitely did that day. But you could feel it coming. When we came home after the LA and San Diego series’, everyone knew what was on the line. So, the fans were here. I imagine it was what a Wild Card game feels like now because, in essence, that’s what it was. But the fans were amazing… the towels… I remember everything.”

And the chance to reunite isn’t just an opportunity to remember the best game they ever played in and — for most of them — the best team they ever played on, it was also a moment to remember some of their best friends. Over and over we hear that what made that team special was their closeness away from the field, a true camaraderie that more pro sports teams lack than would likely admit.

“We were a band of brothers,” says Sullivan. “And I mean that. It was the most unique sports team I’ve ever been a part of. It felt like we were brothers. We knew how to fight for each other. We knew our roles which was really important. Honestly, what team when you travel goes to dinner 18-20 deep? That’s the only team I’ve ever seen do that. I was a part of four Major League organizations and that’s the only one I saw do it.”

Perhaps just as bitter as the ’07 squad coming up short in the World Series is the way it all ended so fast without any time for closure.

“We never got to say goodbye,” continued Sully. “You never got to celebrate it because as soon as the season ended when we lost to the Red Sox everyone was gone. Not everybody came back to the team. So this is a unique opportunity to have a majority of the guys — other than the guys that are still really good and still playing, the rest of us washed up guys — this is our opportunity to get together one last time and talk about that because we never did it. When we were inside the run, we never talked about the run. It wasn’t like it was avoided it was just ‘how are we gonna win tonight?’ And now we kinda get to look back on it and be like ‘oh, my god, what did we do?”

Fogg, too, remembers the whole thing in a kind of blur and shares that sense of lost closure despite the fact that he returned to the team a few years later.

“It was weird because at the end of the year we were one loss away from getting flights home,” he said, “So people were booking flights. So every series it was like ‘oh, am I going home now? No, we’re not?’ So when the World Series ended on October 30, you get home on Halloween. You just want to go home and decompress. So, I didn’t see any of these guys until 2009. But everyone gets back together and it’s always great to relive some of the memories.”

For many members of the most successful Rockies team ever, some of those memories go back long before the magic run a decade ago. Most of them knew each other coming up through Colorado’s minor league system, helping forge those strong personal bonds and exponentially improving their on-field chemistry. The parallels between that set-up and where the current club stands 10 years later are practically inescapable.

“I think it’s the core group of guys that came up as minor leaguers that came up together,” Fogg says. “10 or 11 guys were in the farm system from A-ball on. They’ve been through battles, been on the busses together. I think that goes a long way on a baseball team to have that group and then you kinda sprinkle guys like myself and other guys that come in and see where you fit in, but that core group of guys is what carried us.”

This season’s sprinkling of veterans added from the outside appear mostly in the bullpen with Greg Holland, Jake McGee, and Pat Neshek but again the Rockies are trying to win with talent they grew themselves.

Every year since 2007, fans, coaches, GMs, and players alike have been clamoring to get back there.

“Maybe this year will be different,” says Sullivan. “But I know for a fact that at some point, it will be surpassed. Nostalgia wise, you have to hold onto the best, right? San Francisco 49ers talk about Joe Montana and ‘The Catch’. The ‘Immaculate Reception’ for the Steelers. You’re always gonna be compared to those that came before you. And there’s nothing wrong with a team that won 21 out of 22 always being the basis of comparison. There’s gonna be a day when a Rockies team wins the World Series. And you know what? That’s gonna become the team that gets compared to. It’s that simple.”

That is the goal for these Rockies. They aim to step out of the shadow of 2007 and set a new standard. But the wall they must climb is high and the road they must travel is long.

That’s probably why, when at the top of the wall and the end of the road, the men who poured their heart and soul into one of the most amazing feats any of us are likely to see in the realm of professional sports, don’t like hearing the word “fluke” associated with their accomplishment.

“Everybody says we did well and I say, ‘we finished second.’ People don’t remember second place team,” says Fogg. But the ’07 Rockies were more than that. “We’re more remembered for the run than we are for losing the World Series which is nice because that was the positive thing about that year.”

“My knee-jerk reaction [to 2007 being called a fluke] is I’m offended,” Sullivan furthered. “Having been in it, I understand the question. I get it now. But the truth of the matter is, that team knew the whole year that they were gonna win. I’m not kidding you. When we went on the stretch to Chicago, Toronto, Houston, we lost eight in a row at one point. ‘Tito’ (Brian Fuentes) blew three saves. I remember him walking out of the tunnel and guys being like ‘don’t worry about it. I know it sucks right now but don’t worry about it. We’ve still got it.’ That was June. It was just a matter of when is it going to happen? We waited until our backs were against the wall, I guess you could say. But it happened. And no, I don’t think you can say it was a fluke because when you look back at how talented that team really was, I don’t care what metrics you use… that team was really good. There was a game named Helton. A guy named Atkins. A guy named Tulo who should have won Rookie of the Year. It was a really good team and I was happy to ride to coattails of it… and I’m not kidding.”