Rockies 10 Best Moments: Freeland makes Denver proud

Before there were medals and championships and huge paychecks and fame and glory, athletes competed against each other for one reason: pride.

With the Winter Olympics in full swing, we are getting daily reminders of just what it can mean to the human soul to wear the colors of the place you came from and compete for their honor. In this age of free agency, trades, and constant maneuvering to gain a financial edge, this kind of competition can often feel like the one place where the name on the front of the jersey means more than the name on the back of the jersey.

Unless your name is Kyle Freeland.

Continuing our countdown of the Top 10 moments of the Colorado Rockies 2017 season, we look back at some standout instances where the Denver Nine gave their fans every reason to beam with pride. Especially for one of their own.

Honorable Mention: Sweeping the Dodgers, September 10

There is no question about who the class of the NL West is. It doesn’t seem to matter that it’s the team in San Francisco and not the one in Los Angeles that has won three World Series championships this decade. The Giants, however, were the worst team in the regular season a year ago while the Dodgers were the best.

For much of the summer, LA was toying with some absurd win total possibilities. They were pulverizing the competition, sitting an eye-popping 50 games over .500, all on their way to eventually pushing the Fall Classic out to seven games before falling to the Houston Astros.

It would be easy to believe that other than how it ended, there were no blemishes on the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers.

Except, in how they faired against the Colorado Rockies.

Jon Gray had famously emerged victorious in two contests where he was pitted against Clayton Kershaw, and somehow that wasn’t the most impressive thing the Rockies did to the Dodgers last season.

Over a long weekend in September, the Rockies flew to La La Land, desperately clinging to a postseason spot with seemingly the entire National League biting at their heels. This could be the road trip that doomed their season.

Or, y’know, not.

Surprising just about everyone, the Rockies put together some of their best baseball of the season, eking out some close wins thanks to big plays on offense from Charlie Blackmon, Nolan Arenado, and Raimel Tapia. In the fourth and final game, Colorado simply obliterated the best team in the National League, securing an 8-1 victory and their first four-game series sweep in LA since 1993.

In the series, 10 different Rockies recorded at least one RBI, nine different Rockies recorded at least one extra-base hit, and scored the aforementioned 28 runs. That’s the most runs by an opponent in Dodger Stadium in four years.

While the blemishes on the Rockies offense were well established, they were entirely absent in this series, showing that at their best, they were capable of beating the best pitching staff in the game.

Something worth remembering.

No. 2: Flirting With History, July 9

One single away.

One seeing-eye, looping little single away… from maybe the greatest non-playoff moment in the history of Colorado professional sports.

If Melky Cabrera hadn’t lined one just over the head of Nolan Arenado at third base, we would be talking about a moment in time that would be almost impossible to put into proper perspective. That’s because stuff like this just doesn’t happen.

First, you have to start with the rare circumstance of being born in a city, growing up a huge fan of a team in that city, and then get drafted by that team. The next thing to do on the all-odds-are-against-you checklist is to pass the test of minor league baseball in order to make the big time.

And that’s when things get really difficult. Because now you’re just a rookie pitcher in arguably the most difficult environment in baseball. Suppressing runs and hits has been a nightmare in this place for literally your entire life, which more or less marks the lifespan of the franchise as well.

There has been one no-hitter in the history of Coors Field. Hideo Nomo of the Los Angeles Dodgers accomplished the feat on September 17, 1996. Kyle Freeland was three years old.

But on a hot Sunday afternoon in July—donning military appreciation attire—the Denver native came just two outs away from throwing the second no-no at the park he grew up dreaming of playing in.

They say that “close” only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades… but maybe throwing a no-hitter at Coors Field—as a rookie— should be added to the list.

Had the deed been completed, the entire state would still be abuzz.

As is, it is still one of the most impressive feats of pitching the Colorado Rockies have ever seen. Consider also that this performance came exactly one outing after the rookie was given a stern “talking to” on the mound in front of everyone in attendance.

Less than four months into his MLB career, Freeland responded to his manager’s pleas to trust himself and pitch with confidence by throwing out the best outing in his hometown in over 20 years.

Freeland has been known to say that he “bleeds purple” and he certainly wears his heart on his sleeve, making it difficult to tell where he ends and the Rockies begin.

On this day, he carried the legacy of every purple hurler he had ever idolized to all new heights. He showed the world what he is made of, and in his mind, what his town is made of.

For 25 years, they’ve said you can’t pitch in Denver. For 25 years, promising arms have risen and fallen like the tide. For 25 years, the questions have far outweighed the answers, making us all wonder if the very concept of a “great” homegrown Rockies pitcher was even a possible reality.

And for 25 years, Kyle Freeland was preparing for a summer day that would forever change what we thought to be possible.